Algorithms and Computation: 9th International Symposium, Isaac'98, Taejon, Korea, December 14-16, 19

The papers in this volume were selected for presentation at the Ninth Annual International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC'98), heldonDecember14-16,1998inTaejon, Korea.P- viousmeetingswereheldinTokyo(1990), Taipei(1991), Nagoya (1992), HongKong(1993), Beijing(1994), Cairns(1995), Osaka (1996), andSingapore(1997). The symposium was jointly sponsored by Korea Advanced - stitute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Korea Information Science Society (KISS) to commemorate its 25th anniversary in - operationwithMinistryofInformationandCommunication, Korea InformationSocietyDevelopmentInstitute, andKoreaScienceand Engineering Foundation. Inresponsetothecallforpapers,102extendedabstractswere submitted from 21 countries. Each submitted paper was reported on byatleastfourprogramcommitteemembers, withtheassistance ofreferees, asindicatedbytherefereelistfoundintheseproce- ings. There were many more acceptable papers than there was space availableinthesymposiumschedule, andtheprogramcommittee's task was extremely di?cult. The 47 papers selected for presentation hadatotalof105authors, residentasfollows: Japan24, Germany 17, UnitedStateofAmerica15, Taiwan10, HongKongandKorea 6each, Spain5, SwitzerlandandAustralia4each, Austria, Canada, andFrance3each, ItalyandNetherlands2each, andGreece1. We thank all program committee members and their referees fortheirexcellentwork, especiallygiventhedemandingtimec- straints; they gave the symposium its distinctive character. We thank all who submitted papers for consideration: they all contributed to the high quality of the symposium. Finally, wethankallthepeoplewhoworkedhardtoputinplace the logistical arrangements of the symposium - our colleagues and our graduate students. It is their hard work that made the sym- sium possible and enjoyable.