Many years ago, Rota proposed a program on determining algebraic identities that can be satisfied by linear operators. After an extended period of dormant, progress on this program picked up speed in recent years, thanks to perspectives from operated algebras and Grobner-Shirshov bases. These advances were achieved in a series of papers from special cases to more general situations. These perspectives also indicate that Rotas insight can be manifested very broadly, for other algebraic structures such as Lie algebras, and further in the context of operads. This paper gives a survey on the motivation, early developments and recent advances on Rotas program, for linear operators on associative algebras and Lie algebras. Emphasis will be given to the applications of rewriting systems and Grobner-Shirshov bases. Problems, old and new, are proposed throughout the paper to prompt further developments on Rotas program.
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