Non-Noetherian Commutative Ring Theory

Commutative Ring Theory emerged as a distinct field of research in math­ ematics only at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is rooted in nine­ teenth century major works in Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry for which it provided a useful tool for proving results. From this humble origin, it flourished into a field of study in its own right of an astonishing richness and interest. Nowadays, one has to specialize in an area of this vast field in order to be able to master its wealth of results and come up with worthwhile contributions. One of the major areas of the field of Commutative Ring Theory is the study of non-Noetherian rings. The last ten years have seen a lively flurry of activity in this area, including: a large number of conferences and special sections at national and international meetings dedicated to presenting its results, an abundance of articles in scientific journals, and a substantial number of books capturing some of its topics. This rapid growth, and the occasion of the new Millennium, prompted us to embark on a project aimed at presenting an overview of the recent research in the area. With this in mind, we invited many of the most prominent researchers in Non-Noetherian Commutative Ring Theory to write expository articles representing the most recent topics of research in this area.