PREFACE
Though the volume covers 22 papers by 36 authors from
12 countries, the history in the background is bound to Hungary where,
in 1973 András Prékopa started to lay the foundation of a scientific forum,
which can be a regular meeting spot for experts of the world in the field.
Since then, there has been a constant interest in that forum. Headed at
present by Tamás Rapcsák, the Laboratory of Operations Research and Decisions
Systems of the Computer and Automation Institute, Hungarian Academy of
Sciences followed the tradition in every respect, namely conferences were
organized almost in every second year and in the same stimulating area,
in the Mátra mountains. The basic fields were kept, providing opportunities
for the leading personalities to give voice to their latest results. The
floor has been widened recently for the young generation, ensuring this
way both a real location for the past, present and future experts to meet
and also the possibility for them to make the multicoloured rainbow of
the fields unbroken and continuous.
The volume is devoted to the memory of Steven Vajda, one
of the pioneers on mathematical programming, born is Hungary. In 1992 he
took part in the XIth International Conference on Mathematical Programming
at Mátrafüred where, with his bright personality, he greatly contributed
to the good spirituality of : the event. We thank Jakob Krarup for his
reminiscence on the life and scientific activities of late Steven Vajda.
The Editors hope that this collection will provide the
reader with a glimpse of the recent advances of mathematical programming
and its features.
We thank John Martindale, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
for his encouraging assistance in the production of the volume.
Finally, special thanks are due to Péter Dombi for his
excellent work on type-setting and editing the manuscripts.
