In succesion to former international meetings on differential geometry held in Hungary and also as a satellite conference of ECM96, the European Mathematical Congress, a Conference on Differential Geometry took place in Budapest from July 27 to July 30, 1996. The host of the Conference was Lorand Eotvos University. The Conference had the following Programme Committee: D.V. Alekseevsky, J.J. Duistermaat, J. Eells, A. Haefliger, O. Kowalski, S. Marchifava, J. Szenthe, L. Tamassy, L. Vanhecke. The participants came mainly from Europe and their total number was 190. The programme included plenary lectures by J. Eliashberg, S. Gallot, O. Kowalski, B. Leeb, and also 135 lectures in 4 sections. The social events, an opening reception and a farewel party, presented inspiring atmosphere to create scientific contacts and also for fruitful discussions. In preparation of the Conference and during it B. Csikos and G. Moussong were constanly ready to help. The present volume contains detailed versions of lectures presented at the Conference and also a list of participants.
The subjects cover a wide variety of topics in differential geometry and its applications and all of them contain essential new developments in their respective subjects. It is my pleasant duty to thank the participants who contributed to the success of the Conference, especially those who offered us their manuscripts for publication and also the referees who made several important observa- tions. The preparation of the volume was managed with the assistance of E. Daroczy-Kiss.