Founded in 1992, the Fields Institute was initially located at the University of Waterloo. Since 1995, it has occupied a building designed and constructed for Institute activities on the campus of the University of Toronto. Our mission is to enhance mathematical activity in Canada by bringing together mathematicians from Canada and abroad, and by promoting contact and collaboration between professional mathematicians and the increasing numbers of users of mathematics. Thus the Institute supports research in pure and applied mathematics, statistics and computer science, as well as collaboration between mathematicians and those applying mathematics in areas such as engineering, the physical and biological sciences, medicine, economics and finance, telecommunications and information systems. The Fields Institute environment is designed to support and enhance all of these activities. Office space is provided for as many as 66 visitors; a supportive staff enables program participants to devote most of their energies to research; and full access to the excellent mathematics collection at the University of Toronto is provided.