We present a very quick and powerful method for the calculation of hea
t kernel coefficients. It makes use of rather common ideas, as integra
l representations of the spectral sum, Mellin transforms, non-trivial
commutation of series and integrals and skillful analytic continuation
of zeta functions on the complex plane. We apply our method to the ca
se of the heat kernel expansion of the Laplace operator on a D-dimensi
onal ball with either Dirichlet, Neumann or, in general, Robin boundar
y conditions. The final formulas are quite simple. Using this case as
an example, we illustrate in detail our scheme - which serves for the
calculation of an (in principle) arbitrary number of heat kernel coeff
icients in any situation when the basis functions are known. We provid
e a complete list of new results for the coefficients B-3,..., B-10, c
orresponding to the D-dimensional ball with all the mentioned boundary
conditions and D = 3,4,5. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.