The purpose of this book is to review and critically evaluate the best new methods to synthesize alpha-amino acids in optically active form. There is so much new literature on amino acid synthesis that the experimentalist will undoubtedly have difficulty in selecting the most appropriate methodology for constructing the amino acid of immediate interest. This book is a guide for steering the scientist through the maze of existing reports on the subject and contains the most up-to-date critical reviews of methods of asymmetric synthesis of amino acids. In areas that are relatively new conceptually and less studied experimentally, an effort has been made to review the most salient works with an eye towards future development. Over 330 schemes and figures are presented with references for rapid visual retrieval of information. The book will be of great value to academic and industrial organic research chemists, especially those concerned with medicinal and agricultural chemistry, as well as to graduate and post graduate students, biochemists and biologists.