This volume contains papers which are based primarily on talks given at an inter national
conference on Algorithmic Problems in Groups and Semigroups held at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln from May ll-May 16 1998. The conference coincided with the Centennial
Celebration of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln on the occasion of the one hun dredth anniversary of the granting of the first
Ph.D. by the department. Funding was provided by the US National Science Foundation the
Department of Math ematics and Statistics and the College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln through the College's focus program in Discrete Experimental
and Applied Mathematics. The purpose of the conference was to bring together researchers with
interests in algorithmic problems in group theory semigroup theory and computer science. A
particularly useful feature of this conference was that it provided a framework for exchange of
ideas between the research communities in semigroup theory and group theory and several of the
papers collected here reflect this interac tion of ideas. The papers collected in this volume
represent a cross section of some of the results and ideas that were discussed in the
conference. They reflect a synthesis of overlapping ideas and techniques stimulated by problems
concerning finite monoids finitely presented mono ids finitely presented groups and free
groups.
