This book provides a selection of reports and survey articles on the latest research in the area of single and multivariable operator theory and related fields. The latter include singular integral equations, ordinary and partial differential equations, complex analysis, numerical linear algebra, and real algebraic geometry - all of which were among the topics presented at the 26th International Workshop in Operator Theory and its Applications, held in Tbilisi, Georgia, in the summer of 2015. Moreover, the volume includes three special commemorative articles. One of them is dedicated to the memory of Leiba Rodman, another to Murray Marshall, and a third to Boris Khvedelidze, an outstanding Georgian mathematician and one of the founding fathers of the theory of singular integral equations. The book will be of interest to a broad range of mathematicians, from graduate students to researchers, whose primary interests lie in operator theory, complex analysis and applications, as well as specialists in mathematical physics.

This volume presents the refereed proceedings of the Conference in Operator The ory in Honour of Moshe Livsic 80th Birthday, held June 29 to July 4, 1997, at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel) and at the Weizmann In stitute of Science (Rehovot, Israel). The volume contains papers in operator theory and its applications (understood in a very wide sense), many of them reflecting, 1 directly or indirectly, a profound impact of the work of Moshe Livsic. Moshe (Mikhail Samuilovich) Livsic was born on July 4, 1917, in the small town of Pokotilova near Uman, in the province of Kiev in the Ukraine; his family moved to Odessa when he was four years old. In 1933 he enrolled in the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the Odessa State University, where he became a student of M. G. Krein and an active participant in Krein's seminar - one of the centres where the ideas and methods of functional analysis and operator theory were being developed. Besides M. G. Krein, M. S. Livsic was strongly influenced B. Va. Levin, an outstanding specialist in the theory of analytic functions. A by deep understanding of operator theory as well as function theory and a penetrating search of connections between the two, were to become one of the landmarks of M. S. Livsic's work. M. S. Livsic defended his Ph. D."

This volume is based on the proceedings of the Toeplitz Lectures 1999 and of the Workshop in Operator Theory held in March 1999 at Tel-Aviv University and at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The workshop was held on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Harry Dym, and the Toeplitz lecturers were Harry Dym and Jim Rovnyak. The papers in the volume reflect Harry's influence on the field of operator theory and its applications through his insights, his writings, and his personality. The volume begins with an autobiographical sketch, followed by the list ofpublications ofHarry Dym and the paper ofIsrael Gohberg: On Joint Work with Harry Dym. The following paper by Jim Rovnyak: Methods of Krdn Space Operator The- ory, is based on his Toeplitz lectures. It gives a survey ofold and recents methods of KreIn space operator theory along with examples from function theory, espe- cially substitution operators on indefinite Dirichlet spaces and their relation to coefficient problems for univalent functions, an idea pioneered by 1. de Branges and underlying his proof of the Bieberbach conjecture (see [9]). The remaining papers (arranged in the alphabetical order) can be divided into the following categories. Schur analysis and interpolation In Notes on Interpolation in the Generalized Schur Class. I, D. Alpay, T. Con- stantinescu, A. Dijksma, and J. Rovnyak use realization theory for operator colli- gations in Pontryagin spaces to study interpolation and factorization problems in generalized Schur classes.

This volume contains six peer-refereed articles written on the occasion of the workshop Operator theory, system theory and scattering theory: multidimensional generalizations and related topics, held at the Department of Mathematics of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in June, 2005. The book will interest a wide audience of pure and applied mathematicians, electrical engineers and theoretical physicists.

Operator theory, system theory, scattering theory, and the theory of analytic functions of one complex variable are deeply related topics, and the relationships between these theories are well understood. When one leaves the setting of one operator and considers several operators, the situation is much more involved. There is no longer a single underlying theory, but rather different theories, some of them loosely connected and some not connected at all. These various theories, which one could call "multidimensional operator theory," are topics of active and intensive research.
The present volume contains a selection of papers in multidimensional operator theory. Topics considered include the non-commutative case, function theory in the polydisk, hyponormal operators, hyperanalytic functions, and holomorphic deformations of linear differential equations.
The volume will be of interest to a wide audience of pure and applied mathematicians, electrical engineers and theoretical physicists.

This volume is based on the proceedings of the Toeplitz Lectures 1999 and of the Workshop in Operator Theory held in March 1999 at Tel-Aviv University and at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The workshop was held on the occasion of the 60th birthday of Harry Dym, and the Toeplitz lecturers were Harry Dym and Jim Rovnyak. The papers in the volume reflect Harry's influence on the field of operator theory and its applications through his insights, his writings, and his personality. The volume begins with an autobiographical sketch, followed by the list ofpublications ofHarry Dym and the paper ofIsrael Gohberg: On Joint Work with Harry Dym. The following paper by Jim Rovnyak: Methods of Krdn Space Operator The- ory, is based on his Toeplitz lectures. It gives a survey ofold and recents methods of KreIn space operator theory along with examples from function theory, espe- cially substitution operators on indefinite Dirichlet spaces and their relation to coefficient problems for univalent functions, an idea pioneered by 1. de Branges and underlying his proof of the Bieberbach conjecture (see [9]). The remaining papers (arranged in the alphabetical order) can be divided into the following categories. Schur analysis and interpolation In Notes on Interpolation in the Generalized Schur Class. I, D. Alpay, T. Con- stantinescu, A. Dijksma, and J. Rovnyak use realization theory for operator colli- gations in Pontryagin spaces to study interpolation and factorization problems in generalized Schur classes.

This volume presents the refereed proceedings of the Conference in Operator The ory in Honour of Moshe Livsic 80th Birthday, held June 29 to July 4, 1997, at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Beer-Sheva, Israel) and at the Weizmann In stitute of Science (Rehovot, Israel). The volume contains papers in operator theory and its applications (understood in a very wide sense), many of them reflecting, 1 directly or indirectly, a profound impact of the work of Moshe Livsic. Moshe (Mikhail Samuilovich) Livsic was born on July 4, 1917, in the small town of Pokotilova near Uman, in the province of Kiev in the Ukraine; his family moved to Odessa when he was four years old. In 1933 he enrolled in the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the Odessa State University, where he became a student of M. G. Krein and an active participant in Krein's seminar - one of the centres where the ideas and methods of functional analysis and operator theory were being developed. Besides M. G. Krein, M. S. Livsic was strongly influenced B. Va. Levin, an outstanding specialist in the theory of analytic functions. A by deep understanding of operator theory as well as function theory and a penetrating search of connections between the two, were to become one of the landmarks of M. S. Livsic's work. M. S. Livsic defended his Ph. D.

This volume is devoted to Joseph A. (Joe) Ball's contributions to operator theory and its applications and in celebration of his seventieth birthday. Joe Ball's career spans over four and a half decades, starting with his work on model theory and related topics for non-contractions and operators on multiply connected domains. Later on, more applied operator theory themes appeared in his work, involving factorization and interpolation for operator-valued functions, with extensive applications in system and control theory. He has worked on nonlinear control, time-varying systems and, more recently, on multidimensional systems and noncommutative H -theory on the unit ball and polydisk, and more general domains, and these are only the main themes in his vast oeuvre. Fourteen research papers constitute the core of this volume, written by mathematicians who have collaborated with Joe or have been influenced by his vast mathematical work. A curriculum vitae, a publications list and a list of Joe Ball's PhD students are included in this volume, as well as personal reminiscences by colleagues and friends. Contributions by Yu. M. Arlinskii, S. Hassi, M. Augat, J. W. Helton, I. Klep, S. McCullough, S. Balasubramanian, U. Wijesooriya, N. Cohen, Q. Fang, S. Gorai, J. Sarkar, G. J. Groenewald, S. ter Horst, J. Jaftha, A. C. M. Ran, M.A. Kaashoek, F. van Schagen, A. Kheifets, Z. A. Lykova, N. J. Young, A. E. Ajibo, R. T. W. Martin, A. Ramanantoanina, M.-J. Y. Ou, H. J. Woerdeman, A. van der Schaft, A. Tannenbaum, T. T. Georgiou, J. O. Deasy and L. Norton.

Daniel Alpay and Victor Vinnikov During the period July 9 to July 13, 2007,a conference called Characteristic fu- tions and transfer functions in operator theory and system theory: a conference dedicated to PaulFuhrmann onhis 70thanniversary and to the memory ofMoshe Livsiconhis90thanniversarywasheldattheDepartmentofMathematicsofBen- GurionUniversityoftheNegev.Thenotionsoftransferfunctionandcharacteristic functions proved to be fundamental in the last ?fty years in operator theory and in system theory. This conference was envisaged to pay tribute to our colleagues PaulFuhrmannandMosheLivsicwhoplayedacentralroleindevelopingthese- tions. Sadly, Moshe Livsic passedawayon the 30thof March,2007(11th of Nissan 5767), so the conference was dedicated to his memory. It is a pleasure to thank all the participants, who contributed to a very exciting and fruitful conference, and especially those who submitted papers to the present volume. The volume contains a selection of thirteen research papers dedicated to the memory of Moshe Livsic. The topics addressed can be divided into the following categories: Classical operator theory and its applications: This pertains to the paper Diff- ential-di?erence equations in entire functions by G. Belitskii and V. Tkachenko, the paper Bi-Isometries and Commutant Lifting by H. Bercovici, R.G. Douglas. and C. Foias and the paper Convexity of ranges and connectedness of level sets of quadratic forms by I. Feldman, N. Krupnik and A. Markus. Ergodictheoryandstochasticprocesses: We have the papersTheone-sidedergodic Hilbert transform of normal contractions by G. Cohen and M. Lin, and Integral Equations in the Theory of Levy Processes by L. Sakhnovich. Geometryofsmoothmappings:This iscoveredbythepaper ofY.Yomdinentitled ?-Spread of sets in metric spaces and critical values of smooth functions.