Behind the Scenes of
ICIAM
June 2, 2014
Three
strong believers in the importance of the International Congress on Industrial
and Applied Mathematics took a break during the most recent meeting of the
ICIAM board to discuss their activities and the experiences they envision for
those who attend ICIAM 2015, in
Near the beginning of her two-year term as
Fonseca, Keyfitz, and Esteban were among the
distinguished visitors from around the world who gathered at the Mathematical
Biosciences Institute at
As anyone who has attended ICIAM will know---the most recent congresses were in
What Does the ICIAM President Do?
The ICIAM president and the board, which is made up of representatives of
participating societies, are responsible for the high quality of ICIAM,
beginning with selection of the site---
That ICIAM invited speakers do outstanding work and are leaders in their areas
is a given. Beyond that, the list of invited speakers must be balanced---mathematically
and geographically---and it must be diverse with respect to academic vs.
industrial work, gender, type of academic institution. . . . Giving an invited
talk at ICIAM is an honor, conferring considerable prestige on the speaker. The
list of invited speakers for
Five ICIAM prizes---Collatz, Lagrange, Maxwell, Su Buchin, and Pioneer---are awarded at each congress. In
Beijing for the first time, Keyfitz says, the prize
recipients will have the opportunity to speak (30 minutes each); each recipient
plans to attend the meeting and is eager to use the time to present his/her
work. The prizes and talks will be part of the opening ceremonies. Having
recently overseen the selection of the 2015 prize recipients, Keyfitz testifies to the intense, thorough, and
time-consuming scrutiny directed to all nominees. When she succeeds Keyfitz in 2015, Esteban will bring to the job her
experience as a member of the Abel Prize Committee.
How Does ICIAM Differ from the ICM?
An invitation to give a plenary or other invited talk at the International
Congress of Mathematicians, which dates back to 1897 (when the first one was held
in Zurich), is considered one of the most significant recognitions a
mathematician can receive. Almost all ICM speakers are invited, Esteban points
out.
"You go to the ICM to listen, to ICIAM to speak," Keyfitz
says.
Among the events most closely associated with the ICM is the presentation of
prizes, including the Fields Medals. The names of the prize recipients are a
closely held secret, revealed only during the ICM. For ICIAM, the names of the
2015 prize recipients will be announced in mid-September.
An important distinction from the ICM is the bottom-up nature of ICIAM minisymposia. For ICIAM, it's the community that proposes minisymposia, almost all of which are accepted. The
presence of the community is clearly felt in the minisymposia,
which in a sense are the heart of the congress. Keyfitz,
Esteban, and Fonseca encourage readers to propose minisymposia
for
ICIAM is rapidly attaining the level of prestige associated with participation
in the venerable ICM, they believe. In its relatively short history---the first
ICIAM was held in
What Industry-related Activities Are Planned for ICIAM 2015?
As a leader in launching the EU-MATHS-IN project, Esteban is deeply invested in
the subject of industrial math. Even with several minisymposia
devoted to the subject on the ICIAM program, she sees
"a need to increase the presence of industrial math at ICIAM."
In
One of the main reasons to attend an international meeting is to share and
learn from the experiences of others. ICIAM could become a great forum to make
industrial mathematics known, Fonseca says.
In engaging in the community-oriented activities touched on in this narrative
version of their conversation at MBI, Fonseca, Esteban, and Keyfitz
maintain a delicate balance with the well-respected research for which each is
known.
Esteban, perhaps less familiar than Keyfitz and
Fonseca to many in the
"At especially busy times, I cannot think about my research for weeks. . .
. But when you are involved in some research project that is going well, you
manage to find time. . . .
"When I started my career, I saw myself doing research, and not more. I
never thought that I would spend so much time in extra-research activities. . .
."
In one way or another, she continues, "I started doing this at my
university, and then I got involved in [the French applied mathematics society]
SMAI, and from this I jumped to the European scale by getting involved in some
committees in the European Mathematical Society, and finally came ICIAM and
other international engagements that I have or have had in the past. I suppose
that at some point I kind of liked some of the things that can be achieved by
doing this kind of work."
Readers interested in learning more about ICIAM and the status of the
program for ICIAM 2015, which will be held in Beijing, August 10–14, are
encouraged to visit www.iciam2015.cn/---and
to propose minisymposia.