Commutative Ring Theory emerged as a distinct field of research in math-
ematics only at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is rooted in
nine- teenth century major works in Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry
for which it provided a useful tool for proving results. From this
humble origin, it flourished into a field of study in its own right of
an astonishing richness and interest. Nowadays, one has to specialize in
an area of this vast field in order to be able to master its wealth of
results and come up with worthwhile contributions. One of the major
areas of the field of Commutative Ring Theory is the study of
non-Noetherian rings. The last ten years have seen a lively flurry of
activity in this area, including: a large number of conferences and
special sections at national and international meetings dedicated to
presenting its results, an abundance of articles in scientific journals,
and a substantial number of books capturing some of its topics. This
rapid growth, and the occasion of the new Millennium, prompted us to
embark on a project aimed at presenting an overview of the recent
research in the area. With this in mind, we invited many of the most
prominent researchers in Non-Noetherian Commutative Ring Theory to write
expository articles representing the most recent topics of research in
this area.