OPENING CEREMONY OF THE XXIIth INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MATHEMATICIANS

Speech by Prof. Jacques Louis Lions, President of IMU

Mesdames, Messieurs,

Jái l'honneur de saluer:
Madame Ruth Dreifuss, Conseillère Fédérale,
Madame Hedi Land, Présidente du Gouvernement Cantonal Zürichois,
Monsieur le Dr. Thomas Wagner, représentant du Conseil Municipal de la Ville de Zürich,
Monsieur le Dr. Alfred Gilgen, Directeur de lÍnstruction Publique du Canton de Zürich,

Je les remercie trés vivement de leur présence ainsi que les Professeurs
Clive Kuenzie, Prorecteur de l'Université de Zürich,
Ralf Hütter, Vice-Président de l'École Polytechnique Féderale de Zürich,
Dominique de Werra, Vice-Président de l'École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
André Aeschlimann, Président du Conseil de la Recherche au Fonds National et
Les Professeurs K. Chandrasekharan et J. Moser, anciens Présidents de l'Union Mathématique Internationale.

Je poursuis en Anglais
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Already now mathematics, in addtion to its intrinsic importance, is one of the keys for the development of other sciences and of industry. Everything indicates that this already fundamental role will increase during the net century.

This implies responsibilities for us and for our governments:

1. continue, and even increase the support to mathematical research of the highest quality;
2. further develop collaborations and exchanges with other disciplines and with industry;
3. help as much as possible the Mathematical Instruction and the Mathematical Research in countries suffering of difficult economic situations;
4. we should explain as clearly as possile what we are doing to a not too specialized public.

These four points are the aims pursued by the Executive Committee of IMU, according to the wishes of the General Assembly in Kobe in 1990, and Lucern in 1994. These are also the aims of the Commissions of IMU, namely ICMI and CDE and of the WMY 2000, launched by IMU at IMPA, Rio de Janeiro, co-sponsored by UNESCO and the Third World Academy of Sciences.

These four points are also reflected in the present Congress.

The Program Committee has been nominated by the Executive Committee of IMU and by the Swiss Organizing Committee. It had the responsability of the selection of the speakers.

The Chairman of the Program Committee is Professor Louis Nirenberg and the members are: S.K.Donaldson, V. Drinfeld, P.de la Harpe, R. Karp, H. Kraft, A. Majda, M. Raynaud, M.Sato and Ya. Sinai.

Je passe maintenant la parole au Professeur Henri Carnal, Président du Comité d'Organisation du Congrès International des Mathématiciens 1994, qui devient le President du Congres par acclamation.