Mathematik ist eine vielseitige und lebendige Wissenschaft. Von den großen Themen wie Zahlen, Unendlichkeiten, Dimensionen und Wahrscheinlichkeiten spannen die Autoren einen Bogen zu den aktuellen mathematischen Anwendungen in der Logistik, der Finanzwelt, der Kryptographie, der Medizin und anderen Gebieten. Das Buch versammelt verständliche, unterhaltsame Texte ebenso wie anspruchsvollere mathematische Herausforderungen und bietet damit Lesern die Chance, einen ganz individuellen Zugang zu dieser spannenden Wissenschaft zu finden.

Der erste Kontakt.- Routenplanung, was ist das?- Gestatten, Graph.- Gewicht ist Pflicht.- Eine ungefahrliche Explosion.- Kurzstrecke oder nicht? Das ist hier die Frage - Lokal entscheiden, global optimieren.- Am Anfang war der Input.- Negativ ist negativ, - Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten.- Weibliche Intuition.- Die Arbeit vor der Arbeit.- Baumchen wechsle dich - Prim, ohne Zahlen.- Nimm, was du kriegen kannst .- Arbor-was?.- Studieren geht uber flanieren.- Spannung ohne Strom.- Eulersch oder nicht, was fur ein Gedicht.- Euler und der Nikolaus.- Heute flaniert die Mullabfuhr.- Paarungszeit.- Post aus China.- Schach-Matt?.- Platonische Liebe?.- Notorisch Problematisch.- Not eines Handlungsreisenden.- Weniger ist mehr.-150-prozentig.- Bonsai.- Gar nicht so platonisch.- Der Erfolg des Handlungsreisenden.

This volume is a collection of papers presented at the Eighth French-German Conference on Optimization held at the University of Trier (Germany) in 1996. From July 21 through July 26, 1996, about 100 scientists, mainly from France and Germany, but also from other countries, met at Trier to discuss recent de- velopments in the field of optimization. 89 lectures were delivered, covering a large range of theoretical and practical aspects of optimization. Most of the talks were scheduled in two parallel sessions, grouped into sections including convex and nonsmooth analysis, methods in convex and nonconvex program- ming, sensitivity and stability analysis, control theory, ill-posed programming problems, equilibrium problems, and global optimization. Continuing an old tradition, the Eighth French-German Conference on Opti- mization demonstrated vividly the vitality of the French-German cooperation in mathematics. The Scientific Committee of the conference consisted of A. Auslender (Paris), H.G. Bock (Heidelberg), S. Dolecki (Dijon), R. Durier (Dijon), J.B. Hiriart- Urruty (Toulouse), H. Th. Jongen (Aachen), D. Klatte (Zurich), B. Kum- mer (Berlin), C. Lemarechal (Rocquencourt), P. Loridan (Paris), C. Mich- elot (Dijon), W. Oettli (Mannheim), D. Pallaschke (Karlsruhe), J.P. Penot (Pau), J. Stoer (Wurzburg), M. Thera (Limoges), L. Thibault (Montpellier), R. Tichatschke (Trier)' J. Zowe (Erlangen).

th The purpose of this volume is to reflect the scientific activities during the 16 Sym- posium on Operations Research which took place at the University of Trier from September 9 through September 11, 1991. The Symposia on Operations Research are the annual conferences of the Gesellschaft fur Mathematik, Okonomie und Operations Research (GMOOR). This so- ciety which was founded in 1977 pursues the goal to support and facilitate research, development, application and education in an area where mathematics, economICS, operations research, computer science and system theory come together. th The 16 ' Symposium on Operations Research stood under t.he auspices of the Minister- priisident of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Rudolf Scharping. The opening addresses were given by the president of the Universitiit Trier, Professor Hasler, by the Minister fur Wissenschaft und Weiterbildung, Professor Zollner, and by Professor Hettich, on behalf of the organizers. These addresses are printed as part of the introductory material of this volume. The conference was attended by 351 participants from 29 countries; more than 70% of the participants gave lectures on their current res each interests, surveys on spe- cial topics or software demonstrations. They made the meeting truely a successful international forum for scientific exchange. The conference was highlighted by the award of the society's scientific prize in memo- riam Rudolf Henn to Professor R.E. Burkard, Technical University Graz, and his plenary GMOOR-Award winner lecture on Convexity and Discrete Optimization.

Das Buch stellt wesentliche Ansätze, Ergebnisse und Methoden der linearen und ganzzahligen Optimierung dar. Ziel ist es, eine solide mathematische Grundlage des Gebietes und seiner wichtigsten algorithmischen Ansätze zu entwickeln. Methodisch zentral ist der geometrische Zugang.

Il libro narra la vicenda di Rut, quindicenne, da poco trasferitasi con la famiglia in Germania al seguito del padre che lavora per un azienda produttrice di Software. Nella nuova scuola Rut sta attraversando un periodo di crisi quando il padre, un giorno, le regala un computer nuovo. E l inizio di un avventura. Nel computer e infatti installato Vim: un programma che ascolta, capisce e risponde alle domande di Rut, la quale finisce per confidargli le proprie difficolta a scuola, soprattutto nei confronti della matematica. Raccontata da Vim, quella che sembrava una disciplina astratta e "lontana dal mondo" prende una forma completamente nuova e affascinante, mostrandosi capace di sorprendenti applicazioni. Il lettore e cosi guidato, con Rut, alla scoperta di quel settore della matematica discreta che affronta l eterno problema della ricerca della "via maestra," ossia di quel percorso che, tra i tanti possibili, si distingue perche piu breve, piu economico, piu veloce o comunque - in qualche senso immaginabile - preferibile a tutti gli altri.