holomorphic map to a curve B such that all but finitely many fibers are smooth irreducible curves of genus 1). The generic fiber in such a fibration is a genus 1 curve over the function field of B. Conversely, given a genus 1 curve over the function field of a curve, its relative minimal model is an elliptic surface. Kodaira and others have given a fairly complete description of all elliptic surfaces. In particular, Kodaira gave a complete list of the possible singular fibers. The theory of elliptic surfaces is analogous to the theory of proper regular models of elliptic curves over discrete valuation rings (e.g., the ring of p-adic integers) and Dedekind domains (e.g., the ring of integers of a number field). In finite characteristic 2 and 3 one can also get quasi-elliptic surfaces, whose fibers may almost all be rational curves with a single node, which are "degenerate elliptic curves". Every surface of Kodaira dimension 1 is an elliptic surface (or a quasielliptic surface in characteristics 2 or 3), but the converse is not true: an elliptic surface can have Kodaira dimension , 0, or 1. All Enriques surfaces, all hyperelliptic surfaces, all Kodaira surfaces, some K3 surfaces, some abelian surfaces, and some rational surfaces are elliptic surfaces, and these examples have Kodaira dimension less than 1. An elliptic surface whose base curve B is of genus at least 2 always has Kodaira dimension 1, but the Kodaira dimension can be 1 also for some elliptic surfaces with B of genus 0 or 1. Invariants: Example: If E is an elliptic curve and B is a curve of genus at least 2, then E×B is an elliptic surface of Kodaira dimension 1. Surfaces of Kodaira dimension 2 (surfaces of general type) These are all algebraic, and in some sense most surfaces are in this class. Gieseker showed that there is a coarse moduli scheme for surfaces of general type; this means that for any fixed values of the Chern numbers c and c2, there is a quasi-projective scheme classifying the surfaces of general type with those Chern numbers. However it is a very difficult problem to describe these schemes explicitly, and there are very few pairs of Chern numbers for which this has been done (except when the scheme is empty!) Invariants: There are several conditions that the Chern numbers of a minimal complex surface of general type