Special issue on algebra and computational algebraic geometry

Algebraic geometry is one of the main branches of modern mathematics with roots from classical Italian geometers. Its modern flavor started with Grothendieck and continued with many illustrious algebraic geometers of the second half of the 20-th century. During the last twenty years, the subject has changed drastically due to developments of new computational techniques and access to better computing power. Such changes have spurred a new direction of algebraic geometry, the so called computational algebraic geometry. While there is no universal agreement among mathematicians that what exactly is computational algebraic geometry, loosely stated it includes the areas of algebraic geometry where computer algebra can be used to obtain explicit results. It is obvious that such area will be of deep impact and importance in the future mathematics. Furthermore, such new developments have made possible applications of algebraic geometry in areas such as coding theory, computer security and cryptography, computer vision, mathematical biology, and many more.