Overview

The theory of functional equations has been developed in a rapid and productive way in the second half of the Twentieth Century. First of all, this is due to the fact that the mathematical applications raised the investigations of newer and newer types of functional equations. At the same time, the self development of this theory was also very fruitful. This can be followed in many monographs that treat and discuss the various methods and approaches. These developments were also essentially influenced by a number jour- nals, for instance, by the Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen (founded in 1953) and by the Aequationes Mathematicae (founded in 1968), be- cause these journals published papers from the field of functional equa- tions readily and frequently. The latter journal also publishes the yearly report of the International Symposia on Functional Equations and a comprehensive bibliography of the most recent papers. At the same time, there are periodically and traditionally organized conferences in Poland and in Hungary devoted to functional equations and inequali- ties. In 2000, the 38th International Symposium on Functional Equations was organized by the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Debrecen in Noszvaj, Hungary. The report about this meeting can be found in Aequationes Math. 61 (2001), 281-320.