Provides well-written self-contained chapters, including problem sets and exercises, making it ideal for the classroom setting; Introduces applied optimization to the hazardous waste blending problem; Explores linear programming, nonlinear programming, discrete optimization, global optimization, optimization under uncertainty, multi-objective optimization, optimal control and stochastic optimal control; Includes an extensive bibliography at the end of each chapter and an index; GAMS files of case studies for Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 are linked to http://www.springer.com/math/book/978-0-387-76634-8; Solutions manual available upon adoptions.