The introductory courses and workshops that gave rise to this book were part of the plan, advanced by the MSRI directorate during the last several years, of intensifying the Institute's effectiveness and outreach by means other than research in core mathematics (which nonetheless remains the center of our activities). Some others among these outreach efforts:

• • Conversations between Researchers and Teachers, a series of presentations and discussions bringing together two groups that rarely mix: high-school math teachers and research mathematicians.

• • A conference on math visualization, one on The Future of Mathematical Communication, and one on The Future of Mathematical Education at Research Universities.

• • The Fermat Fest, which explained to a lay public of 1000 the meaning and basic ideas of Fermat's Last Theorem.

• • Numbers in Action, another event for the general public focusing on number theory.

• • A program for broadcasting talks on the MBone (the Internet multicast backbone) and for helping other sites obtain access to the MBone.

• • The Conference for African American Researchers and the Julia Robinson Celebration of Women in Mathematics Conference.

• • Research workshops and programs on nontraditional topics, such as financial mathematics and combinatorial game theory.

Details about these events and programs, as well as most other MSRI activities, can be found at http://www.msri.org.