| Minimal surface theory has a history of over two hundred years. Many famous mathematicians, Riemann, Weierstrass, Schwarz, just name a few, are fascinated by its beauty and challenge. In the mid 19th century, Plateau made systematic soap film experiments and showed that any thin metal ware counter spans a surface with minimum surface tension, which is a minimal surface. But the mathematical proof of this fact appeared only in the 1930's. In the talk we start from the basic definition of minimal surface, then survey the classical Plateau problem, definition, solution, branch points, embedness, uniqueness, number of solutions, etc. In the last part, we will discuss the modern development. |