Optimization from Human Genes to Cutting Edge Technologies The challenges faced by industry today are so complex that they can only be solved through the help and participation of optimization ex­ perts. For example, many industries in e-commerce, finance, medicine, and engineering, face several computational challenges due to the mas­ sive data sets that arise in their applications. Some of the challenges include, extended memory algorithms and data structures, new program­ ming environments, software systems, cryptographic protocols, storage devices, data compression, mathematical and statistical methods for knowledge mining, and information visualization. With advances in computer and information systems technologies, and many interdisci­ plinary efforts, many of