Due to the growing use of more and more complex computerized systems in safety-critical applications, the formal verification of such systems is increasingly gaining importance. Many automatic and semi-automatic schemes for hardware and software verification ultimately rely on decision procedures for discharging the proof obligations generated during the verification process.<br> <br> Christian Herde deals with the development of such procedures, providing methods for efficiently solving formulae comprising complex Boolean combinations of linear, polynomial, and transcendental arithmetic constraints, involving thousands of Boolean-, integer-, and real-valued variables. Although aiming at providing tool support for the verification of hybrid discrete-continuous systems, most of the techniques he describes are general purpose and have applications in many other domains, like operations research, planning, software validation, and electronic design automation.<br>