James Serrin. Selected papers. Edited by Patrizia Pucci, Vicentiu D. Radulescu and Hans Weinberger. 2-vol. set (Q354269)

The selected works of James Serrin are published in a two-volumes set. Volume 1, entitled ``Stationary partial differential equations'', is devided into 15 sections and contains the basic mathematical contributions of J. Serrin, mainly in the domain of linear elliptic and non-elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs). At the beginning of the book a brief biography of the author by P. Pucci is given. Each section is equipped by a commentary written by well-known specialists on the subject (L. Veron, L. Nirenberg, L. Peletier, J.-L. Vazques, H. Brezis and others). Volume 2, divided into 20 sections, contains Serrin's results in the applications to mechanics, physics etc. The scope of the topics here is very broad as it includes his investigations on evolution equations (ordinary differential equations, parabolic and wave operators) as well as his contributions to real analysis, critical point theory, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and miscellaneous topics. At the end of Volume 2 six essays are included. They are devoted to J. Leray, E. Hopf, C. Truesdell and to other subjects (applied mathematics and scientific thought; space, time and energy; reflections on mathematics). The interesting commentaries in Volume 2 are due to G. Lieberman, P. Pucci, R. Fosdick, H. Levine, V. Radulescu, H. Brezis and other experts. Because of the lack of space we do not give here the list of all the commentators of Volume 1 and Volume 2. A full list of Serrin's 203 publications is given at the end of both Volume 1 and Volume 2. In the two books under review only selected papers are included. According to the editors, they intended to make ``available to a wider audience some of the main mathematical contributions of James Serrin.'' To be more precise, we mention that among the areas that he studied very successfully are the maximum principle methods and related phenomena, the compact support principle, dead cores and bursts, free boundary problems, phase transitions, the symmetry of solutions, boundary layer theory, singularities, and fine regularity properties. In most cases the papers are preceeded by a commentary in order to indicate how they are related to other works in the same or similar domains. Certainly, they can stimulate other investigations in the future. Both volumes are very well produced and the articles are reprinted from their original versions. In conclusion, these two nice, elegant and well-prepared volumes represent a part of the scientific inheritance in the domain of PDEs and their applications of one outstanding mathematician of the second part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st one. The selected papers are of interest not only to specialists in the domain of PDEs but also for a wider audience of Ph.D. students, physicists, and engineers as well.