This edited volume contains sixteen research articles and presents recent and pressing issues in shastic processes, control theory, differential games, optimization, and their applications in finance, manufacturing, queueing networks, and climate control. One of the salient features is that the book is highly multi-disciplinary. It assembles experts from the fields of operations research, control theory and optimization, shastic analysis, and financial engineering to review and substantially update the recent progress in these fields. Another distinct characteristic of the book is that all papers are motivated by applications in which optimization, control, and shastics are inseparable. The book will be a timely addition to the literature and will be of interest to people working in the aforementioned fields.
Most importantly, this volume is dedicated to Professor Suresh Sethi on the occasion of his 60
th
birthday. In view of his fundamental contributions, his distinguished career, his substantial achievements, his influence on the areas of control theory and applications, operations research, and management science, and his dedication to the scientific community, a number of leading experts in the fields of optimization, control, and operation management, have contributed to this volume in honor of him.