[Todos CMAT] IMU-Net 42: July 2010 (fwd)

Mar Jul 27 16:19:41 UYT 2010

CONTIENE MUCHAS NOTICIAS IMPORTANTES. SALUDOS, RM

IMU-Net 42: July 2010

A Bimonthly Email Newsletter from the International Mathematical Union
Editor: Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel, University Paris Descartes, Paris, France

CONTENTS

1. Editorial
2. IMU Prizes and Medals 2010
3. A contribution by D. Mumford
4. IMU on the Web
5. IMU booklet
6. A new President for EMS
7. Passing away of V. Arnold
8. Kyoto Prize
9. Ramanujan Prize Call for Nominations
10. Subscribing to IMU-Net

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1. EDITORIAL

As the Hyderabad ICM approaches, I would like to draw your attention
to two events to be held there.

The first, on Wednesday 25 August from 17.00-19.00, is a panel
discussion meeting organized by the London Mathematical Society on
Mechanisms for strengthening mathematics in developing countries. This
meeting will highlight three such mechanisms,  the Mentoring African
Research in Mathematics project (MARM), the IMU Volunteer Lecturer
Program, and the work of the International Centre for Theoretical
Physics (ICTP) Trieste.  The questions to be addressed include: What
are the best mechanisms? What principles should underlie them? Are
there effective ways in which different types of project can
cooperate? How can individuals and institutions contribute to these
efforts?

The second, on Thursday 26 August from 18.00-20.00 is a Round Table
organized by CEIC and chaired by IMU President  László Lovászon The
use of metrics in evaluating research. It will be a follow-up meeting
to the IMU/ICIAM/IMS report on Citation Statistics
http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Report/CitationStatistics.pdf ,
which highlighted the dangers of uncritical use of impact factors,
which play an increasing role in funding, promotions and library
purchases.  The Round Table will consider such questions as: Are
impact factors and other such indices good measures of journal
quality, and should they be used to evaluate research and individuals?
What can be done about unethical practices like impact factor
manipulation? Is there a role for metrics in evaluating research? Are
there better alternatives?

If you are attending the ICM I hope you will consider participating in
these meetings, which concern matters of central importance to the
international mathematical community.

John Ball
Chair, IMU Committee on Electronic Information and Communication (CEIC)

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2. IMU PRIZES AND MEDALS 2010

One of the "big events" in mathematics is the quadrennial ICM Opening
Ceremony. In 2010 this takes place in Hyderabad, India, where, e.g.,
on August 19 between 9:30 and 12:30 Indian time, Shrimati Pratibha
Patil, the Honourable President of India, will give away the IMU
awards (a medal and a cheque for each of the prize winners). All
recipients will attend the ceremony, their names remain secret until
August 19.

IMU is grateful to the selection committees who have done a great job
by selecting outstanding mathematicians for the Fields Medal
(recognizing outstanding mathematical achievement), the Rolf
Nevanlinna Prize (honoring distinguished achievements in mathematical
aspects of information science), the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize (for
outstanding mathematical contributions with significant impact outside
of mathematics), and the new Chern Medal (awarded to an individual
whose accomplishments warrant the highest level of recognition for
outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics). For the Fields
Medal and the Nevanlinna Prize the 40th birthday of a recipient must
not have occurred before January 1, 2010.

The Web page with detailed information about the Prizes has been
updated and contains new photos of the medals as well as information
about the physical properties of the medals (they are all made of
gold) and the cash values of the awards. If you are interested check

http://www.mathunion.org/general/prizes
http://www.mathunion.org/general/prizes/physical-medals-and-cash-awards/

and the links on these Web pages.

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3. A CONTRIBUTION BY D.MUMFORD

David Mumford, President of IMU in the years 1995-1998, has sent the
editor the following paper, written on the occasion of the ICM in 1998.
With the ICM 2010 coming up, the editor believes his thoughts are of
interest to the readers of IMU-Net. See
http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/Trends-in-Math-ICM98.pdf

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4. IMU ON THE WEB
"The Future Impact of Internet-Based Technologies on Academic"
Abridged version of an address by Terence Tao given at a meeting of
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, on the occasion of his
induction into the Academy, October 10, 2009.

[Editor's Note:
- Terence Tao is Professor of Mathematics at University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA). He is Fields medalist 2006. His blog is
http://terrytao.wordpress.com/
- full version of the address at
http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2010/ceremony.pdf
and printed in Bulletin of the American Academy, v. 62(2) : 3-5 2010.
Short version available at the author's blog.]

"It's a great honour, both to be inducted to the Academy and to address
you all today. I must confess that while I have given over a hundred
scientific talks, this is only my second speech; and the first one was
when I was nine. So I please bear with me; I'll try not to sound like
a nine-year-old.

I would like to talk about the impact of the internet, and all the
unreasonably effective services it has spawned, from modern search
engines to Wikipedia.

We know that the internet has revolutionised area after area:
entertainment, journalism, politics will never be the same again. But
those of us in academia like to feel protected in our ivory towers
from the internet revolution, with our tenure, our expertise, and our
academic traditions. After all, our classes can't be replaced by a
Wikipedia entry, and our research can't be replaced by a search engine
- not yet, anyway.

