This proceedings volume contains a selection of papers presented at the OR 98 conference that was held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich from August 31-September 3, 1998.BRThe selection of papers included in this volume reflects well the number of papers in the corresponding sections at the conference. Thus, we observe that the intellectual mainstream in Operations Reserch still is mathematical optimization and its application in logistics and transportation systems. In addition to these traditional areas the conference emphasized the potential contributions of Operations Research in the new, challenging area of system design and management in the liberalized energy and telecommunication markets.BR
