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Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel, Paris (France)
This special event has the sponsorship of UNESCO, and the International Mathematical Union, with the support of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), The Third World Academy of Sciences, The French and Brazilian Academies of Sciences, and several Governments. It aims at three main issues:
First of all, it was decided to publish a newsletter (Newsletter 2000), which would gather and widely redistribute information on initiatives taken by the international mathematical community for the preparation of WMY 2000. It then became necessary to tighten links with UNESCO and to register projects for the world mathematical year as they take shape all over the world.
My report consists of four parts:
In August 1994, on the occasion of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich, J.-L. Lions entrusted Gerard Tronel and myself with the publication and distribution of the Newsletter. It was also decided to create a larger Editorial Board with representatives in each continent. Thanks to the Director of the IHP, J. Oesterlé, the Newsletter was given an office there in 1995.
Since 1994, we have published and distributed 3 new issues (NL 3, NL 4, NL 5), on a year on average, and we hope to publish the sixth issue in time for the Berlin international congress, ICM'98.
After A. Marzollo retired, there was some reorganization of the UNESCO departments: the person responsible for Mathematics is now S. Raither (Paris, France) who depends on the Science Department directed by V. Zharov (Paris, France).
In March 1997, C. Guillopé and J.-P. Kahane, two French mathematicians, members of the French Commission for Sciences of UNESCO, asked me to join them for their first visit to S. Raither and V. Zharov. During this visit, A. Raither asked for clarification of the status of WMY 2000 with respect to UNESCO having found no written document explaining it.
It was therefore decided in agreement with D. Mumford and J. Palis to create a special committee to deal with the collaboration between the IMU and the UNESCO on the preparation of WMY 2000. Members of this Committee are: A. Ashour, M. Chaleyat-Maurel (President), M. Narasimhan, M. Niss, R. Rebolledo, A. Sierpinska and G. Tronel.
In order to formalize and strengthen the UNESCO support for this celebration, A. Raither suggested that a resolution be put to the General Assembly of UNESCO, scheduled for November, 1997. Luxembourg, J.-P. Pier being its principal author, presented such a resolution. It has been backed up by 15 countries and by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), whose Vice-President and Secretary of IMU, J. Palis, made at the occasion a formal intervention to support it. It was adopted by the Plenary of the General Conference (see Newsletter No. 5) and a grant of U$ 20,000 was awarded to WMY 2000.
Since then, I have been keeping up a profitable and fruitful collaboration with A. Raither for all issues concerning the WMY 2000. For instance, he suggested that organizers of events for WMY 2000 ask for grants via their national representatives in the frame of a "Participation Programme". These grants are different from that of 20.000 $ awarded through the resolution. For example, the French commission has decided to support a project called "Memory of Mathematicians". (cf list below).
At the instance of A. Raither, who wished to get a panoramic view of all the projects under way for WMY 2000, I keep an updated list of all events being prepared to my knowledge worldwide, with the name and e-mail address of a contact person for each. This document is sent out regularly to all persons concerned with WMY 2000.
I enclose an up-dated list in this report. I could also provide more detailed information about some of them, if required.
Contact : Mogens Niss, MN@mmf.ruc.dk
ICMI WMY 2000 Committee
Contact : Miguel de Guzman, mdeguzman@bitmailer.net
Contact : Sebastia Xambó Descamps, sxd@grec.upc.es
Latin American Congress of Mathematics, August 2000
Contact : Jacob Palis, jpalis@impa.br
Contact: http://www.ma.ic.ac.uk/~boz/ICMP2000/wwwbid.html
Five Year 2000 Conferences Causality, Ecology and Environment, Financial Mathematics, Neural Networks and Learning, Quantum Stochastics, Stochastic Geometry and Imaging
Special Volume of « Bernoulli » This volume will comprise a number of special invited papers that should take stock of the developments in mathematical statistics and probability in the XXth century and speculate about stochastics and its applications in XXIst century
Contact : Ole Barndorff-Nielsen, atsoebn@mi.aau.dk
Contact : Felix E. Browder, browder@math.rutgers.edu
Web page : http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/wmy2000.html
Contact : Hélène Gispert, Helene.Gispert@ghdso.u-psud.fr
Contact : Hélyette Geman, geman@dauphine.fr
Postage stamps
Issue of stamps representing European mathematicians. Wherever possible,
concerted action between countries or on the European level.
Contact : Vagn Lundsgaard Hansen, V.L.Hansen@mat.dtu.dk
Contact : Polly Wee Sy, pweesy@i-manila.com.ph
Contact : Bernard Hodgson, bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca
2. Quebec
United Congress of all mathematical associations and groups of Quebec Spring 2000
Mathematics Exhibition
Contact : Richard Pallascio, pallascio.richard@uqam.ca
Contact : Pekka Tukia, pekka.tukia@helsinki.fi
Studia Generalia lecture series
Autumn 2000; first lecture 1 October 2000, University of Helsinki (Finland)
Contact : Olli Martio, olli.martio@helsinki.fi
Mathematics posters in the Paris underground (with the EMS) This project could involve the re-fitting of certain tube stations (Monge and Laplace).
Contact : Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel, mcm@ccr.jussieu.fr
Postage stamps
A list of mathematicians has been submitted to the Post Office for an
issue, in the year 2000, of six stamps portraying French mathematicians.
Contact : Liliane Zweig, zweig@dmi.ens.fr
Mathematics and other fields of knowledge (with the Ecole Normale Supérieure and historians of mathematics)
Re-edition of books out of circulation In partnership with the CNL (Centre National du Livre) it is planned to re-edit important mathematical works no longer available.
Contact : Martin Andler, andler@math.uvsq.fr
A book « An outlook by women mathematicians » An initiative of the Association « Femmes et Mathématiques »
Film : "Four women mathematicians at the far end of the world" An initiative of the Association « Femmes et Mathématiques »
Contact : Julianne Unterberger, julia.unterberger@univ-reims.fr
Contact : Klaus Hulek, hulek@math.uni-hannover.de
Stamp
The proposition to have a commemorative stamp celebrating WMY 2000 was
already submitted to the Ministero delle Poste
RAI Programme « Mathematics in western civilization » RAI, the Radio-Television National State Broadcasting Company is considering the proposition to produce a series of 3 programmes on «Mathematics in western civilization »
Contact : Alberto Conte, conte@dm.unito.it
Contact : Jean-Paul Pier, pier@cu.lu
A joint portuguese-chinese initiative for a congress on a general subject of the scientific and cultural role of the mathematical sciences in the history of civilization and in the future development of humanity
Contact : José Francisco Rodrigues, rodrigue@lmc.fc.ul.pt
Contact : Hope Daly, hhd@math.ams.org - Web page : http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/wmy2000.html
P. Jarraud and I are also working on the web site of WMY 2000, in the Jussieu server. It now contains the Newsletter, in order to give more information about the World Mathematical Year and convince the mathematical community to participate more actively in it.
May we take this opportunity to thank all the persons and Institutions who are helping us, in particular, D. Mumford and J. Palis, for their continuous support.
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Last modified: Sat Apr 25 05:40:01 1998