Sergei Merkulov - "Wheeled props, deformation theory and quantization". The theory of operads and props is nowadays much more than just a useful technical tool. It has grown into a kind of universal mathematical language with the help of which topologist, algebraists, homotopy theorists and geometers can fruitfully communicate with each other. We shall discuss some key ideas of the theory of (wheeled) props, and focus on its recent applications to the deformation theory of algebraic and geometric structures, quantization of Poisson manifolds, and the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism.