The theory of functional equations has been developed in a rapid and
productive way in the second half of the Twentieth Century. First of
all, this is due to the fact that the mathematical applications raised
the investigations of newer and newer types of functional equations. At
the same time, the self development of this theory was also very
fruitful. This can be followed in many monographs that treat and discuss
the various methods and approaches. These developments were also
essentially influenced by a number jour- nals, for instance, by the
Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen (founded in 1953) and by the
Aequationes Mathematicae (founded in 1968), be- cause these journals
published papers from the field of functional equa- tions readily and
frequently. The latter journal also publishes the yearly report of the
International Symposia on Functional Equations and a comprehensive
bibliography of the most recent papers. At the same time, there are
periodically and traditionally organized conferences in Poland and in
Hungary devoted to functional equations and inequali- ties. In 2000, the
38th International Symposium on Functional Equations was organized by
the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of
Debrecen in Noszvaj, Hungary. The report about this meeting can be found
in Aequationes Math. 61 (2001), 281-320.