Professor Alexander A. Samarskii is Director of the Institute of Mathematical Modelling at the Russian Academy of Science and has been the leader of the Russian National Program for Mathematical Modelling in Science and Technology since 1985. He is a world-renowned researcher who has obtained outstanding results and contributed grately to the development of these subjects. Professor Alexander P Mikhailov is a Head of Department at the Institute of Mathematical Modelling at the Russian Academy of Science and is a Professor of M V Lomonosov Moscow State University. His research interests include mathematical physics, the theory of nonlinear phenomena, mathematical modelling of dissipative structures and mathematical modelling of socio-political processes.