George Andrews is one of the most influential figures in number theory and combinatorics. In the theory of partitions and q-hypergeometric series and in the study of Ramanujan's work, he is the unquestioned leader. To suitably honor him during his 70th birthday year, an International Conference on Combinatory Analysis was held at The Pennsylvania State University during December 5-7, 2008. Three issues of the Ramanujan Journal comprising Volume 23 were published in 2010 as the refereed proceedings of that conference. The Ramanujan Journal was proud to bring out that volume honoring one of its Founding Editors. In view of the great interest that the mathematical community has in the influential work of Andrews, it was decided to republish Volume 23 of The Ramanujan Journal in this book form, so that the refereed proceedings are more readily available for those who do not subscribe to the journal but wish to possess this volume.
As a fitting tribute to George Andrews, many speakers from the conference contributed research papers to this volume which deals with a broad range of areas that signify the research interests of George Andrews. In reproducing Volume 23 of The Ramanujan Journal in this book form, we have included two papers—one by Hei-Chi Chan and Shaun Cooper, and another by Ole Warnaar—which were intended for Volume 23 of The Ramanujan Journal, but appeared in other issues.
The enormous productivity of George Andrews remains unabated in spite of the passage of time. His immensely fertile mind continues to pour forth seminal ideas year after year. He has two research papers in this volume. May his eternal youthfulness and his magnificent research output continue to inspire and influence researchers in the years ahead.