Infinite dimensional holomorphy is the study of holomorphic or analytic func tions over complex topological vector spaces. The terms in this description are easily stated and explained and allow the subject to project itself ini tially, and innocently, as a compact theory with well defined boundaries. However, a comprehensive study would include delving into, and interacting with, not only the obvious topics of topology, several complex variables theory and functional analysis but also, differential geometry, Jordan algebras, Lie groups, operator theory, logic, differential equations and fixed point theory. This diversity leads to a dynamic synthesis of ideas and to an appreciation of a remarkable feature of mathematics - its unity. Unity requires synthesis while synthesis leads to unity. It is necessary to stand back every so often, to take an overall look at one's subject and ask "How has it developed over the last ten, twenty, fifty years? Where is it going? What am I doing?" I was asking these questions during the spring of 1993 as I prepared a short course to be given at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro during the following July. The abundance of suit able material made the selection of topics difficult. For some time I hesitated between two very different aspects of infinite dimensional holomorphy, the geometric-algebraic theory associated with bounded symmetric domains and Jordan triple systems and the topological theory which forms the subject of the present book.

This valuable collection of articles presents the latest methods and results in complex analysis and its applications. The present trends in complex analysis reflected in the book are concentrated in the following research directions: Clifford analysis, complex dynamical systems, complex function spaces, complex numerical analysis, qusiconformal mapping, Riemann surfaces, Teichmüller theory and Klainian groups, several complex variables, and value distribution theory.

This book is a systematic account of the impressive developments in the theory of symmetric manifolds achieved over the past 50 years. It contains detailed and friendly, but rigorous, proofs of the key results in the theory. Milestones are the study of the group of holomomorphic automorphisms of bounded domains in a complex Banach space (Vigué and Upmeier in the late 1970s), Kaup's theorem on the equivalence of the categories of symmetric Banach manifolds and that of hermitian Jordan triple systems, and the culminating point in the process: the Riemann mapping theorem for complex Banach spaces (Kaup, 1982). This led to the introduction of wide classes of Banach spaces known as JB∗-triples and JBW∗-triples whose geometry has been thoroughly studied by several outstanding mathematicians in the late 1980s. The book presents a good example of fruitful interaction between different branches of mathematics, making it attractive for mathematicians interested in various fields such as algebra, differential geometry and, of course, complex and functional analysis.

Developing Mathematics in Third World Countries