These proceedings comprise two workshops celebrating the accomplishments of David J. Benson on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. The papers presented at the meetings were representative of the many mathematical subjects he has worked on, with an emphasis on group prepresentations and cohomology. The first workshop was titled "Groups, Representations, and Cohomology" and held from June 22 to June 27, 2015 at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The second was a combination of a summer school and workshop on the subject of "Geometric Methods in the Representation Theory of Finite Groups" and took place at the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from July 27 to August 5, 2016. The contents of the volume include a composite of both summer school material and workshop-derived survey articles on geometric and topological aspects of the representation theory of finite groups. The mission of the annually sponsored Summer Schools is to train and draw new students, and help Ph.D students transition to independent research.

In the 2012-13 academic year, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, hosted programs in Commutative Algebra (Fall 2012 and Spring 2013) and Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory (Spring 2013). There have been many significant developments in these fields in recent years; what is more, the boundary between them has become increasingly blurred. This was apparent during the MSRI program, where there were a number of joint seminars on subjects of common interest: birational geometry, D-modules, invariant theory, matrix factorizations, noncommutative resolutions, singularity categories, support varieties, and tilting theory, to name a few. These volumes reflect the lively interaction between the subjects witnessed at MSRI. The Introductory Workshops and Connections for Women Workshops for the two programs included lecture series by experts in the field. The volumes include a number of survey articles based on these lectures, along with expository articles and research papers by participants of the programs. Volume 2 focuses on the most recent research.

In the 2012-13 academic year, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, hosted programs in Commutative Algebra (Fall 2012 and Spring 2013) and Noncommutative Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory (Spring 2013). There have been many significant developments in these fields in recent years; what is more, the boundary between them has become increasingly blurred. This was apparent during the MSRI program, where there were a number of joint seminars on subjects of common interest: birational geometry, D-modules, invariant theory, matrix factorizations, noncommutative resolutions, singularity categories, support varieties, and tilting theory, to name a few. These volumes reflect the lively interaction between the subjects witnessed at MSRI. The Introductory Workshops and Connections for Women Workshops for the two programs included lecture series by experts in the field. The volumes include a number of survey articles based on these lectures, along with expository articles and research papers by participants of the programs. Volume 1 contains expository papers ideal for those entering the field.

These proceedings comprise two workshops celebrating the accomplishments of David J. Benson on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. The papers presented at the meetings were representative of the many mathematical subjects he has worked on, with an emphasis on group prepresentations and cohomology. The first workshop was titled "Groups, Representations, and Cohomology" and held from June 22 to June 27, 2015 at Sabhal Mor Ostaig on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The second was a combination of a summer school and workshop on the subject of "Geometric Methods in the Representation Theory of Finite Groups" and took place at the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from July 27 to August 5, 2016. The contents of the volume include a composite of both summer school material and workshop-derived survey articles on geometric and topological aspects of the representation theory of finite groups. The mission of the annually sponsored Summer Schools is to train and draw new students, and help Ph.D students transition to independent research.

This book presents four lectures on Rees rings and blow-ups, Koszul modules with applications to syzygies, Groebner bases and degenerations, and applications of Adams operations. Commutative Algebra has witnessed a number of spectacular developments in recent years, including the resolution of long-standing problems; the new techniques and perspectives are leading to an extraordinary transformation in the field. The material contained in this volume, based on lectures given at a workshop held in Levico Terme, Trento, in July 2019, highlights some of these developments. The text will be a valuable asset to graduate students and researchers in commutative algebra and related fields.