Semigroups of Linear and Nonlinear Operations and Applications

This is the first publication which follows an agreement by Kluwer Publishers with the Caribbean Mathematics Foundation (CMF), to publish the proceedings of its mathematical activities. To which one should add a disclaimer of sorts, namely that this volume is not the first in a series, because it is not first, and be- cause neither party to the agreement construes these publications as elements of a series. Like the work of CMF, the arrangement between it and Kluwer Publishers, evolved gradually, empirically. CMF was created in 1988, and inaugurated with a conference on Ordered Algebraic Structures. Every year since there have been gatherings on a variety of mathematical topics: Locales and Topological Groups in 1989; Positive Operators in 1990; Finite Geometry and Abelian Groups in 1991; Semigroups of Operators last year. It should be stressed, however that in preparing for the first conference, there was no plan which might have augured what came after. One could say that one thing led to another, and one would be right enough.