Introduction
John R. Tucker
Board on Mathematical Sciences, National Research Council
Dr. Saalfeld's splendid overview hits just the right chord to open this symposium. Here we seek to identify areas for interplay between different approaches and, wherever possible, to emphasize potential benefits that can arise from synergy between different methods in the analysis of large-scale systems. As director of the Board on Mathematical Sciences, I relish opportunities to spotlight research directions that will help address cutting-edge questions of importance to both government and industry. And so I thank the Office of Naval Research and the Naval Research Laboratory for supporting this symposium, as it is particularly satisfying in that regard. I also want to thank Dr. Philip Abraham of the Office of Naval Research for conceiving the idea of holding this symposium.
The aim is to encourage a great amount of stimulating informal discussion and simultaneously to provide a forum where questions of interest to everyone can be addressed. A panel discussion follows the presentations to summarize the most important points, issues, and ideas in what has been presented and discussed and to indicate what are considered to be the best directions in which to focus research, and what approaches or ideas merit emphasis.
Thank you for coming. I hope you find this event both stimulating and enjoyable, and I welcome your comments on it.
