The papers of this volume share as a common goal the structure and classi- fication of noncommutative rings and their modules, and deal with topics of current research including: localization, serial rings, perfect endomorphism rings, quantum groups, Morita contexts, generalizations of injectivitiy, and Cartan matrices.

One of my favorite graduate courses at Berkeley is Math 251, a one-semester course in ring theory offered to second-year level graduate students. I taught this course in the Fall of 1983, and more recently in the Spring of 1990, both times focusing on the theory of noncommutative rings. This book is an outgrowth of my lectures in these two courses, and is intended for use by instructors and graduate students in a similar one-semester course in basic ring theory. Ring theory is a subject of central importance in algebra. Historically, some of the major discoveries in ring theory have helped shape the course of development of modern abstract algebra. Today, ring theory is a fer tile meeting ground for group theory (group rings), representation theory (modules), functional analysis (operator algebras), Lie theory (enveloping algebras), algebraic geometry (finitely generated algebras, differential op erators, invariant theory), arithmetic (orders, Brauer groups), universal algebra (varieties of rings), and homological algebra (cohomology of rings, projective modules, Grothendieck and higher K-groups). In view of these basic connections between ring theory and other branches of mathemat ics, it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that a course in ring theory is an indispensable part of the education for any fledgling algebraist. The purpose of my lectures was to give a general introduction to the theory of rings, building on what the students have learned from a stan dard first-year graduate course in abstract algebra.

A cross-section of ideas, techniques and results that give the reader an unparalleled introductory overview of the subject.

This introduction to noncommutative noetherian rings is intended to be accessible to anyone with a basic background in abstract algebra. It can be used as a second-year graduate text, or as a self-contained reference. Extensive explanatory discussion is given, and exercises are integrated throughout. This edition incorporates substantial revisions, particularly in the first third of the book, where the presentation has been changed to increase accessibility and topicality. New material includes the basic types of quantum groups, which then serve as test cases for the theory developed.

This book does nothing less than provide an account of the intellectual lineage of abstract algebra. The development of abstract algebra was propelled by the need for new tools to address certain classical problems that appeared insoluble by classical means. A major theme of the book is to show how abstract algebra has arisen in attempting to solve some of these classical problems, providing a context from which the reader may gain a deeper appreciation of the mathematics involved. Mathematics instructors, algebraists, and historians of science will find the work a valuable reference.

Ring Theory

The papers in this proceedings volume are selected research papers in different areas of ring theory, including graded rings, differential operator rings, K-theory of noetherian rings, torsion theory, regular rings, cohomology of algebras, local cohomology of noncommutative rings. The book will be important for mathematicians active in research in ring theory.