The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is an international organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC) and supports the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM). Its members are national mathematics organizations from more than 80 countries.[1]
The objectives of the International Mathematical Union are: promoting international cooperation in mathematics, supporting and assisting the International Congress of Mathematicians and other international scientific meetings/conferences, acknowledging outstanding research contributions to mathematics through the awarding of scientific prizes, and encouraging and supporting other international mathematical activities, considered likely to contribute to the development of mathematical science in any of its aspects, whether pure, applied, or educational.
History
The IMU was established in 1920, but dissolved in September 1932 and reestablished in 1950 at the Constitutive Convention in New York, de jure on September 10, 1951, when ten countries had become members. The last milestone was the General Assembly in March 1952, in Rome, Italy where the activities of the new IMU were inaugurated and the first Executive Committee, President and various commissions were elected. In 1952 the IMU was also readmitted to the ICSU. The past president of the Union is Carlos Kenig (2019–2022). The current president is Hiraku Nakajima.
IMU has a close relationship to mathematics education through its International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). This commission is organized similarly to IMU with its own Executive Committee and General Assembly.
Developing countries are a high priority for the IMU and a significant percentage of its budget, including grants received from individuals, mathematical societies, foundations, and funding agencies, is spent on activities for developing countries. Since 2011 this has been coordinated by the Commission for Developing Countries (CDC).
The Committee on Electronic Information and Communication (CEIC) advises IMU on matters concerning mathematical information, communication, and publishing.[4]
Prizes
The scientific prizes awarded by the IMU, in the quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), are deemed to be some of the highest distinctions in the mathematical world.[5] These are:
the Fields Medals (two to four awarded per Congress, since 1936);
the IMU Abacus Medal (previously known as the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize; awarded since 1986);
The IMU's members are Member Countries and each Member country is represented through an Adhering Organization, which may be its principal academy, a mathematical society, its research council or some other institution or association of institutions, or an appropriate agency of its government. A country starting to develop its mathematical culture and interested in building links with mathematicians all over the world is invited to join IMU as an Associate Member. For the purpose of facilitating jointly sponsored activities and jointly pursuing the objectives of the IMU, multinational mathematical societies and professional societies can join IMU as an Affiliate Member. Every four years, the IMU membership gathers in a General Assembly (GA), which consists of delegates appointed by the Adhering Organizations, together with the members of the executive committee. All important decisions are made at the GA, including the election of the officers, establishment of commissions, the approval of the budget, and any changes to the statutes and by-laws.
Members and Associate Members
The IMU has 83 (full) Member countries and two Associate Members (Bangladesh and Paraguay, marked below by light grey background).[7]
Due to the delicate and contentious political status of Taiwan, China has two Adhering Societies to the IMU, which split the voting rights in the General Assembly. The Chinese Mathematical Society in Beijing has three votes, and the Mathematical Society of the Republic of China, located in Tapei, has two votes.
The International Mathematical Union is administered by an executive committee (EC) which conducts the business of the Union.[9] The EC consists of the President, two vice-presidents, the Secretary, six Members-at-Large, all elected for a term of four years, and the Past President. The EC is responsible for all policy matters and for tasks, such as choosing the members of the ICM Program Committee and various prize committees.
Publications
Every two months IMU publishes an electronic newsletter, IMU-Net, that aims to improve communication between IMU and the worldwide mathematical community by reporting on decisions and recommendations of the Union, major international mathematical events and developments, and on other topics of general mathematical interest. IMU Bulletins are published annually with the aim to inform IMU's members about the Union's current activities. In 2009 IMU published the document Best Current Practices for Journals.[10]
IMU’s Involvement in developing countries
The IMU took its first organized steps towards the promotion of mathematics in developing countries in the early 1970s and has, since then supported various activities. In 2010 IMU formed the Commission for Developing Countries (CDC) which brings together all of the past and current initiatives in support of mathematics and mathematicians in the developing world.
Some IMU Supported Initiatives:
Grants Program for Mathematicians: The Commission for Developing Countries supports research travel of mathematicians based in developing countries as well as mathematics research conferences in the developing world through its Grants Program which is open to mathematicians throughout the developing world, including countries that are not (yet) members of the IMU.[11]
African Mathematics Millennium Science Initiative (AMMSI) is a network of mathematics centers in sub-Saharan Africa that organizes conferences and workshops, visiting lectureships and an extensive scholarship program for mathematics graduate students doing PhD work on the African continent.
Mentoring African Research in Mathematics (MARM): IMU supported the London Mathematical Society (LMS) in founding the MARM programme, which supports mathematics and its teaching in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa via a mentoring partnership between mathematicians in the United Kingdom and African colleagues, together with their students. It focuses on cultivating long-term mentoring relations between individual mathematicians and students.
Volunteer Lecturer Program (VLP) of IMU identifies mathematicians interested in contributing to the formation of young mathematicians in the developing world. The Volunteer Lecturer Program maintains a database of mathematic volunteers willing to offer month-long intensive courses at the advanced undergraduate or graduate level in degree programmes at universities in the developing world. IMU also seeks applications from universities and mathematics degree programmes in the developing world that are in need of volunteer lecturers, and that can provide the necessary conditions for productive collaboration in the teaching of advanced mathematics.
