The School of Applied Mathematics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV EMAp), in partnership with the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics (SBMAC), held, between January 30 and February 3, 2023, at FGV, in Rio de Janeiro, the first edition of the Latin American Institute of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LACIAM). The main goal was to unify efforts to consolidate and strengthen the advances achieved by Mathematics and its applications, in addition to the growth in the use of Applied and Computational Mathematics in different areas of activity. In particular, with a focus on Latin American researchers.
LACIAM aimed to bring together researchers, students and other professionals from different centers in Latin America and other parts of the world that are working with Applied Mathematics and related areas. The program included plenary talks, thematic sessions, short courses, poster presentations and panel discussions. In this edition, special emphasis was given to the participation of young researchers, with financial assistance for travel and accommodation, in addition to prizes for the three best poster presentations, and for the creation of collaborative networks between existing research groups.
There were more than 250 participants from different 25 nationalities, including researchers from Europe, United States, Russia and Canada, in addition to Latin America. The areas of interest of the event were all disciplines related to Applied, Computational and Industrial Mathematics.
Due to the success of the event, the next edition of LACIAM was also announced at the closing ceremony by the next Coordinator, Prof. Luis Briceño, and will be held at the Universidad Tecnica Federico de Santa, Valparaíso, Chile from January 19 to 23, 2026. The idea is to turn LACIAM into an itinerant event in the area of Applied Mathematics, with a new edition every three years.
There is an event website with more information and the full schedule.
There one can find more details, including the organizing and scientific committees, and a list of the plenary talks.
The event was organized by the School of Applied Mathematics (FGV EMAp) and the Brazilian Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics (SBMAC) and had financial support from FGV EMAp, SBMAC, the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES, Brazil) , the Center for Mathematical Modernization in Key Areas for Development (MODEMAT, Ecuador), the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM, Chile), the Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry (CeMEAI, Brazil), the International Mathematical Union Comission for Development Countries (IMU-CDC), the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation of Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, Brazil) and the National Institute of Mathematics Science and Technology (INCTMat, Brazil).
The event consisted of 11 plenary lectures, two short courses, two discussion panels, 14 thematic sessions with more than 100 lectures, two poster sessions with more than 35 presentations, 8 coffee breaks, a cocktail and a lunch offered by FGV EMAp. In addition, the conference social dinner was held at the restaurant Fogo de Chão Botafogo. The slides and posters of the presenters are available at the conference website.
Current and recent ICIAM officers were featured at the meeting. Wil Schilders gave an address titled "Mathematics: Key Enabling Technology for Scientific Machine Learning”, and also participated in a round table on New Challenges in the Modern Industrial Mathematics, shown in the figure; Liliane Basso Barichello spoke at a round table on Policies focusing on Gender Equality in Applied Math across Latin American Countries. Volker Mehrmann, Maria Esteban and Poti Cuminato were members of the organizing and scientific committees.
The conference counted 254 participants, 61 from foreign institutions, distributed in 25 countries, and 33 from Brazilian institutions. Given the diversity of topics addressed in the Plenary Talks and Thematic Sessions, the event was an excellent opportunity to disseminate to the Latin American mathematical community (researchers and graduate students) some of the most important recent advances in the various areas of mathematics and their applications.
Group Picture of the LACIAM 2023 Conference.