Peter D. Lax, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. Dr. Lax is the recipient of the Abel Prize for 2005 "for his groundbreaking contributions to the theory and application of partial differential equations and to the computation of their solutions". * A student and then colleague of Richard Courant, Fritz John, and K. O. Friedrichs, he is considered one of the world's leading mathematicians. He has had a long and distinguished career in pure and applied mathematics, and with over fifty years of experience in the field, he has made significant contributions to various areas of research, including integratable systems, fluid dynamics, and solitonic physics, as well as mathematical and scientific computing.