March 13, 2012
Letter to Presidents and Representatives of Member Societies of ICIAM
Keyfitz Letter Number 1 2012 03 13
Dear Society President, Dear Representative of a Member Society,
I send you my first letter as the new president of ICIAM - a little late perhaps but
still in time I hope to help you plan your trip to Kyoto at the beginning of June.
Topics of this letter:
1) Board Meeting in Kyoto, 2 June, 2012
2) Kyoto Workshop, 31 May - 1 June, 2012: Call for Speakers (Deadline April 30)
3) Call for Bids for ICIAM 2019 (Deadline June 1)
4) Call for Developing Countries Conference Support (Deadline May 15)
5) Report on Journal Ranking Blog
6) Report on Officers Meeting, January 21-22, 2012
7) Call for Agenda Items for Kyoto
8) Nominations for the Abel Prize
9) Call for sessions for MCA
10) Request to check and update information
11) Access to the internal website
1) The 2012 Board Meeting will take place in Kyoto, Japan, on June 2, 2012,
from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. All ICIAM member society representatives are
expected to attend. Please notify the secretary, (Alistair Fitt <afitt [at] brookes.ac.uk (afitt[at]brookes[dot]ac[dot]uk)>),
if you expect to bring any guests. Hotel room reservations should be made by
individual attendees. Here is the procedure: First contact the RIMS secretariat,
at  kokusai [at] kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp (kokusai[at]kurims[dot]kyoto-u[dot]ac[dot]jp) for instructions on how to obtain a discount at the
Best Western. Further details are at the Meeting Web Page
http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~okamoto/ICIAM.htm
The meeting will take place in the Kyoto University Clock Tower, and will be followed
by a dinner, featuring traditional Kyoto cuisine.
Further information about RIMS, Kyoto, and travel to Kyoto can be found at
http://www.kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/access-01.html
This is an important meeting, as pre-proposals to host ICIAM 2019 will be considered
and a decision made on which locations to consider further.
Please read the next item about the workshop as well.
2) The two days before the Board meeting -- May 31 and June 1 -- there will be a
workshop,
Methods and Applications of Industrial and Applied Mathematics
at Kyoto University. The purpose of the workshop is to tell our hosts something
about the research done by representatives, and to learn something about the
research interests of the Kyoto community. BOARD MEMBERS WHO PLAN TO
ATTEND THE MEETING ARE ENCOURAGED TO VOLUNTEER TO GIVE TALKS.
Please contact Professor Okamoto (okamoto [at] kurims.kyoto-u.ac.jp (okamoto[at]kurims[dot]kyoto-u[dot]ac[dot]jp)) with a title
and abstract, before the end of April. Professor Okamoto tells me there will be
space for 25 talks, and the selection will be "first come, first served", so do not
delay!
3) ICIAM is soliciting pre-proposals to host the Congress ICIAM 2019. Details of
the bidding process can be found at
/Bidding/iciam_bidfor2019.pdf
For the planning of the Board meeting, it would be advantageous to know,at least on
the eve of the Board meeting but preferably by the end of April, if a pre-proposal
will be made. They may be sent (by e-mail) to the president (bkeyfitz [at] math.ohio-state.edu (bkeyfitz[at]math[dot]ohio-state[dot]edu))
or secretary.
4) Support for Conferences in Developing Countries. Once again ICIAM will make small grants
to support conferences in developing countries in 2013 (the new call will be posted
shortly, but see /DCS/ for a description of what is offered and how
to apply). The deadline for applications will be May 15, so that the information can be
sent to the Board in advance of the meeting, where decisions will be made.
5) The IMU/ICIAM blog on Journal Ranking has been active since November, 2011.
You will find it at http://blog.mathunion.org/journals/ Please read it and contribute if
you are interested in this topic. At the Board meeting in Kyoto, we will discuss whether
ICIAM should develop a view on journal ranking (in favor or against), and representatives
are welcome to offer their opinions, either at the meeting or by e-mail to the president or
to the secretary.
6) There was a two-day meeting of the ICIAM officers in Zurich in January. It was a
pleasant and productive occasion at which we made progress on a number of
topics to be brought up at the Board meeting, including changes to the by-laws,
fundraising for ICIAM prizes, and directions for growth in membership. We enjoyed
recollections of ICIAM 2011, and approved the final version of the Scientific Program
Committee for ICIAM 2015. (This committee will be made public when all suggested
nominees have been invited and, we hope, have accepted to serve.) Expect to hear
more on some of these topics as we prepare for Kyoto.
7) There will be space on the agenda in Kyoto for representatives to introduce new
business, but suggestions made in advance are also welcome, and advance notice
gives the officers time to prepare material. Please send any suggestions to the
President or Secretary.
8) Nominations for the Abel Prize. Each year we encourage suggestions for possible
nominees. While individuals can nominate people, a nomination coming from ICIAM
might carry additional weight. We want to help the committee to focus on contributions
from applied mathematics. This year's call has not been published yet, but you may
consult the call from last year, at
http://www.abelprisen.no/en/abelprisen/nomination.html
We expect the deadline for 2013 nominations to be in September, 2012.
9) The new "Mathematical Congress of the Americas" will have its inaugural meeting in
2013 (5-9 August, Guanajuato, Mexico, http://www.mca2013.org/). They are eager to
have a good representation in applied mathematics, and ICIAM can help here by proposing
special sessions (deadline July 31, 2012).
10) This letter is also our periodic reminder to each member society to pay their annual
dues to ICIAM. (You may contact the Treasurer, (Jose Alberto Cuminato <jacumina [at] icmc.usp.br (jacumina[at]icmc[dot]usp[dot]br)>)
if you need more information about how to pay.) Payment is due by the end of March.
Also, please go to the restricted part of the website (access instructions are below) to
make sure that our information about your society (president, representative) is correct.
If it is not, please let the Secretary, or any officer, know.
11) Access to the internal restricted area of our websiteÂ
    /Â
  is as follows. Go to the restricted area. You can access theÂ
  restricted area as follows:
   log-in: iciam-representative
   password: zurich
Finally, this is my first letter as President of ICIAM. Let me say how honored I am to
have the privilege of leading this organization. I am grateful to all the representatives
for their service to ICIAM, and to the officers for the care and energy they put in to the
running of the Council. I look forward to working with all of you.
Columbus, March 13, 2012 Barbara Lee Keyfitz