LAUSR

This issue ofOptimization Methods & Software (OMS) is related to three very successful recent conferences on Optimization, Operational Research and related subjects, namely: the XVII Baikal International Triennial School-Seminar ‘Methods of Optimization and Their Applications’ (BITSS – Baikal 2017), held on 31 July to 6 August 2017, in Maksimikha, Buryatia – Irkutsk, Russia, and the two ‘International Conferences on Computational and Experimental Science and Engineering’ (ICCESEN), held on 19–24 October 2016 and 4–8 October 2017, both in KemerAntalya, Turkey. All submissions to this Special Issue were very carefully selected and reviewed by at least two independent referees. On the occasion of BITSS – Baikal 2017, the journal OMS invited submissions to a special issue related to our subject, Advances in Optimization Theory and Application, which is a central topic for both the conference and the journal. It became a part of this united Special Issue. The conferences ICCESEN 2016 and ICCESEN 2017 provided an excellent stage for researchers and practitioners to promote interactions between colleagues working in various areas of mathematical science and its emerging applications. On the occasion of these two conferences, OMS welcomed submissions to special issues on ‘Advances of Optimization in Science, Economics, Engineering and Medicine’ which became a part of the present Special Issue. The aforementioned parts that were initiated and based on the three underlying conferences have been augmented with a number of excellent OMS papers which were originally regular journal submissions and coauthored by world-leading experts. We are truly glad to have these outstanding contributions in our joint OMS Special Issue, too. Now, our united OMS Special Issue ‘Advances in Optimization Theory and Applications (Baikal 2017, ICCESEN 2016 and 2017)’ consists of 11 carefully selected ‘master pieces’; these are, in alphabetical order: