iciam newsletter vol. 5, no. 2, april...
TRANSCRIPT
Managing Editor
C. Sean BohunUniversity of OntarioInstitute of TechnologyFaculty of Science2000 Simcoe St. NorthOshawa, ON, Canadae-mail: [email protected]
Editor-in-Chief
Barbara Lee KeyfitzThe Ohio State UniversityDepartment of Mathematics231 West 18th AvenueColumbus, OH 43210-1174e-mail: [email protected]
Editorial Board
James M. CrowleySIAMe-mail: [email protected]
Thierry HorsinCNAM, Paris, FranceDépartement IngénierieMathématiquee-mail: [email protected]
Pammy ManchandaGuru Nanak Dev UniversityAmritsar, Punjab, IndiaDepartment of Mathematicse-mail: [email protected]
Roberto NataliniConsiglio Nazionale delleRicerche, Rome, Italy,Istituto per le Applicazionidel Calcolo “M. Picone”e-mail: [email protected]
Timo ReisUniversity of HamburgDepartment of Mathematicse-mail: [email protected]
Zdenek StrakošCharles University in PragueFaculty of Mathematics andPhysics
e-mail: [email protected]
Reporters
Iain DuffSTFC Rutherford AppletonLaboratoryHarwell OxfordDidcot, OX11 OQX, UKe-mail: [email protected]
Maria J. EstebanCEREMADEPlace du MaréchalLattre de TassignyF-75775 Paris Cedex 16,Francee-mail: [email protected]
Eunok JungKonkuk UniversityDepartment of Mathematics1, Hwayang-dong,Gwangjin-guSeoul, South Koreae-mail: [email protected]
Alexander OstermannUniversity of InnsbruckNumerical Analysis GroupDepartment of MathematicsTechnikerstraße 13/76020 Innsbruck, Austriae-mail: [email protected]
Tomás Chacón RebolloUniversidad de SevillaDepartamento deEcuaciones Diferenciales yAnálisis Numéricoe-mail: [email protected]
On the cover: the cover ofthis issue is the Catedral deValencia, also known as SaintMary’s Cathedral. Built inthe 13th century, this land-mark is a Roman Catholicparish located at coordinates39.4756◦N, 0.3774◦W.
ICIAM
The ICIAM DianoiaVol. 5, No. 2, April 2017
ICIAM Announcements — Maria J. Esteban 2ICIAM Conference Support for Applied and In-
dustrial Mathematics in Developing Countries 3CIMPA 2017 Research Schools 4The News from CIMPA — Barbara Lee Keyfitz 5International Workshop on Industrial Mathe-
matics. Valencia, May 18–19, 2017 5Call for nominations: Olga Taussky-Todd Lec-
ture 2019 6Abel Prize 2019 Press Release 6News from the ICSU — Barbara Keyfitz & Tom
Mitsui 8Young Global Changers Scholarship Programme 9Call for Nominations for ICIAM Prizes for 2019 10ICSU, ICIAM and the Gender Gap: A New
Project for ICIAM — Barbara Keyfitz 11Series: Brief Interviews with Young Mathemati-
cians: #4 — Roberto Natalini 12MCA2017 14About ICIAM 15
The ICIAM newsletter was created to express the interestsof our membership and partner organizations and the viewsexpressed in this newsletter are those of the authors anddo not necessarily represent those of ICIAM or the Edito-rial team. We welcome articles and letters from membersand associations, announcing events, on-site reports fromevents and industry news. www.iciam.orgc©2013-2017 International Council for Industrial and Ap-plied Mathematics (ICIAM). For reprint permission, adver-tising requests, potential articles and event notices, pleasecontact: [email protected]
ICIAM Announcements
ICIAM Announcementsby Maria J. Esteban
An Intense Week for the ICIAMOfficers
The week of March 6, 2017, was a very intense one for theICIAM Officers: two site-visits to the cities which are can-didates for the ICIAM 2023 Congress and the traditionalspring Officers’ meeting, all in one week.
Seoul and Tokyo are indeed the two cities which arecandidates to organize the ICIAM 2023 Congress, andas is customary, a delegation of ICIAM Officers visitedthe two cities for assessing the details of the bids. TheICIAM delegation was composed of Maria J. Esteban,president; Barbara Keyfitz, past-president; José Cumi-nato, treasurer; and Sven Leyffer, secretary.
The site-visit committee and local hosts in front of WasedaUniversity’s Okuma Auditorium —Image used withpermission.
The first site-visit was that of Seoul, on March 6thand 7th. The first day was mostly spent in the COEXconvention center, the venue proposed for the congress.The discussion and the visit to the venue facilities showed
the particulars of KSIAM’s proposal. All this will be dis-cussed in the next Board meeting, and the reports of thesite-visit committee will be circulated to the Board mem-bers, who will vote on the site. Nevertheless, we can saythat the Korean mathematical community is clearly allunited behind the project, with a strong support shownby the KMS (Korean Mathematical Society) and by allthe mathematical institutes and institutions of the coun-try. Also, there is a strong will to increase the interactionof academic mathematical scientists with Korean enter-prises, and there have been several governmental plansto help going in this direction. The political institutions(the city of Seoul and the Federal Government, during aninterview with the Minister of Science, ICT and FuturePlanning, Mr. Choi Y-H) also conveyed to us that thiscongress would mean a lot for the future of mathemat-ics in South Korea, and especially for strengthening theinteraction with Korean industry and technological devel-opment. This part of the site-visit took place during thesecond day, March 7.
The site-visit committee, local hosts and representativesfrom the Seoul Convention Center at the tour of LG Dis-play —Image used withpermission.
The site-visit was completed with an interesting visitto LG Display, a company which revolutionizes the worldof displays with very advanced technology. The atmo-sphere was very pleasant all along the site-visit. And wewere all the time surrounded by mathematicians (repre-sentatives of the bidding committee, both from KSIAMand KMS) and also members of their PCO (ProfessionalCongress Organizer). We had a good glimpse of whathave been the developments of applied and industrialmathematics in the country in the last decade, and alsothe projects for the future. The site-visit was supple-mented with a half-day workshop containing some presen-tations (both by Korean mathematicians describing vari-ous projects of industrial collaboration, and one by SvenLeyffer) and a round table about industrial mathematics,
2 ICIAM Newsletter April 2017
ICIAM Conference Support for Applied and Industrial Mathematics in Developing Countries
where Maria J. Esteban and several mathematicians andrepresentatives from South Korean industry participated.
The close vicinity of Seoul and Tokyo facilitated theorganization of the two site-visits one after the other. Thesite-visit to Tokyo took place on March 9 and 10. Hereagain we had a very pleasant two days to get acquaintedwith the details of another very good bid for ICIAM 2023.The Japanese bid is very different in nature from the Ko-rean bid. This time we spent most of our time in or aroundthe Waseda University campus, the proposed venue forthe congress. Here also, the first day was devoted to a de-tailed presentation of the bid, both by the organizers andby representatives of the Tokyo tourism and visitors bu-reau. We also received a presentation of Japanese math-ematical history and the current landscape, by a past-president of JMS (Japanese Mathematical Society) andmany discussions, followed by a visit to the venue facili-ties. The presentations showed once again that the wholeJapanese mathematical community is behind the projectand that all mathematical institutions are willing to par-ticipate in the effort. Actually, in this case, the bid isjointly made by the two Japanese members of ICIAM,the JSIAM and the JMS. The ICIAM delegation was alsomade aware of the traditional strong industrial links ofJSIAM. On March 10th, the ICIAM delegation met withMr. Y. Tsuruho, Minister of Science and Technology ofJapan, who, as in the Korean case, expressed the verystrong support of the country for the celebration of theICIAM congress in Tokyo and the reasons for that. Also,as in Seoul, the last afternoon was devoted, among otherthings, to a workshop which complemented the site-visit.
In this case, Barbara Keyfitz and José Cuminato madepresentations, together with two Japanese mathemati-cians.
The day between the two site-visits was used by theOfficers to have the traditional spring Officers’ meetingthat is devoted to the preparation of the annual Boardmeeting. This meeting was joined by the two officers-at-large, Tom Mitsui and Volker Mehrmann (on remotemode). The agenda for the board meeting was preparedin detail, as well as the list of papers that will be sent toall Council members in the coming weeks.
The ICIAM site-visit committee with Takeshi Ogita andNaoya Yamanaka —Image used with permission.
Last but not least, the visit to Tokyo was the occa-sion to meet Takeshi Ogita and Naoya Yamanaka, whoso efficiently take care of the ICIAM server. The Officersdiscussed with them some projects about the hosting ofICIAM’s website, domains and email accounts, and ex-pressed to them ICIAM’s thanks for their valuable help.
ICIAM Conference Support for Applied and IndustrialMathematics in Developing CountriesCALL FOR APPLICATIONS
ICIAM has a small budget (up to USD 10,500 per year)that is available to help organizers of conferences, work-shops and research schools to include additional delegatesfrom developing countries. Organizers of meetings, whowish to take advantage of this support, are encouragedto apply by sending an e-mail to the ICIAM Secretary([email protected]). The level of support is USD3,500 per conference, to be used to provide ICIAM Fel-lowships to selected participants from developing coun-tries.Applications may be submitted at any time. There arethree deadlines per year (31 March, 31 July and 30
November); the ICIAM Officers decide on which appli-cations to support within a month of each deadline. Toallow for orderly budgeting and planning, proposals forevents in a given year should be submitted no later thanthe year before the event. Preference is given to eventsheld in developing countries, and applicants should indi-cate how they plan to use the fellowship funds.
Full details can be found on the ICIAM website,at www . iciam . org / iciam - conference - support -applied-and-industrial-mathematics-developing-countries
ICIAM Newsletter April 2017 3
International Workshop on Industrial Mathematics. Valencia, May 18–19, 2017
The News from CIMPAby Barbara Lee Keyfitz
ICIAM is a Scientific Partner of CIMPA (in English, theInternational Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics).CIMPA’s principal activity is running advanced schoolsfor graduate students and researchers in developing coun-tries. The colorful poster accompanying this article givesan indication of the scope and variety of their programs.(We note that the workshop in Meknes in May has re-ceived some support from the ICIAM DCS funding pro-gram.)
Once a year, CIMPA accepts new proposals for schools
and workshops. The next opportunity will be funding forprograms in 2019; a call will be issued around the middleof April, 2017. (www.cimpa.info) Please read the infor-mation if you are considering an activity of this type.
The next General Assembly (GA) of CIMPA will takeplace on June 30, 2017 at 01:00 pm, at IHP, Rue Pierre etMarie Curie, 75005 Paris. The General Assembly is usu-ally a routine administrative meeting; scientific decisionsare made by the scientific committee. At this time theagenda of the GA has not yet been published.
AnnouncementInternational Workshop on Industrial Mathematics. Valencia,
May 18–19, 2017.Organized by Association ICIAM2019-Valencia
Following tradition, the ICIAM Board meeting for 2017 will be preceded by a two-day workshop. Both will take place on the campus of Valencia University.
The workshop will deal with both scientific and management/funding aspects ofIndustrial Mathematics. Interested speakers are welcome, and are invited to contactany of the committee members below.
Scientific Committee:
María J. EstebanTomás ChacónBarbara KeyfitzTaketomo MitsuiVolker MehrmannPeregrina Quintela
Local Committee:
Rosa DonatPep MuletJose MasSergio BlanesFrancisco G. Morillas
Administrative contact: Teresa Ayuga, [email protected]
ICIAM Newsletter April 2017 5
Abel Prize 2019 Press Release
Call for nominations: Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture 2019by Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture Committee
The Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture is held every four yearsat the International Congress on Industrial and AppliedMathematics (ICIAM). This honor is conferred on awoman who has made outstanding contributions in ap-plied mathematics and/or scientific computation. The lec-ture is named in tribute to the memory of Olga Taussky-Todd, whose scientific legacy is in both theoretical and ap-plied mathematics, and whose work exemplifies the qual-ities to be recognized.
The Officers and board of ICIAM now call for nomina-tions for the Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture, to be given atICIAM 2019 congress, to take place in Valencia (Spain)from July 15 to July 19, 2019.
A nomination will consist of:
1. Full name and address of person nominated;2. Web page if any;3. Justification for nomination (in at most two pages,
cite nominator’s reason for considering candidate tobe deserving, including explanations of the scientificand practical influence of the candidate’s work andpublications);
4. 2–3 letters of support from experts in the field(not mandatory). Each of them having a maximumlength of two pages;
5. CV of the nominee;6. Name and contact details of the proposer.
Please contact [email protected] if you have anyquestions regarding the nomination procedure.
The selection process is conducted by the Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture Committee. The Committee for the 2019Lecture consists of:
Liliana Borcea, (Chair) University of Michigan;Raymond Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong;Ingrid Daubechies, Duke University;Nick Higham, University of Manchester;Sofia C. Ohlede, University of College London;Anna Karin Tornberg, KTH, Stockholm.
Nominations should be made electronically through thewebsite iciamprizes.org. The deadline for nominationsis September 30, 2017.
ICIAM, the International Council for Industrial and Ap-plied Mathematics, is the world organization for appliedand industrial mathematics. Its members are mathemati-cal societies based in more than 30 countries. For more in-formation, see the Council’s web page at www.iciam.org
Maria J. Esteban, ICIAM President
Abel Prize 2019 Press ReleaseYves Meyer receives the Abel Prize
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has de-cided to award the Abel Prize for 2017 to Yves Meyer (77)of the École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, France, “forhis pivotal role in the development of the mathematicaltheory of wavelets.”
Yves Meyer was the visionary leader in the moderndevelopment of this theory, at the intersection of math-ematics, information technology and computational sci-ence.
Wavelet analysis has been applied in a wide varietyof arenas as diverse as applied and computational har-monic analysis, data compression, noise reduction, med-
ical imaging, archiving, digital cinema, deconvolution ofthe Hubble space telescope images, and the recent LIGOdetection of gravitational waves created by the collisionof two black holes.
The President of the Norwegian Academy of Scienceand Letters, Ole M. Sejersted, announced the winner ofthe 2017 Abel Prize at the Academy in Oslo today, 21March.
Yves Meyer will receive the Abel Prize from HisMajesty King Harald V at an award ceremony in Osloon 23 May.
The Abel Prize recognizes contributions of extraordi-nary depth and influence to the mathematical sciencesand has been awarded annually since 2003. It carries a
6 ICIAM Newsletter April 2017
Abel Prize 2019 Press Release
cash award of 6 million NOK (about 675,000 Euro or715,000 USD).
An Intellectual NomadHaving made important contributions to the field of num-ber theory early in his career, Meyer’s boundless en-ergy and curiosity prompted him to work on methods forbreaking down complex mathematical objects into sim-pler wavelike components — a topic called harmonic anal-ysis. This led him in turn to help construct a theory foranalysing complicated signals, with important ramifica-tions for computer and information technologies. Thenhe moved on again to tackle fundamental problems in themathematics of fluid flow. “During my professional life Iobsessively tried to cross the frontiers,” he says.
Meyer’s work has a relevance extending from theoret-ical areas of mathematics to the development of practicaltools in computer and information science. As such it isa perfect example of the claim that work in pure mathe-matics often turns out to have important and useful real-world applications.
Yves Meyer has inspired a generation of mathemati-cians who have gone on to make contributions in theirown right. His collaborator on wavelet theory StéphaneMallat calls him a “visionary” whose work cannot be la-
belled either pure or applied mathematics, nor computerscience either, but simply “amazing.”
Biography
Yves Meyer, born 19 July 1939 of French nationality, grewup in Tunis on the North African coast. He entered theélite École normale supérieure de la rue d’Ulm in Parisin 1957, coming first in the entrance examination. Af-ter graduating, Meyer completed his military service as ateacher in a military school. He obtained his PhD in 1966from the University of Strasbourg.
He became a professor of mathematics first at the Uni-versité Paris-Sud, as it is now known, (1966-1980), thenthe École Polytechnique (1980-1986), and the Univer-sité Paris-Dauphine (1986-1995). He moved to the Écolenormale supérieure Cachan (recently renamed the ENSParis-Saclay) in 1995, where he worked at the Centre ofMathematics and its Applications (CMLA) until formallyretiring in 2008. But he is still an associate member of theresearch centre.
Awards and Recognitions
Yves Meyer has been a member of the French Académiedes Sciences since 1993. In 1994 he was elected foreignhonorary member of the American Academy of Arts andSciences and became a foreign associate of the US Na-tional Academy of Sciences in 2014.
Yves Meyer became a fellow of the American Mathe-matical Society in 2012. He was an invited speaker at theInternational Congress of Mathematicians in 1970 (Nice),in 1983 (Warsaw), and in 1990 (Kyoto). He was an invitedspeaker at the International Congress of MathematicalPhysics in 1988 (Swansea).
His prizes include the Salem (1970) and Gauss (2010)prizes, the latter awarded jointly by the InternationalMathematical Union and the German Mathematical Soci-ety for advances in mathematics that have had an impactoutside the field.
The Abel Prize
The Abel Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Academy ofScience and Letters. The choice of laureate is based on therecommendation of the Abel Committee, which is com-posed of five internationally recognized mathematicians.The members of the current committee are: John Rognes(chair), Marta Sanz-Solé, Luigi Ambrosio, Marie-FranceVignéras and Ben J. Green.
The Abel Prize and associated events are funded bythe Norwegian Government
For more information about the laureate, his achieve-ments and the Abel Prize, please consult the Abel Prizewebsite www.abelprize.no
ICIAM Newsletter April 2017 7
News from the ICSU
News from the ICSUby Barbara Keyfitz & Tom Mitsui
Matters concerning ICSU have been much on our mindsfor the past few months. What has occupied most ofour attention is ICIAM’s participation in a newly fundedICSU project on the “Gender Gap,” which is described ina separate article in this issue of DIANOIA. But thereis much more. ICSU itself is contemplating merging withits counterpart in the social sciences, ISSC. In previous is-sues, we have reported on preliminary meetings, includingan extraordinary General Assembly, where it was decidedto move the process forward along two lines via two work-ing groups, a Strategy Working Group (SWG) devoted toformulating a rationale for the new council, and a Transi-tion Task Force (TTF) tasked with developing the logis-tics of the merger. ICIAM is particularly interested in thesecond, as our status within the current ICSU hierarchyis that of “Associate Member” only, and it is currentlyunclear what will become of this membership class. TheTTF has not yet issued a report, but a draft of the SWG’sdocument, Advancing Science as a Global Public Good,has just been circulated to ICSU members, and our ICSUCommittee is currently studying it. It’s rather long for amission statement, and contains the premise that the neworganization will consider itself a “Council.” We have beeninvited to comment on the document, and will prepare asummary of the draft, and our comments on it, for thenext issue of DIANOIA.
Meanwhile, the ICIAM ICSU Committee is renewingitself. Members of ICIAM committees are expected toserve four-year terms, and the terms of some of our “char-ter members” will end this year (at the end of September).As co-chairs of the committee, we thank all those mem-bers for helping the committee get started, and extendour best wishes to those members who are leaving thecommittee after one term. We have issued invitations toseveral member societies to propose new committee mem-bers, and, consistent with the inclusive climate of ICIAM,we extend a general invitation to all member societies tovolunteer for this committee. We will announce the newroster after the Board meeting in May.
Although the Gender Gap project is not the firstICSU-supported effort that has involved ICIAM (therehave been two workshops, both initiated by the IMU butwith strong involvement by the applied mathematics com-munity of ICIAM), it is by far the largest, and it is thefirst time that ICIAM, through ICSU, will have been partof a policy-oriented (rather than research- or education-oriented) project. To what extent does ICIAM’s partici-pation in such an effort add value to the outcome? Andhow much is this seen by our members as an importantaspect of ICIAM’s function? Our committee will be re-sponsible for evaluating these questions.
When the US President issued an Executive Order in
January, calling for a travel ban on entry into the UnitedStates, the officers were approached about issuing a state-ment decrying this action. (Of course, the matter wasrendered moot shortly afterward when a US court struckdown the travel ban. However, it has since been re-issued,and is again being held up, so the matter is not resolved.)According to the by-laws and the opinions of the Board,the officers are not justified in making statements on top-ics of this sort without consulting the Board, and clearlythere was not an opportunity to do that in a timely way.However, ICSU, in a few days, made a very strong state-ment, “ICSU calls on the government of the United Statesto rescind the Executive Order ‘Protecting the Nationfrom Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’.”
Finally, and for information purposes only since thedeadline will be behind us by the time you see this an-nouncement, we draw your attention to an opportunity wereceived notice of on April 2, the “Young Global ChangersScholarship Programme.” We are reprinting the flyer toshow the ICIAM community some of the initiatives whereISCU is focusing its resources. This scholarship opportu-nity brings to the fore the interaction of scientific andengineering topics with policy issues.
Barbara Lee Keyfitz is theDr. Charles Saltzer Professorof Mathematics at the OhioState University. She has aPhD from New York Uni-versity, and works in partialdifferential equations. She isthe Past-President of ICIAM.
Taketomo (Tom) Mitsuiis Professor Emeritus ofNagoya University, Nagoya,Japan. He received his doc-toral degree from Kyoto Uni-versity and has been engagedwith several universities, thelast one was Doshisha Uni-versity, Kyoto, Japan. Hismain research interest is nu-merical analysis of ordinarydifferential equations and re-lated topics. He is a Fellow ofthe Japan Society for indus-trial and Applied Mathemat-
ics, and is currently servingICIAM as Officer-at-Large.
8 ICIAM Newsletter April 2017
YOUNG GLOBAL CHANGERS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME
Background
In the context of Germany's G20 presidency in 2017, the Think 20 (T20) network of premier Think Tanks from the G20 economies will gather on 29-30 May 2017 in Berlin. Having GLOBAL SOLUTIONS as its motto, the Think 20 Summit will bring together the world’s foremost think tank experts and Nobel Laureates to deliver implementable policy recommendations for G20 leaders. Objective
The Think 20 Summit GLOBAL SOLUTIONS is committed to involve the views and ideas of the next generation into global problem-solving. To do so, we encourage the most promising young talents to apply for the Young Global Changers scholarship programme. Outstanding early-career professionals (researchers, entrepreneurs, technology experts and journalists) from all over the world who are working on a project or research topic that addresses one or more of the key challenges of human development (i.e. globalisation, migration, climate change, digitalisation) on a local, national or international level are invited to apply. The Young Global Changers will be able to attend the conference in Berlin and get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Nobel Laureates and pitch their ideas and projects to renowned experts of world-leading think tanks. They will take part in a number of dedicated side events from 28-31 May 2017 particularly targeted at them and become part of an exclusive network of like-minded professionals. Selection Process
Interested early-career professionals are invited to apply using the online application form. Deadline for applications is 12 PM (CET) on Monday, 10 April 2017.
Scholarship recipients will be selected by the Young Global Changers jury, composed of one representative from each of the organising and sponsoring institutions. The scholarship will cover accommodation for three nights including breakfast, conference fees and meals. Scholarship recipients will also receive a lump-sum, depending on the location of origin, to contribute to travel expenses.
Call for Nominations for ICIAM Prizes for 2019
Call for Nominations for ICIAM Prizes for 2019by ICIAM Prize Committee
The ICIAM Prize Committee for 2019 calls for nomina-tions for the five ICIAM Prizes to be awarded in 2019 (theCollatz Prize, the Lagrange Prize, the Maxwell Prize, thePioneer Prize and the Su Buchin Prize). Each ICIAMPrize has its own special character, but each one is trulyinternational in character. Nominations are therefore wel-comed from every part of the world. A nomination shouldtake into account the specifications for a particular prize(see www.iciam.org/iciam-prizes and see below), andshould contain the following information:
• Full name and address of person nominated;• Web home page if any;• Name of particular ICIAM Prize;• Proposed citation (concise statement about the out-
standing contribution in fewer than 250 words);• Justification for the nomination (cite nominator’s
reason for considering candidate to be deserving, in-cluding explanations of the scientific and practicalinfluence of the candidate’s work and publications);
• CV of the nominee;• 2–3 letters of support from experts in the field
and/or 2–3 names of experts to be consulted by thePrize Committee;
• Name and contact details of the proposer.
Nominations should be made electronically through thewebsite iciamprizes.org. The deadline for nominationsis July 15th, 2017. Please contact [email protected] you have any question regarding the nomination proce-dure.
ICIAM Prize committee:Committee chair: Maria J. Esteban; Zdeněk Strakoš(Chair of Collatz Prize Subcommittee) Alexan-dre Chorin (Chair of Lagrange Prize Subcommit-tee) Alexander Mielke (Chair of Maxwell PrizeSubcommittee) Denis Talay (Chair of PioneerPrize Subcommittee) Zuowei Shen (Chair of SuBuchin Prize Subcommittee) Margaret H. Wright.
ICIAM, the International Council for Industrial and Ap-plied Mathematics, is the world organization for appliedand industrial mathematics. Its members are mathemati-cal societies based in more than 25 countries. For more in-formation, see the Council’s web page at www.iciam.org.
Maria J. EstebanPresident of ICIAM
Prizes’ Descriptions
ICIAM Collatz Prize The Collatz Prize was estab-lished to provide international recognition to individualscientists under 42 years of age for outstanding work onindustrial and applied mathematics. A recipient’s 42ndbirthday must not occur before 1st January of the yearin which the prize is presented.
ICIAM Lagrange Prize The Lagrange Prize was estab-lished to provide international recognition to individualmathematicians who have made an exceptional contribu-tion to applied mathematics throughout their careers.
ICIAM Maxwell Prize The Maxwell Prize was estab-lished to provide international recognition to a math-ematician who has demonstrated originality in appliedmathematics.
ICIAM Pioneer Prize The Pioneer Prize was estab-lished for pioneering work introducing applied mathemat-ical methods and scientific computing techniques to anindustrial problem area or a new scientific field of appli-cations.
ICIAM Su Buchin Prize Established in 2003 to pro-vide international recognition of an outstanding contribu-tion by an individual in the application of mathematicsto emerging economies and human development, in par-ticular at the economic and cultural level in developingcountries. This includes efforts to improve mathematicalresearch and teaching in those countries.
10 ICIAM Newsletter April 2017
ICSU, ICIAM and the Gender Gap: A New Project for ICIAM
ICSU, ICIAM and the Gender Gap: A New Project forICIAM
by Barbara Keyfitz
ICIAM is a partner in a major initiative, funded by ICSUand involving a number of the international unions inICSU, along with other supporting organizations. Theproject has the title A Global Approach to the GenderGap in Mathematical and Natural Sciences: How to Mea-sure It? How to Reduce It?
As the title suggests, this project aims to perform ascientifically valid study of gender discrepancies in thesciences that will be consistent across disciplines and in-ternational in scope. In addition, it will research interven-tions aimed at increasing the number of women in science.The IMU and IUPAC (Chemistry) are the lead organi-zations, joined by IUPAP (Physics), IAU (Astronomy),IUBS (Biological Sciences), ICIAM, UNESCO and Gen-derInSITE. A proposal was submitted to ICSU at thebeginning of October, 2016, and in early February welearned that it has been supported at the level of 300,000Euros for the next three years. Additional support, com-mitted and anticipated, by the organizations involved willbring the total funding to 450,000 Euros. The ICIAM of-ficers plan to ask the Board, at the May Board Meeting,to offer support of 5,000 Euros per year for three years.
The project itself is structured around three specificobjectives. Task 1 is a joint global survey, patterned af-ter a narrower survey of the international physics com-munity (see www.aip.org) carried out a few years ago.That survey had 15,000 respondents (both women andmen) from 130 countries, and collected data that has nowbeen extensively analysed. Task 2 is a joint data-backedstudy on publication patterns. This also takes its leadfrom a smaller but well-regarded study, of publicationpatterns in core mathematics, which was published a fewmonths ago “The Effect of Gender in the Publication Pat-terns in Mathematics,” Helena Mihaljević-Brandt, LucíaSantamaría and Marco Tullney, PLoS One, October 25,2016). Finally, the third task proposes to create an onlinedatabase of good practices for girls and young women,parents and organizations, hosted by the IMU but seek-ing contributions from all disciplines. To the best of myknowledge, no prototype for this sort of database exists,and this task forms the most open-ended part of theproject.
Most of the organizations participating in this projectwill be familiar to the ICIAM community, as the interna-tional unions are among the members of ICSU. The unionmost familiar to many ICIAM members, IUTAM (Me-chanics), is not a principal in the initiative, but will fol-low it as an observer. A participant whose mission may be
new to most of us (including this writer) is GenderInSITE(science, innovation, technology and engineering), an or-ganization with headquarters at ICTP in Trieste that fo-cuses on bringing more women into decision-making onscience-related topics in the developing world. In addi-tion, the project expects to enlist the help of a social-science-based network, GGD (Gender, Globalisation andDemocratisation) sponsored by the International SocialScience Council, with which ICSU is pursuing a merger.
When ICIAM was offered the opportunity to join theproject, shortly before the deadline, the officers consultedwith each other and with the ICSU Committee, andthe idea of participating received overwhelming support.While we could not pledge any resources without approvalfrom the Board, we did make the commitment to requestthe same amount that IUPAP, IAU and IUBS have pro-vided. The lead organizations are supplying somewhatmore (60,000 Euros from IMU and 30,000 from IUPAC).The majority of the money will be spent on designing,administering and analyzing the global survey and thestudy on publication patterns; the remainder on meet-ings of the working groups, and on communication anddissemination of the results.
Jean Taylor —Image used with permission.
ICIAM Newsletter April 2017 11
Series: Brief Interviews with Young Mathematicians: #4
Each of the eight groups charged with carrying outthe project has designated a coordinator, with the over-all management in the hands of Marie-Françoise Roy,Chair of the IMU’s Committee for Women in Mathemat-ics. ICIAM has been fortunate that Jean Taylor (Rutgersand NYU), whose career profile includes both research inapplied analysis and materials science and leadership inwomen’s organizations (member society AWM) and in-terdisciplinary societies (AAAS), is assuming the role ofcoordinator for ICIAM’s part in the project. In the pro-posal, ICIAM undertook to contribute to tasks 2 and 3.Our members’ expertise in data analysis provides oppor-tunities to contribute to quantitative aspects of the pro-gram, and, collectively, we can supply something more: a“link between academia and companies.” Readers may re-call the successful collaboration with ICMI (mathematicsinstruction) and the publication Educational Interfacesbetween Mathematics and Industry that serves as a modelfor how we have worked with our counterparts in otherunions.
This project is bringing together a large group of peo-ple (besides the eight coordinators, there is a group often people who have already signed up to work activelyon the project, and a growing group of people, women andmen, who are available if called upon for advice), many ofwhom have never met, let alone worked with each other.Things are getting started quickly, with deadline pres-sures already being felt, via a planning meeting in Paris atthe beginning of June. At that meeting, individual tasks,timelines and responsibilities will be negotiated.
The enthusiastic endorsement of the project from ev-
eryone in the ICIAM community with whom we consultedhas convinced the officers that our members will see thevalue of this project. It is not too early for us to inviteanyone who would like to be involved, at any level, to con-tact any of the officers about their interest. Jean has alsoinvited any reader who wants to put their name forwardas a possible resource to contact her directly ([email protected]). After the Paris meeting we will have abetter idea of the details of how the work will be car-ried out, and how we may best assist. We look forward tosharing this news with ICIAM members as we learn it.
Finally, it is probably not necessary to say this: one ofthe motivations for the project is that the full participa-tion of women in the scientific workforce is a benefit notonly to individual women and girls but to all of society.For that reason, the project welcomes the participationof all, women and men, in accomplishing its goals.
Barbara Lee Keyfitz is theDr. Charles Saltzer Professorof Mathematics at the OhioState University. She has aPhD from New York Uni-versity, and works in partialdifferential equations. She isthe Past-President of ICIAM.
Series: Brief Interviews with Young Mathematicians: #4by Roberto Natalini
DIANOIA is publishing a series of interviews with youngapplied mathematicians. Here Roberto Natalini inter-views Simone Göttlich, Full Professor for Scientific Com-puting at University of Mannheim in Germany.
Q: How did you decide to become a mathematician? Whathas been the influence of your parents?A: My mother (commercial assistant) wanted me tobecome a banker while my father (electrical engineer)pushed me into the direction of a computer scientist. Iguess, studying math was a good compromise.
Q: Could you mention some people who have been impor-tant for your education?A: Spontaneously I would say my elementary schoolteacher, a really strong woman, that discovered my talent
to play with numbers and my high school math teacherwho was simply a very cool guy.Q: To be a woman has been a problem to choose mathe-matics as a profession? And in your career?A: Honestly, I never thought about this issue.Q: What is your main focus in mathematics, the maindirection in your research?A: My scientific interests cover the research areas math-ematical modeling with differential equations, numericalsimulation and optimization with applications to manu-facturing systems, traffic and pedestrian flow, and furtherengineering applications.Q: Could you single out your best achievement up to now,something you are really proud of?
12 ICIAM Newsletter April 2017
Series: Brief Interviews with Young Mathematicians: #4
A: My daughter. Everything else is work in progress.Please ask me again in a couple of years.Q: You have a strong focus on applications. Why are youinterested in this direction? Also, according to you, isthere a separation between applied and industrial math?A: This might be not typical for a mathematician, but Iget inspired by applications. In my point of view appli-cations represent an unlimited source of interesting, chal-lenging and exciting problems due to its interdisciplinarynature and diversity.A separation between applied and industrial math isprobably a matter of taste. Industrial math seek soft-ware or scientific consulting solutions while applied mathis more concerned with the development of a researchframework implying emerging techniques and methods.Q: What are the main skills that are necessary to be agood applied mathematician?
A: A good applied mathematician should be curious, crit-ical thinking, persistent, open-minded and, last but notleast, a passionate teacher.Q: Are you able to directly interact with your industrial
partners, do you need some intermediate collaborators totranslate math in practical implementations?A: Industry contacts may take various forms, e.g. studentprojects (internship, master thesis), workshops or jointresearch projects. In most cases, the contact is direct andtherefore requires good communication skills. The latteris, by the way, a further characteristic for a good appliedmathematician.Q: How do you spend your time when you are not work-ing?A: Currently, I try to solve my personal time managementproblem, where the most important restriction is to spendas much time as possible with my one year old daughter.Q: Have you other interests or hobbies? Who are yourfavorite writers?A: I really love doing sports. When I was younger, I wasquite a good tennis player and I also joined a handballteam. However, after several injuries, I have changed tomore smooth sports such as running and biking.My favorite writer is Ferdinand von Schirach, a Germanlawyer. He is able to explain complex and challenging le-gal problems in a fascinating manner.Q: Finally, a last general question. What do you wish forMathematics in in the next few years?A: Currently, there is a measurable awareness for mathas a key technology. But we need more positive visibil-ity and attractive role models for the young generation.Unfortunately, mathematicians tend to undervalue them-selves. We need to be more confident, more energetic andprobably more enthusiastic — in particular in the public’seye!
Roberto Natalini received hisPhD in Mathematics fromthe University of Bordeaux(France) in 1986. He is di-rector of the Istituto perle Applicazioni del Calcolo“Mauro Picone” of the Na-tional Research Council ofItaly since 2014. His researchthemes include: fluid dynam-ics, road traffic, semicon-ductors, chemical damage ofmonuments, and biomathe-matics. He is Chair of theRaising Awareness Commit-
tee of the European Math-ematical Society, and coor-dinates the web site Mathe-matics in Europe mathematics-in-europe.eu.
Subscribing to the ICIAM NewsletterThe ICIAM Newsletter appears quarterly, in electronicform, in January, April, July and October. Issues areposted on the ICIAM Web Page at iciam.org/dianoia.If you would like to be notified by e-mail when a new
issue is available, please subscribe to the Newsletter.There is no charge for subscriptions. To subscribe or un-subscribe, visit the webpage given above.
ICIAM Newsletter April 2017 13
About ICIAM
About ICIAMThe International Council for Industrial and AppliedMathematics (ICIAM) is a worldwide organization forprofessional applied mathematics societies. Its membersare national and regional societies dedicated to appliedand industrial mathematics, and other societies with asignificant interest in industrial or applied mathematics.
ICIAM is governed by a Board comprising representa-tives of its member societies. Programs run by ICIAM,and the By-Laws of the organization, can be found onthe ICIAM web page, www.iciam.org.
The Full Members and their representativesANZIAM (Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Ap-plied Mathematics): Ian H. Sloan and Michael PlankASAMACI (Asociación Argentina de Matemática AplicadaComputacional e Industrial): Rubén Daniel SpiesCAIMS-SCMAI (Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathe-matics Society, Société Canadienne de Mathématiques Ap-pliquées et Industrielles): Raymond SpiteriCSCM (Chinese Society for Computational Mathematics):Xuejun XuCSIAM (China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathe-matics): Pingwen Zhang and Xiao-Shan GaoECMI (European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry):Michael GüntherESMTB (European Society for Mathematical and Theoret-ical Biology): Andrea De GaetanoGAMM (Gesellschaft für Angewandte Mathematik undMechanik): Peter Benner and Sergio ContiIMA (Institute of Mathematics and its Applications): IainS. Duff and David AbrahamsISIAM (Indian Society of Industrial and Applied Mathemat-ics): Abul Hasan Siddiqi and Pammy ManchandaJSIAM (Japan Society for Industrial and Applied Mathe-matics): Shin’ichi Oishi and Hiroshi KokubuKSIAM (Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathe-matics): Chang Ock LeeMOS (Mathematical Optimization Society): Karen AardalROMAI (Societatea Română de Matematică Aplicată şi In-dustrială): Costica MorosanuSBMAC (Sociedade Brasileira de Matemática Aplicada eComputacional): Paulo Fernando de Arruda ManceraSEMA (Sociedad Española de Matematica Aplicada): RosaDonatSIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics):Nicholas Higham and Cynthia PhillipsSIMAI (Società Italiana di Matematica Applicata e Indus-triale): Alessandro Speranza and Giovanni RussoSMAI (Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Indus-trielles): Fatiha Alabau-Boussouira and Thierry HorsinSPMAC (Sociedad Peruana de Matemática Aplicada yComputacional): Obidio Rubio MercedesVSAM (Vietnamese Society for Applications of Mathemat-ics): Lê Hùng Són
The Associate Members and their representativesAIRO (Associazione Italiana di Ricerca Operativa): AnnaSciomachenAMS (American Mathematical Society): CatherineRobertsAWM (Association for Women in Mathematics): BarbaraLee KeyfitzChinaMS (Chinese Mathematical Society): Ya-xiang YuanCMS-SMC (Canadian Mathematical Society, Société Cana-dienne de Mathématiques): Elena BravermanCzechMS (Czech Mathematical Society): Zdeněk StrakošDMF-DMS (Dansk Matematisk Forening - Danish Mathe-matical Society): Poul HjorthDMV (Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung): GüntherLeugeringEMS (European Mathematical Society): Franco BrezziENBIS (European Network for Business and IndustrialStatistics): Rainer GöbFMS-SMY-FMF (Finnish Mathematical Society, Suomenmatemaattinen yhdistys, Finlands matematiska förening):Samuli SiltananIMS (Institute of Mathematical Statistics): Hans RudolfKünschIMU (Israel Mathematical Union): Amy Novick-CohenKMS (Korean Mathematical Society):LMS (London Mathematical Society): Stephen HuggettMSJ (Mathematical Society of Japan): Yoichi MiyaokaNMF (Norwegian Mathematical Society): Elena CelledoniÖMG (Österreichische Mathematische Gesellschaft):Alexander OstermannPTM (Polskie Towarzystwo Matematyczne (Polish Mathe-matical Society)): Łukasz StettnerRSME (Real Sociedad Matemática Española): MercedesSiles MolinaSingMS (Singapore Mathematical Society): Weizhu BaoSMF (Société Mathématique de France): Bernard HelfferSMG-SMS (Schweizerische Mathematische Gesellschaft -Société Mathématique Suisse - Swiss Mathematical Soci-ety): Jean-Paul BerrutSMM (Sociedad Matemática Mexicana): Jorge X. Velasco-HernandezSPM (Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemática): FernandoPestaña da CostaSvMS (Swedish Mathematical Society, Svenska matematik-ersamfundet): Åke BrännströmUMI (Unione Matematica Italiana): Adriana Garroni
The current Officers of ICIAMPresident: Maria J. Esteban, FrancePast President: Barbara Lee Keyfitz, USASecretary: Sven Leyffer, USATreasurer: Jose Alberto Cuminato, BrazilMembers-at-Large: Taketomo (Tom) Mitsui, Japan andVolker Mehrmann, Germany
ICIAM Newsletter April 2017 15
