ABSTRACT
The idea for this book originated at a conference held in October 1999 to honor Samuel J.Williamson, Professor of Physics and Neural Science at New York University (NYU). Officially he was being honored on the occasion of his 60th birthday; however, lurking in the background was the fact that Sam was ill—so ill that he could no longer carry out his duties as a professor. Out of affection and respect for Sam, several of the many conference participants prepared chapters for this book. Other chapter authors could not attend the conference but volunteered to contribute chapters anyway. These chapters reflect the personal as well as the scientific impact that Sam had on all of these authors. This epilogue will explain why they felt so strongly about Sam that they decided to devote a substantial amount of time to preparing this book, which is dedicated to Sam.
