ICM98-CL26 (98/04/08): URANIA Activities, A Preview/ICM'98 Registration
E-mail information service of the
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MATHEMATICIANS
Berlin, Germany, August 18 - 27, 1998
26th Circular Letter
Subject: ICM98-CL26: URANIA Activities, A Preview/ICM'98 Registration
Dear colleague:
Before getting to the real topic of this Circular Letter (The Urania
Activities) I would like to address an issue I became aware of while
traveling in the recent two weeks and talking to many persons
interested in ICM'98:
the ICM'98 REGISTRATION PROCESS.
Quite a number of colleagues believe that, since they did subscribe to
this mailing list (by what we once called preliminary preregistration),
their preregistration would automatically be transformed into a "real
registration". THIS IS NOT SO!
Registration is a legal process where you have many options to choose
from, get a formal invoice, and have to pay a bill. This requires an
additional activity for all those who want to participate in ICM'98.
The ICM'98 organizers thought that the registration procedure had
been described in sufficient detail in the Second Announcement, the
Circular Letters, and the WWW server. But as even the IMU President,
whom I met last week, got confused, something must have gone wrong.
The organizers seem to have "overorganized" the registration process.
Here are the important points:
1. To register for ICM'98 you must fill out the registration form!
There are two options. You can either use the electronic form in
the ICM'98 server and submit the registration via Internet, or
you can fill out the paper form mailed to you with the Second
Announcement. The paper version must be sent to DER CONGRESS
by mail or fax.
2. To be eligible for the reduced ICM'98 registration fee (of
DM 450,-) you must have registered and paid by May 1, 1998.
Please observe that this DEADLINE is APPROACHING QUICKLY.
3. If you want to present a poster or short communication at ICM'98
you have to register, pay the registration fee and submit the
abstract of your contribution by May 1, 1998. Details for
abstract submission can be found in the Second Announcement
and the ICM'98 server.
I apologize for bothering you with this but I learned that quite
a number of colleagues have overlooked the most important details -
due to "overinformation" from our side.
URANIA Activities.
At its last meeting in August 1994 at Luzern, Switzerland the IMU
General Assembly (GA) approved the following
RESOLUTION 5: "The General Assembly recommends that the Programme
Committee schedule some less formal scientific events of broad
interest during the Congress."
The ICM'98 Organizers agree that it is of utmost importance to
explain general ideas of our science and to indicate research
trends to the educated layman and to make connections of mathematics
to other areas of science, technology, economics, music, art,
philosophy, etc. visible.
To achieve some of these goals the ICM'98 Organizing Committee has
rented the Urania building to present mathematics to a broad audience
from August 20 to 27, 1998. The Urania building belongs to the Urania
foundation, a well-established organization, founded by important
industrialists and famous scientists more than 100 years ago in order
to popularize scientific research (in a broad sense). The management
of Urania will support the advertisement of the mathematical events
through its well-established channels.
The program to be offered at the Urania is currently taking shape.
Below is a preview of the activities, composed by Ehrhard Behrends
(FU Berlin, behrends@math.fu-berlin.de), who is responsible for the
organization. You will obtain the final program with your conference
material; updates can, of course, be found in the ICM'98 server.
Although the Urania program is directed to the general public
we believe that it will also be of interest for ICM'98 participants,
in particular, for accompanying persons.
Best Regards
Martin Groetschel
President of the
ICM'98 Organizing Committee
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Activities in the URANIA on the Occasion of ICM'98
(a preview)
Exhibitions
-----------
Three exhibitions will be shown in the Urania. The most important
exhibition will be "Mathematik zum Anfassen" ("Hands on Mathematics"),
organized by Professor Beutelspacher from the University of Giessen.
It particularly aims at young people, but will certainly be also of
interest for ICM'98 participants and accompanying persons. Special
tours of the exhibition will be organized for high school students
and their teachers. Visitors will have the opportunity to perform
mathematical experiments, to solve problems etc.
We will also show the exhibition of a sculptor (Klaus Becker)
who uses mathematical algorithms when proceeding from simpler to
more advanced forms. He will explain what he is doing and what
mathematical problems remain to be solved in two talks, one in
English (Friday, August 21, 5:30 pm), the other in German
(Thursday, August 27, 5:30 pm).
Finally, there will be an exhibition "Ceramics and Mathematics"
organized by Gisela Winkler.
The entrance to all three exhibitions (and also to Becker's talks)
is free.
The VideoMath Festival
----------------------
Short high-quality videos on mathematical topics will be combined
into one or two films of about two hours length and will be shown
in the movie theater of the URANIA. The deadline for submission of
videos was April 3, 1998. The VideoMath Festival Program Committee
is currently screening the entries. Further films related to
mathematics may also be shown. Performances will be daily. More
information can be found at
http://www-sfb288.math.tu-berlin.de/VideoMath/
The entrance fee will be DM 6.- for each performance.
Talks
-----
The talks are intended to provide information about some topics
in mathematics that are of general interest to non-mathematicians
as well as to the participants of the conference. Hence, some of
the lectures will be in German, others in English, some speakers
will try to present their talks such that they can be understood
by both a German and an English speaking audience.
The entrance fee for each talk - with the exception of Becker's
talks - will be DM 6.-.
* Thursday, August 20
7:30 pm, Professor Frank Natterer (Muenster): "The Mathematics of
Imaging in Medicine and Technology".
