The Illinois Journal of Mathematics is publishing a special volume to mark the centenary of the birth of Reinhold Baer (1902 – 1979), an influential figure in the development of algebra and geometry in the first half of the twentieth century and a founding editor of IJM.

Reinhold Baer was a member of the UIUC Mathematics Department from 1938 to 1955, when he returned to his native Germany to accept a Professorship at the University of Frankfurt. Baer had twenty Ph.D. students at Illinois, including such well-known names as R.A. Beaumont, P.F. Conrad, D.G. Higman and P. Dembowski.

The volume, edited by UIUC Professors Phillip Griffith and Derek Robinson, features 39 invited articles by prominent mathematicians in areas to which Baer has contributed. Also included is a slightly edited reprint of an Obituary by K.W. Gruenberg, which was originally published in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society and gives an in-depth description of Baer’s life and mathematical work.

The “Baer Centenary Volume” is being published both as a double journal issue (Spring/Summer 2003), and as a separate book that will soon be made available for purchase by individuals and libraries at a nominal cost. In addition, the papers in the Baer Volume are available electronically.