Since the seminal work of P. Anderson in 1958, localization in disordered systems has been the object of intense investigations. Mathematically speaking, the phenomenon can be described as follows: the self-adjoint operators which are used as Hamiltonians for these systems have a ten dency to have pure point spectrum, especially in low dimension or for large disorder. A lot of effort has been devoted to the mathematical study of the random self-adjoint operators relevant to the theory of localization for disordered systems. It is fair to say that progress has been made and that the un derstanding of the phenomenon has improved. This does not mean that the subject is closed. Indeed, the number of important problems actually solved is not larger than the number of those remaining. Let us mention some of the latter: • A proof of localization at all energies is still missing for two dimen sional systems, though it should be within reachable range. In the case of the two dimensional lattice, this problem has been approached by the investigation of a finite discrete band, but the limiting pro cedure necessary to reach the full two-dimensional lattice has never been controlled. • The smoothness properties of the density of states seem to escape all attempts in dimension larger than one. This problem is particularly serious in the continuous case where one does not even know if it is continuous.

The interplay between the spectral theory of Schr|dinger operators and probabilistic considerations forms the main theme of these notes, written for the non-specialist reader and intended to provide a brief and elementaryintroduction to this field. An attempt is made to show basic ideas in statu nascendi and to follow their evaluation from simple beginnings through to more advanced results. The term "genetic" in the title refers to this proceedure. The author concentrates on 2 topics which, in the history of the subject, have been of major conceptual importance - on the one hand the Laplacian is a random medium and the left end of its spectrum (leading to large deviation problems for Brownian motion and the link to thenotion of entropy) and on the other, Schr|dinger operators with general ergodic potentials in one-dimensional space. Ideas and concepts are explained in the simplest, possible setting and by means of a few characteristic problems with heuristic arguments preceding rigorous proofs.

This volume gathers the articles based on a series of lectures from a workshop held at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the National University of Mexico. The aim of the book is to present to a non-specialized audience the basic tools needed to understand and appreciate new trends of research on Schrodinger operator theory. Topics discussed include various aspects of the spectral theory of differential operators, the theory of self-adjoint operators, finite rank perturbations, spectral properties of random Schrodinger operators, and scattering theory for Schrodinger operators. The material is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians interested in differential operators, in particular, spectral theory of Schrodinger operators.