This book is an outgrowth of a Research Symposium on the Modular Representation Theory of Finite Groups, held at the University of Virginia in May 1998. The main themes of this symposium were representations of groups of Lie type in nondefining (or cross) characteristic, and recent developments in block theory.

Series of lectures were given by M. Geck, A. Kleshchev and R. Rouquier, and their brief was to present material at the leading edge of research but accessible to graduate students working in the field. The first three articles are substantial expansions of their lectures, and...