In view of World Mathematical Year 2000 it should be exciting and useful to take a serious look at the evolution of mathematics during the second half of the present century. The steering group of that challenging adventure is facing dilemmas about choices of ways and means, subjects and contributors.
Several active mathematicians accepted to produce a comprehensive presentation of their own field for the collective volume ; so nonspecialists should be able to grasp the fundamental motivations, main problems and principal achievements during the late period. Hopefully, interactions with related scientific activities, such as physics, biology, etc., will appear at several occasions.
As any classification inside mathematics has alway been a hazardous task, the various articles may appear to a certain extent as a heterogeneous accumulation. Moreover, the difficulty of the task should justify nonexhaustiveness. In order to facilitate the understanding of links between various contributions and to suggest the overall unity of mathematics, the editors intend to add logical diagrams and comment some scenic drives along several proposed routes through the volume. Supplementary references will be added to the papers. Also a large bibliographical and chronological documentation will be included.
Some representative mathematicians have been willing to explain their personal views ; their possibly somehow unorthodox appreciations could stimulate further reflections. A description of specific geographic centers should serve as specimens for a historical study of outstanding local mathematical activities.
The book is due to be published by Birkhäuser, Basle, at the beginning of 1999 at the latest.
Jean-Paul Pier,
Seminaire de mathématique, Centre universitaire de Luxembourg,
162A, avenue de la Faiencerie, L-1511 Luxembourg
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