Book excerpt: Written by the plenary speakers for the Conference on Future Directions in Distributed Parameter Systems (October 2000), the volume addresses the state of the art, open questions, and important research directions in applications modeled by partial differential equations and delay systems. Topics include electromagnetic theory for dielectric and conductive materials, flow control, cardiovascular and respiratory models, homogenization and systems theory, optimal and geometric control, reduced-order models for large-scale systems, smart materials, and nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring for systems, including nuclear power plants.