This book is a collection of research papers on optimization and approximation dedicated to Professor Minyi Yue of the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Beijing, China. The papers provide a broad spectrum of research on optimization problems, including scheduling, location, assignment, linear and nonlinear programming problems, as well as problems in molecular biology. The emphasis of the book is on algorithmic aspects of research work in optimization. Special attention is paid to approximation algorithms, including heuristics for combinatorial approximation problems, approximation algorithms for global optimization problems, and applications of approximations in real problems. The work provides information for researchers in mathematical programming, operations research, theoretical computer science and applied mathematics.