Patrick Dehornoy (1952¿2019) was Professor Emeritus at Université Caen Normandie, and Senior Member Emeritus of the Institut Universitaire de France. His research focused on set theory, algebra, and topology in small dimensions. He authored close to 100 research articles and eight books.

1. Geometric braids; 2. Braid groups; 3. Braid monoids; 4. The greedy normal form; 5. The Artin representation; 6. Handle reduction; 7. The Dynnikov coordinates; 8. A few avenues of investigation; 9. Solutions to the exercises; Glossary; References; Index.