CALL FOR PAPERS ANNALS OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH SPECIAL ISSUE ON PARALLEL OPTIMIZATION Parallel computing emerges as one of the most powerful and versatile tools available to address complex and large scale problems. The applications are varied, numerous and meaningful; one can mention the fields of finance, real time reaction and decision making, intelligent transportation systems, artificial intelligence, biology and chemistry, etc. Yet, the potential gains of parallel computation do not materialize easily. In fact, parallel computation challenges researchers to rethink their models and algorithms, besides imposing a few specific issues of its own (e.g., efficient data structures, performance measures, etc.). There is now a significant body of scientists in Operations Research and Mathematical Programming actively involved in addressing these issues and developing sound and efficient PARALLEL OPTIMIZATION models and algorithms in a wide variety of application contexts. We intend this special issue of the Annals of Operations Research to capture the essence of today's state-of-the-art research in this dynamic and exiting field. We seek original, high quality contributions that may belong, but are not restricted, to one of the following categories: o Methodological work on models and algorithms in continuous, linear and nonlinear, optimization, integer and mixed integer programming, combinatorial optimization, network flows, metaheuristics, global optimization, stochastic optimization, etc. o Issues related to the development, implementation and evaluation of parallel optimization methods: load balancing, data structures, performance measures, software libraries, etc. o Applications: transportation, telecommunication, location, manufacturing, TSP/VRP, finance, biology and chemistry, etc. To submit a paper, one may send the manuscript to one of the editors either in paper form -- five (5) copies are then required -- or electronically as a LaTex file. A specific LaTex Style File for the Annals is available, either from the editors, or directly from the home page of Baltzer Science Publishers: http://www.nl.net/~baltzer/. Electronic submissions are encouraged. As an additional incentive, the Publisher offers 50 instead of the normal 25 free reprints when the authors use the Baltzer LaTex Style File. The manuscript must be original, previously unpublished and not currently under review for other journals. To be considered for the special issue, the manuscript must be received by April 15, 1996. All manuscripts will be strictly refereed according to the highest standards as outlined in the guidelines of the Annals of Operations Research. For further information, please contact any one of the guest editors below. Teodor Gabriel Crainic Catherine Roucairol Centre de recherche sur les transports Laboratoire PRISM Universite de Montreal Universite de Versailles C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-ville 45, Avenue des Etats-Unis Montreal (QC) Canada H3C 3J7 78035 Versailles Cedex, France tel.: (514) 343 7143 (+33 1) 39 25 40 88 fax.: (514) 343 7121 (+33 1) 39 25 40 57 email: theo@crt.umontreal.ca Catherine.Roucairol@prism.uvsq.fr