Selected works of Jindřich Nečas. PDEs, continuum mechanics and regularity. Edited by Šárka Nečasová, Milan Pokorný and Vladimír Šverák (Q2375749)

The book under review presents the most important papers of Jindřich Nečas who was one of the founders of the Prague School of PDEs and one of the most prominent members of this school during the years 1955--2002. Part I of the book is devoted to the following aspects of the life and scientific work of J. Nečas: 1. Short biography; 2. Complete bibliography; 3. J. Nečas in the early 1960s; 4. J. Nečas and the Prague School of PDEs (pp. 3--24). The Parts II--VI represent reprints of selected papers of J. Nečas on the topics: Part II Linear operators. Part III Regularity theory. Part IV Nonlinear functional analysis, calculus of variations. Part V Solid mechanics, elasticity, thermoelasticity and plasticity. Part VI Fluid mechanics. Each of these parts is completed by commentaries on J. Nečas' papers as well as some remarks on related papers. These notes are written by pupils of him and colleagues (pp. 27--705). The final Part VII represents recollections, correspondence and photographs. The first chapter of this part contains memories written by P.G. Ciarlet, P. Quittner, M. Feistauer and T. Roubíček. The second chapter contains reprints of letters by prominent mathematicians to J. Nečas, among others J. Leray, S. Hildebrandt, M. Giuaquinta, O.A. Oleinik, S.L. Sobolev, G. Stampacchia, J.-L. Lions, G. Fichera and F.E. Browder. The last chapter contains reproductions of photos of J. Nečas beginning with his childhood and ending with a photo of him in his office at the Northern Illinois University, De Kalb (pp. 709--785). The scientific work of J. Nečas plays up to this day an important role in many fields of the theory of PDEs. The notes in part I, the original papers as well as the commentaries, memories, reprinted letters and the photo gallery give an insight into life and scientific work of J. Nečas. The editors S. Nečasova, M. Pokorný and V. Šverák did a useful job to make the material of the book at the mathematical community's disposal.