Editorial [Dedicated to Professor Avinoam Mann]

This issue of the journal is published in honor of our teacher, colleague and friend Professor Avinoam Mann. An international conference was held May 14–19, 2006, at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in connection with Professor Mann’s retirement from teaching at the Hebrew University after almost 40 years. The conference, devoted to Asymptotic Group Theory, was mainly supported by the Institute for Advanced Studies, and also by the Einstein Institute of Mathematics of the Hebrew University. It focused on several branches of group theory, such as finite groups and p-groups in particular, profinite groups, residually finite groups, growth and probabilistic aspects – all areas to which Avinoam Mann has made important contributions. The papers in this issue, which were written by friends, colleagues and students of Avinoam Mann, also represent a variety of topics in which his work over the years has made a lasting impact.