The idea to describe the laws of nature by means of optimal forms, by the minima or maxima of empirical measures, has fascinated mathematicians, physicists and philosophers over the centuries. Great hopes in a universal approach were followed by striking counterexamples, both having in their wake some classical philosophical controversies. The symposium will examine historical studies of optimization from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The scope of the symposium is broad and includes the differential calculus, calculus of variations, variational mechanics and the mathematical physics of work and potential, Hamilton-Jacobi theory, linear programming, optimal control theory, optimization in economics and geometric optimization. Technical, contextual and philosophical aspects of the history of optimization will be explored.

In many areas of physical science, the investigation of optimization involves the integration of theoretical and applied concepts and techniques of solution. In fields as diverse as mechanics, thermodynamics, engineering, economics, population biology and game theory, the effective implementation of procedures based in theory is achieved using a principle of optimization.