* Friday, August 21
5:30 pm, Becker's first talk : "From stone-sculpturing to mathematics:
Approximating the inscribed ball of regular polyhedra".
7:30 pm, Professor Phil Davis (Brown University, Providence):
"The prospects of Mathematics in a multi-media civilization".
* Saturday, August 22
7:30 pm, Professor van Lint (Eindhoven) will present a talk -
probably in English - on the mathematics underlying the
CD-player.
* No lectures on Sunday, August 23
* Monday, August 24
5:30 pm, Orm Finnendahl: He is a young composer living and working in
Berlin. The title of his talk is "Konstruktion und musikalischer
Sinn; Auswirkungen rekursiver und stochastischer Verfahren in
meinen Kompositionen". He will explain how he uses recursions
and probability in his compositions, the talk should be
comprehensible to both a German and English speaking audience
(there will be transparencies as well as short summaries in
English). The talk will be accompanied by a "real" performance
presented by a small ensemble.
7:30 pm, Hans-Magnus Enzensberger. He is a renowned German poet with
longstanding mathematical interests. He recently published a
bestselling book on mathematics for children (Der Zahlenteufel).
The title of his talk will be communicated later.
* Tuesday, August 25
5:30 pm, Gero von Randow (Hamburg): He is a science journalist ("DIE ZEIT")
who has written several interesting articles on mathematics. The
title of his talk is "Geisterfahrer des Journalismus - Wie kommt
die Mathematik in die Zeitung?" He will comment on the reception
of mathematics in the non-mathematical community (in German).
7:30 pm, Professor Walter Schachermayer (Vienna): "The role of
mathematics in financial markets". After his talk there will be a
panel discussion with representatives of banks and insurance
companies.
* Wednesday, August 26
5:30 pm, Peter Hoffmann, (IRCAM, Paris): Like Finnendahl's talk this will
be partly in English and partly in German. Hoffmann will describe
how stochastic techniques are used in the recent compositions of
Xenakis.
(There will be no talk in the evening because of the ICM-party.)
* Thursday, August 27
5:30 pm: Becker's second talk: "Von der Steinbildhauerei zur Mathematik:
Eine Annaeherung an die einbeschriebenen Kugeln regelmaessiger
Polyeder".
7:30 pm, Professor Hans-Otto Peitgen (Bremen): "Mathematik und Medizin -
Computerunterstuetzung in der Leberchirurgie und Frueherkennung
von Brustkrebs". In this talk (for a German audience) he will
speak on recent applications of mathematics in medicine.
The Matinee
-----------
On Sunday, August 23, at 11 a.m., the young Georgian pianist Tamara
Kokilaschwili will give a piano concert including compositions by
Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, and Scriabin.
The entrance fee to the concert is DM 6.-.
We would like to mention here further events of general interest at
other locations.
More Exhibitions
----------------
Two more exhibitions are in the planning phase. At the TU Berlin,
the Congress site, the exhibition "Kolloquiumsplakate" (Colloquium
Posters) by Karl Heinrich Hofmann (Darmstadt) will be shown in the
library of the mathematics building. The exhibition "(INNOVATION)^3",
organized by Dietmar Guderian (Freiburg), will link innovative
architecture with modern art and mathematics and will be located close
to Bahnhof Zoo, in the newly built Ludwig-Erhard-Haus.
Long Night of the Museums
-------------------------
Museum "freaks" should mark Saturday, August 22, the day of Berlin's
"Long Museum Night". All of the about 150 museums participate in this
event, stay open until Sunday morning and present special activities.
*************************************************************************
This is a message from the ICM'98 e-mail server distributing information
about ICM'98 and the International Mathematical Union to all persons who
have electronically registered or preregistered for the INTERNATIONAL
CONGRESS OF MATHEMATICIANS 1998 IN BERLIN. More information about ICM'98
can be found on the ICM'98 WWW-server. Its master site in Berlin has the
URL: http://elib.zib.de/ICM98
To subscribe to this e-mail service and to obtain the Second Announcement
of ICM'98, fill out the request form on the ICM'98 server. Alternatively,
send an empty e-mail to icm98@zib.de with `Second Announcement' in the
`SUBJECT' line to receive an e-mail form.
*************************************************************************
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|Electronic Information on ICM'98 at URL: http://elib.zib.de/ICM98|
|(with registration form and request form for Second Announcement)|
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| ICM'98 General E-mail Address: icm98@zib.de |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| Address for ICM'98 ICM'98 |
| General Correspondence: c/o Prof. Dr. J. Winkler |
| TU Berlin, MA 8-2 |
| Str. des 17. Juni 135 |
| D-10623 Berlin, Germany |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| Winkler's personal | Phone: +49/30/314-24105 |
| phone, fax, e-mail: | Fax: +49/30/314-21604 |
| | E-mail: winkler@math.tu-berlin.de |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| President of the ICM'98 Organizing Committee: |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| Prof. Dr. M. Groetschel | E-mail: groetschel@zib.de |
| Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fuer | Phone: +49/30/84185-210 |
| Informationstechnik (ZIB) | FAX: +49/30/84185-269 |
| Takustrasse 7 | Secretary: Sybille Mattrisch |
| D-14195 Berlin-Dahlem | Phone: +49/30/84185-208 |
| Germany | ZIB-URL: http://www.zib.de |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+