This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications PATTERN FORMATION IN CONTINUOUS AND COUPLED SYSTEMS is based on the proceedings of a workshop with the same title, but goes be yond the proceedings by presenting a series of mini-review articles that sur vey, and provide an introduction to, interesting problems in the field.

This volume contains a number of mini-review articles authored by speakers and attendees at the IMA workshop on Pattern Formation in Continuous and Coupled Systems. Pattern formation has been studied intensively for most of this century by both experimentalists and theoreticians. This workshop focused on new directions in the patterns literature. Systems that generate new types of pattern such as discrete coupled systems, systems with global coupling, and combustion experiments were stressed, as were new types of pattern. The mini-reviews in this volume are intended to be pointers to the current literature for researchers at all levels and to have extensive bibliographies. They are also intended to discuss why certain