Over the last twenty years, Professor Franco Giannessi, a highly respected researcher, has been working on an approach to optimization theory based on image space analysis. His theory has been elaborated by many other researchers in a wealth of papers. Constrained Optimization and Image Space Analysis unites his results and presents optimization theory and variational inequalities in their light.

It presents a new approach to the theory of constrained extremum problems, including Mathematical Programming, Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control Problems. Such an approach unifies the several branches: Optimality Conditions, Duality, Penalizations, Vector Problems, Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems. The applications benefit from a unified theory.

This Volume contains the (refereed) papers presented at the 38th Conference of the School of Mathematics "G.Stampacchia" of the "E.Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture of Erice (Sicily), held in Memory ofG. Stampacchia and J.-L. Lions in the period June 20 - July 2003. The presence of participants from Countries has greatly contributed to the success of the meeting. The School of Mathematics was dedicated to Stampacchia, not only for his great mathematical achievements, but also because He founded it. The core of the Conference has been the various features of the Variational Analysis and their motivations and applications to concrete problems. Variational Analysis encompasses a large area of modem Mathematics, such as the classical Calculus of Variations, the theories of perturbation, approximation, subgradient, subderivates, set convergence and Variational Inequalities, and all these topics have been deeply and intensely dealt during the Conference. In particular, Variational Inequalities, which have been initiated by Stampacchia, inspired by Signorini Problem and the related work of G. Fichera, have offered a very great possibility of applications to several fundamental problems of Mathematical Physics, Engineering, Statistics and Economics. The pioneer work of Stampacchia and Lions can be considered as the basic kernel around which Variational Analysis is going to be outlined and constructed. The Conference has dealt with both finite and infinite dimensional analysis, showing that to carry on these two aspects disjointly is unsuitable for both.

Over the last twenty years, Professor Franco Giannessi, a highly respected researcher, has been working on an approach to optimization theory based on image space analysis. His theory has been elaborated by many other researchers in a wealth of papers. Constrained Optimization and Image Space Analysis unites his results and presents optimization theory and variational inequalities in their light.

It presents a new approach to the theory of constrained extremum problems, including Mathematical Programming, Calculus of Variations and Optimal Control Problems. Such an approach unifies the several branches: Optimality Conditions, Duality, Penalizations, Vector Problems, Variational Inequalities and Complementarity Problems. The applications benefit from a unified theory.