AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY– MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA ANNUAL JOINT MEETING

The 1998 AMS–MAA (American Mathematical Society – Mathematical Association of America) annual joint meeting, held on 7–10 January 1998, attracted an estimated 3,500 participants from around the world. Dr Hu Sen (Editorial, US) attended the meeting together with some authors and editors of World Scientific. The highlight of the many events was the Gibbs Lecture, delivered by E Witten (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) on his M-theory.

Dr Hu Sen met with Professor Brezis and Professor Xiao-Song Lin to discuss the launch of World Scientific's new journal, Communications in Contemporary Mathematics. Mathematics has undergone tremendous changes in recent decades, owing to the influence of physics and other disciplines of science. The new journal was conceived to reflect such changes, and Professor Brezis and Professor Lin have kindly agreed to be Chief Editors.

Dr Hu also had a meeting with Professor F Browder, presidentelect of the AMS, on the latter's volume of selected papers on functional analysis and nonlinear PDEs. Professor Browder is a distinguished scholar in nonlinear analysis whose work has helped to shape the direction of this field. We were also fortunate in getting Professor Jing-Song (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) to publish with us his excellent lecture notes on representations of Lie groups. The meeting was a great opportunity to meet readers, authors and editors. With the various commissions achieved at the meeting, World Scientific's participation proved to be a real success.

CHINESE MEDICINE CONFERENCE

Andrew Robinson (Editorial, Singapore) and Lim Sook Cheng (Editorial, Singapore) attended this professional seminar, entitled 'TCM: A Two Legged Approach to Patient Health', held at the Westin Stamford Hotel, Singapore, on 7 March 1998. The meeting provided an opportunity for practitioners from a range of medical disciplines to meet and discuss the potential of Chinese medicine as a complement to Western medicine. Andrew and Sook Cheng had the opportunity to meet with several potential authors and promote World Scientific's publishing programme in this specialised area. In addition, two guest speakers at the event — our author and advisor Prof. P C Leung, and Dr Linda C Koo — kindly agreed to contribute their respective papers for publication in Asia-Pacific Biotech News.

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING

The APS (American Physical Society) March Meeting took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in California. The Exhibition was held on 17–19 March1998. Dr Wei Chen (Editorial, US) and Joanne Sherwood (Marketing, US) attended the meeting.

World Scientific's booth turned out to be a favourite and was often filled to capacity. One of the factors that contributed to our success was the comparatively low prices offered. Another factor was the availability of a wide variety of titles. There were 104 titles, a number of journals, and many catalogues and leaflets on display at the booth. Two titles sold particularly well: Concepts in Solids by P W Anderson and Topological Quantum Numbers by D Thouless.

The next APS meeting could see an even greater improvement in World Scientific's performance. With the encouraging response we received this year, we may consider setting up two booths with more on-site manpower.

TAIPEI INTERNATIONAL BOOK EXHIBITION