It is already a tradition that conferences on operations research are organized by the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut in Oberwolfach/Germany. The mean point of the 1987 conference was to discuss recentl.v developed methods in optimization theory derived from various fields of mathematics. On the other hand, the practical use of results in operations research is very important. In the last few years* essenti.al progress in this direction was made at the International Insti- tute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) at Laxenburg/Austria. Therefore a three days workshop on Advanced Computation Techniques, Parallel Processing and Optimi- zation organized by IIASA and the University of Karlsruhe immediately followed the Oberwolfach Conference. This volume contains selected pape~s which have been presented at one of these conferences. It:is divided into five sections based on the above topics: I. Algorithms and Optimization Methods II. Optimization and Parallel Processing III. Graph Theory and Scheduling IV. Differential Equations and Operator Theory V. Applications. We would like to thank the director of the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach Prof. Dr. M.
Barner and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, particularly Prof. Dr. V. Kaftanov, and also to the director of the Computer Center of the University of Karlsruhe Prof. Dr. A. Schreiner for their support in organizing these conferences. We also appreciate the excellent coopera- tion of Springer Verlag. We also thank Dr. P. Recht, Dr. D. Solte and Dr. K. Wieder as well as*Mrs.