Nevertheless, I believe major change is already underway.

Consider teaching, for instance. There is a mathematical topic -
Mobius transformations - which is taught in a thousand mathematics
departments across the world, to perhaps thirty or fifty students at a
time. I've done so myself many times.

But if you do a web search for Mobius transformations, you'll find a
beautiful video on YouTube explaining this concept clearly, which has
been viewed one million, six hundred thousand times - more people than
can be reached by ten thousand mathematics classes.

On a smaller scale, hundreds of academics (including myself) have
actively pushed their classes onto the internet, using such tools as
blogs. I have had classes with perhaps thirty local students but up to
a hundred online participants. Even after the physical class ends, the
online class goes on, with new visitors stumbling onto the class via a
search engine and continuing the conversation.

These tools can have unexpected uses; for instance, I posted a draft
of this talk online a few weeks ago, and got a tremendous amount of
valuable feedback in return.

Or consider research. This year, for instance, by ad hoc usage of
existing tools such as blogs and wikis, the first "polymath"projects
were launched - massively collaborative mathematical research
projects, completely open for any interested mathematician to drop in.

The very first such project solved a significant problem in
combinatorics after almost six weeks of effort, with almost a thousand
small but non-trivial contributions from dozens of participants. It
was a novel, transparent, and lively way to initiate and then do
mathematics. One participant even compared his anticipation to seeing
the latest developments on a polymath project to the suspense one
might feel while watching a TV or movie drama. (You had to be there, I
guess.)

Academia has not experienced massive change - on the scale of the
industrial revolution - since the invention of the printing press.
With the advent of the internet - the modern day analogue of the
printing press, among other things - could it be revolutionized once
again?"

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5. IMU BOOKLET

The International Mathematical Union has produced an information
brochure with a survey of all current IMU activities. The printed
version of this booklet
will be distributed to all participants of the International Congress
of Mathematicians 2010 in Hyderabad. The booklet can be downloaded from
http://www.mathunion.org/fileadmin/IMU/ICM2010/hyderabad_booklet.pdf

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6. A NEW PRESIDENT FOR THE EUROPEAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

The Council meeting of the European Mathematical Society, held in Sofia
(Bulgaria) on July 10-11 2010, has elected Marta Sanz-Solé as new
President of the Society for the years 2011-2014.
Marta Sanz-Solé is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Barcelona.
For more information:
http://www.euro-math-soc.eu/node/665

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7. PASSING AWAY OF PROFESSOR VLADIMIR ARNOLD

Professor Vladimir Arnold passed away on June 3, 2010. He was Vice
President of IMU (1995-98) and member of the Executive Committee of
IMU (1999-2002).
See:
http://www.gazeta.ru/science/2010/06/03_a_3379953.shtml
http://images.math.cnrs.fr/Vladimir-Igorevich-Arnold-est-mort.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/carnet/article/2010/06/03/le-mathematicien-russe-vladimir-arnold-est-mort_1367545_3382.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/science/11arnold.html

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8. KYOTO PRIZE

The Inamori Foundation promoting academic and cultural development
and international understanding, annually awards three Kyoto Prizes to those
who have contributed significantly in the categories of Advanced
Technology, Basic Sciences, and Arts and Philosophy.

The laureate for the 2010 Kyoto Prize in the category "Basic Sciences"
is IMU President László Lovász for "Outstanding Contributionsto
Mathematical Sciences Based on Discrete Optimization Algorithms".
More details can be found at:
http://www.inamori-f.or.jp/e_kp_lau_thi.html

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9. RAMANUJAN PRIZE CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

ICTP has created the Ramanujan Prize for young mathematicians from
developing countries. The Prize is funded by the Niels Henrik Abel
Memorial Fund.

The Prize is awarded annually to a researcher from a developing country
less than 45 years of age on 31 December of the year of the award, who has
conducted outstanding research in a developing country. Researchers
working in any branch of the mathematical sciences are eligible. The Prize
carries a $15,000 cash award and travel and subsistence allowance to visit
ICTP for a meeting where the Prize winner will be required to deliver a
lecture. The Prize is usually  awarded to one person, but may be shared
equally among recipients who have contributed to the same body of work.

ICTP awards the prize through a selection committee of five eminent
mathematicians appointed in conjunction with the International
Mathematical Union (IMU). The deadline for receipt of nominations for
the 2010 Prize is 30 September 2010.

Please send nominations to director en ictp.it describing the work of the
nominee in adequate detail. Two supporting letters should also be arranged.
For more information, see:
http://prizes.ictp.it/prizes/Ramanujan/

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10. SUBSCRIBING TO IMU-NET

There are two ways of subscribing to IMU-Net:

1. Click on http://www.mathunion.org/IMU-Net with a Web browser and go
to the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to IMU-Net online.

2. Send an e-mail to imu-net-request en mathunion.org with the Subject-line:
Subject: subscribe

In both cases you will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription so
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Previous issues can be seen at:
http://www.mathunion.org/imu-net/archive/
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