This volume collects a selected number of papers presented at the International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA) held in July 2014 at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Main developments in the broad area of operator theory are covered, with special emphasis on applications to science and engineering. The volume also presents papers dedicated to the eightieth birthday of Damir Arov and to the sixty-fifth birthday of Leiba Rodman, both leading figures in the area of operator theory and its applications, in particular, to systems theory.
This volume is dedicated to Rien Kaashoek on the occasion of his 80th birthday and celebrates his many contributions to the field of operator theory during more than fifty years. In the first part of the volume, biographical information and personal accounts on the life of Rien Kaashoek are presented. Eighteen research papers by friends and colleagues of Rien Kaashoek are included in the second part. Contributions by J. Agler, Z.A. Lykova, N.J. Young, J.A. Ball, G.J. Groenewald, S. ter Horst, H. Bart, T. Ehrhardt, B. Silbermann, J.M. Bogoya, S.M. Grudsky, I.S. Malysheva, A. Bttcher, E. Wegert, Z. Zhou, Y. Eidelman, I. Haimovici, A.E. Frazho, A.C.M. Ran, B. Fritzsche, B. Kirstein, C.Madler, J. J. Jaftha, D.B. Janse van Rensburg, P. Junghanns, R. Kaiser, J. Nemcova, M. Petreczky, J.H. van Schuppen, L. Plevnik, P. Semrl, A. Sakhnovich, F.-O. Speck, S. Sremac, H.J. Woerdeman, H. Wolkowicz and N. Vasilevski.
This volume is devoted to Joseph A. (Joe) Ball's contributions to operator theory and its applications and in celebration of his seventieth birthday.Joe Ball's career spans over four and a half decades, starting with his work on model theory and related topics for non-contractions and operators on multiply connected domains. Later on, more applied operator theory themes appeared in his work, involving factorization and interpolation for operator-valued functions, with extensive applications in system and control theory. He has worked on nonlinear control, time-varying systems and, more recently, on multidimensional systems and noncommutative H8-theory on the unit ball and polydisk, and more general domains, and these are only the main themes in his vast oeuvre.Fourteen research papers constitute the core of this volume, written by mathematicians who have collaborated with Joe or have been influenced by his vast mathematical work. A curriculum vitae, a publicationslist and a list of Joe Ball's PhD students are included in this volume, as well as personal reminiscences by colleagues and friends. Contributions by Yu. M. Arlinskii, S. Hassi, M. Augat, J. W. Helton, I. Klep, S. McCullough, S. Balasubramanian, U. Wijesooriya, N. Cohen, Q. Fang, S. Gorai, J. Sarkar, G. J. Groenewald, S. ter Horst, J. Jaftha, A. C. M. Ran, M.A. Kaashoek, F. van Schagen, A. Kheifets, Z. A. Lykova, N. J. Young, A. E. Ajibo, R. T. W. Martin, A. Ramanantoanina, M.-J. Y. Ou, H. J. Woerdeman, A. van der Schaft, A. Tannenbaum, T. T. Georgiou, J. O. Deasy and L. Norton.
