This volume contains a selection of eighteen peer-reviewed articles that were presented at the 5th International Conference on Multivariate Approximation, held in Witten-Bommerholz in September 2002. The contributions cover recent developments of constructive approximation on manifolds, approximation by splines and kernels, subdivision techniques and wavelet methods.
The main topics are:
- applications of multivariate approximation in finance
- approximation and stable reconstruction of images, data reduction
- multivariate splines for Lagrange interpolation and quasi-interpolation
- radial basis functions
- spherical point sets
- refinable function vectors and non-stationary subdivision
- applications of adaptive wavelet methods
- blending functions and cubature formulae
- singularities of harmonic functions
The book provides an overview of state-of-the-art developments in a highly relevant field of applied mathematics, with many links to computer science and geophysics.

This book is a collection of eleven articles, written by leading experts and dealing with special topics in Multivariate Approximation and Interpolation. The material discussed here has far-reaching applications in many areas of Applied Mathematics, such as in Computer Aided Geometric Design, in Mathematical Modelling, in Signal and Image Processing and in Machine Learning, to mention a few. The book aims at giving a comprehensive information leading the reader from the fundamental notions and results of each field to the forefront of research. It is an ideal and up-to-date introduction for graduate students specializing in these topics, and for researchers in universities and in industry.

- A collection of articles of highest scientific standard.
- An excellent introduction and overview of recent topics from multivariate approximation.
- A valuable source of references for specialists in the field.
- A representation of the state-of-the-art in selected areas of multivariate approximation.
- A rigorous mathematical introduction to special topics of interdisciplinary research.