In the 60s and 70s, Katsiveli was the place where regular summer schools and various conferences took place under the aegis of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. An International Conference and US-Ukrainian Workshop “Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory” were held in Katsiveli (Crimea, Ukraine) during the period 21–30 August, 2000. The meeting which was dedicated to the memory of one of the best lecturers of the Katsiveli's schools - Vladimir Mikhaĭlovich Alexeyev, is an attempt to revive this tradition.

The conference and workshop has had no permanent funding. Their existence and function rely on financial aid from international and national organizations supporting the development of fundamental sciences.

There were 86 participants, coming from Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Korea, The Netherlands, Poland, P.R. China, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States and from about 50 institutions working in many fields of Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory.

The meeting was consisted of 5 mini-courses (17 50-minute lectures), 30 50-minute lectures, 40 30-minute talks and the “Open Problems” section (see http://iml.univ-mrs.fr/~kolyada/opds/).

The proceedings of the conference will be published in two parts: 1) research papers & 2) mini-courses and survey papers. Research papers will be published in one issue of the journal Qualitative Theory of Dynamical Systems, mini-courses and survey papers in this book.