Functional Analysis on the Eve of the 21st Century

A four-day conference, "Functional Analysis on the Eve of the Twenty­ First Century," was held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, from October 24 to 27, 1993, in honor of the eightieth birthday of Professor Israel Moiseyevich Gelfand. He was born in Krasnye Okna, near Odessa, on September 2, 1913. Israel Gelfand has played a crucial role in the development of functional analysis during the last half-century. His work and his philosophy have in fact helped to shape our understandin