IMU released a report in 2008, Mathematics in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities, on the current state of mathematics in Africa and on opportunities for new initiatives to support mathematical development.[12] In 2014, the IMU's Commission for Developing Countries CDC released an update of the report.[13]
Additionally, reports about Mathematics in Latin America and the Caribbean and South East Asia.[14] were published.
In July 2014 IMU released the report: The International Mathematical Union in the Developing World: Past, Present and Future (July 2014). [15]
MENAO Symposium at the ICM
In 2014, the IMU held a day-long symposium prior to the opening of the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), entitled Mathematics in Emerging Nations: Achievements and Opportunities (MENAO). Approximately 260 participants from around the world, including representatives of embassies, scientific institutions, private business and foundations attended this session. Attendees heard inspiring stories of individual mathematicians and specific developing nations.[16][17]
Presidents
List of presidents of the International Mathematical Union from 1952 to the present:
The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award honours the Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields.
The IMU Abacus Medal, known before 2022 as the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, is awarded once every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), for outstanding contributions in Mathematical Aspects of Information Sciences including:
All mathematical aspects of computer science, including computational complexity theory, logic of programming languages, analysis of algorithms, cryptography, computer vision, pattern recognition, information processing and modelling of intelligence.
Scientific computing and numerical analysis. Computational aspects of optimization and control theory. Computer algebra.
Rolf Herman Nevanlinna was a Finnish mathematician who made significant contributions to complex analysis.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics is an international non-governmental organization whose mission is to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the application of physics toward solving problems of concern to humanity. It was established in 1922 and the first General Assembly was held in 1923 in Paris. The Union is domiciled in Geneva, Switzerland.
Lev Semyonovich Pontryagin was a Soviet mathematician. Completely blind from the age of 14, he made major discoveries in a number of fields of mathematics, including algebraic topology, differential topology and optimal control.
The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU).
The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) is a commission of the International Mathematical Union and is an internationally acting organization focussing on mathematics education. ICMI was founded in 1908 at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Rome and aims to improve teaching standards around the world, through programs, workshops and initiatives and publications. It aims to work a great deal with developing countries, to increase teaching standards and education which can improve life quality and aid the country.
Jean-Michel Bismut is a French mathematician who has been a professor at the Université Paris-Sud since 1981. His mathematical career covers two apparently different branches of mathematics: probability theory and differential geometry. Ideas from probability play an important role in his works on geometry.
Helge Holden is a Norwegian mathematician working in the field of differential equations and mathematical physics. He was Praeses of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters from 2014 to 2016.
The Chern Medal is an international award recognizing outstanding lifelong achievement of the highest level in the field of mathematics. The prize is given at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which is held every four years.
The Leelavati Award is an award for outstanding contribution to public outreach in mathematics. It is named after the 12th-century mathematical treatise "Lilavati" devoted to arithmetic and algebra written by the Indian mathematician Bhāskara II, also known as Bhaskara Achārya. In the book the author posed, in verse form, a series of problems in (elementary) arithmetic to one Leelavati and followed them up with hints to solutions. This work appears to have been the main source of learning arithmetic and algebra in medieval India. The work was also translated into Persian and was influential in West Asia.
Dipendra Prasad is an Indian mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is a number theorist known for his work in the areas of automorphic representations and the Gan–Gross–Prasad conjecture. He is currently the president of Commission for Developing Countries (CDC) of International Mathematical Union (2018–2022) and of Indian Math Society (2021–2022).
Marcelo Miranda Viana da Silva is a Brazilian mathematician working in dynamical systems theory. He proved the Zorich–Kontsevich conjecture together with Artur Avila.
Svetlana Yakovlevna Jitomirskaya is a Soviet-born American mathematician working on dynamical systems and mathematical physics. She is a distinguished professor of mathematics at Georgia Tech and UC Irvine. She is best known for solving the ten martini problem along with mathematician Artur Avila.
The Centre International de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées is a category 2 UNESCO centre based in Nice with the mission to promote research in mathematics in developing countries. CIMPA is an association under the 1901 French law on associations and is funded by government agencies in France, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland.
Franco Brezzi is an Italian mathematician.
Alfio Quarteroni is an Italian mathematician.
Martin Grötschel is a German mathematician known for his research on combinatorial optimization, polyhedral combinatorics, and operations research. From 1991 to 2012 he was Vice President of the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and served from 2012 to 2015 as ZIB's President. From 2015 to 2020 he was President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW).
European Women in Mathematics (EWM) is an international association of women working in the field of mathematics in Europe. The association participates in political and strategic work to promote the role of women in mathematics and offers its members direct support. Its goals include encouraging women to study mathematics and providing visibility to women mathematicians. It is the "first and best known" of several organizations devoted to women in mathematics in Europe.
Michael Hochman is an Israeli mathematician, currently a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is known for his contributions to dynamical systems and ergodic theory.
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