The theory of operators stands at the intersection of the frontiers of modern analysis and its classical counterparts; of algebra and quantum mechanics; of spectral theory and partial differential equations; of the modern global approach to topology and geometry; of representation theory and harmonic analysis; and of dynamical systems and mathematical physics. The present collection of papers represents contributions to a conference, and they have been carefully selected with a view to bridging different but related areas of mathematics which have only recently displayed an unexpected network of interconnections, as well as new and exciting cross-fertilizations. Our unify­ ing theme is the algebraic view and approach to the study of operators and their applications. The complementarity between the diversity of topics on the one hand and the unity of ideas on the other has been stressed. Some of the longer contributions represent material from lectures (in expanded form and with proofs for the most part). However, the shorter papers, as well as the longer ones, are an integral part of the picture; they have all been carefully refereed and revised with a view to a unity of purpose, timeliness, readability, and broad appeal. Raul Curto and Paile E. T.

I. Single Operators and Applications.- On the commutant lifting theorem and Hankel operators.- Operator semigroups, invariant sets and invariant subspaces.- The local De Branges-Rovnyak construction and complete Nevanlinna-Pick kernels.- Local spectral theory for multipliers and convolution operators.- Operator-valued Poisson kernels and standard models in several variables.- II. Nonselfadjoint Algebras.- Elementary operators and subalgebras.- Questions on bimodules of nest algebras.- The universal factorization property for commutative subspace lattices.- Compression limit algebras.- Inverse semigroups, groupoids and a problem of J. Renault.- On Banach algebras generated by two idempotents.- III.C* Algebras.- Berezin-Toeplitz quantization.- Normal elements of a simple C*-algebra.- A Gelfand-Naimark theorem for C*-algebras.- The generalized Weyl-von Neumann theorem and C*-algebra extensions.- The cb-norm of a derivation.- Hopf C*-algebras and their representations.- Quasi-diagonalizing unitaries and the generalized Weyl-von Neumann Theorem.- IV. von Neumann Algebras and Subfactors.- On the structure of finite depth subfactors.- Universally bounded operators on von Neumann algebras of type II1.- Non occurrence of star graphs as principal graphs.- Depth 2 subfactors and Hopf algebra crossed products.- V. Representations of Groups and Algebras on Hilbert Space.- Generalized characters of U?.- Module structures on Hochschild and cyclic cohomology of crossed products.- q-Relations and stability of C*-isomorphism classes.- A test for injectivity for asymptotic morphisms.- On the "quantum disk" and a "non-commutative circle".- Landstad duality for coactions on C*-algebras.- Quantization of Poisson SU(2).- VI. Geometry and Topology.- "Vector bundles" over quantumHeisenberg manifolds.- Deformations of topological spaces predicted by E-theory.- Analyticity, uniform averaging and K-Theory.- Boundary value problems for functions analytic on multiply connected domains on spaces with a general weight.