Preface

     The 7th International Conference on Differential Geometry and Applications belongs to the series of meetings organized by Czech universities each three years since 1980. This Conference was organized by Masaryk University in Brno in cooperation with the Union of Czech Mathematicians and Physicists, and other intstitutions as a Satellite Conference of the ICM in Berlin. The members of the Program Committee were O. Kowalski and P.W. Michor, co-chairmen;  D. Alekseevsky, T. Friedrich,  I. Kolář, D. Krupka,  J. Slovák. The Organizing Committee included  J. Slovák, chairman;  J. Bureš, M. Čadek,  J. Janyška,  I. Kolář, O. Kowalski,  D. Krupka, O. Krupková, J. Mikeš,  J. Musilová, J. Novotný,  J.Vanžura.
    The program of the Conference consisted of three half-day plenary sessions, and six half-day sessions in three sections. Section A was devoted to Riemannian geometry and related topics (chairman O. Kowalski), Section B included other geometric structures and it also focused on general questions in geometry (chairman I. Kolář), and Section C collected the contributions related to variational calculus and mathematical physics (chairman D. Krupka). In addition, some poster sessions were organized.
    We believe that the meeting continued the tradition of enjoyable and creative atmosphere which was established during the previous conferences in the series. As usual some cultural and social events took place. The Conference also hosted many distinguished editors of the journal `Differential Geometry and its Applications' and a meeting of the Editorial Board was organized at this occasion.
    The papers collected in the present volume are based on the lectures presented in Brno. They cover a quite wide range of topics and we have organized the volume in six parts according to the major subjects. The list of participants is included too. The electronic version of this Proceedings is displayed on the server EMIS of the European Mathematical Society at http://www.emis.de. We should like to point our that several survey papers covering many invited plenary talks have been edited as a special volume of the journal `Differential Geometry and its Applications' by P. Michor and O. Kowalski.
    The editors should like to use this opportunity to thank to all participants who took part in the meeting and in particular to those who have also contributed to this Proceedings.

The Editors