Methods of nonlinear analysis

The demands of modern science inexorably force the mathematician to explore the nonlinear world. That it is a difficult and often humbling journey with painfully crude maps and rather primitive direction-finders cannot be gainsaid, but in return it can be asserted that it is richly rewarding. The few areas that have been so far examined with any care have been full of surprises and vastly stimulating to the imagination. There is every reason to believe from what so far has been glimpsed that many more surprises lay in store, novel phenomena which will open up undreamt of vistas for mathematics. It is an exciting prospect in an exciting field in an exciting time.