Dynamic systems, discrete time or continuous time, deterministic or stochastic, arise in all walks of life.  Optimal control theory is an important technique dealing with optimization of these systems. Until the late fifties or early sixties, the use of optimal control methods was limited to problems in physical sciences and engineering.  Since then, optimal control has found many new areas of applications.  It is some of these new applications to which this special issue of Automatica will be devoted.  High quality papers involving applications of deterministic and stochastic optimal control, robust control, and differential games to such areas as management of production, inventory, supply chains and marketing are invited for publication in the Special Issue.  The timetable for the special issue is as follows:

Submission Deadline:  April 1, 2005
Tentative Publication Date:  May 1, 2006

The Special Issue will be prepared by a team consisting of two guest editors, Suresh P. Sethi and Qing Zhang, and Automatica Editor Berç Rüstem.