Since moving from UC Davis in 2003, I have come to appreciate even more what Quirino has to offer colleagues and students. Take, for example, the symmetry paradigm he expounds in the opening chapter. Quirino effectively demonstrates how the application of the symmetry principle, when combined with the implementation of well-known mathematical programming theory, can be used not only to numerically solve various microeconomic models, but also to gain deeper economic understanding of them. Although this is exciting to those of us who work in this field, it might come off as a bit abstract and technical to students. No problem, as Quirino motivated the symmetry principle quite differently to the students by bringing a symmetric vegetable to class! As I recall, it was broccoli Romanesco, whose symmetry was with respect to scale, that is, it is a fractal veggie. Neither faculty nor students of that era will forget that day, or more generally, the passion and unique point of view that Quirino brought to every conversation, lecture, and seminar. This book embodies all of that fervor and zeal, and more, as it is the culmination of his lifelong research in the application of mathematical programming to economics. What's more, Quirino's guiding concept of symmetry is peppered all throughout the text, and this fact alone separates it from the multitude of books on mathematical programming and applications. It really does not get much better than this for a user of these methods.