The ICMS Instructional Conference between 30 March and 9 April 1998 was
one of a series of highly successful such conferences held under the auspices
of the International Centre of Mathematical Sciences in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Some of these meetings have been held in the house where Maxwell was born,
which is now the ICMS administrative headquarters. The lectures for larger
meetings, such as this one, were in the James Clerk Maxwell Building of the
University of Edinburgh in a different part of the city. Accommodation for
the meeting was provided for all speakers and audience in the Pollock Halls
of Residence belonging to the University and providing a refreshing twenty
minute walk to and from the lectures.