Newsletter 2014-1

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Dear Colleagues,

1. Newsletters from the International Mathematical Union.  January 2014, Special issue on ICMW 2014, March 2014.

2. From the European Mathematical Union. * Call for Marie Sklodowska-Curie action, * information on the newly established initiative EU-MATHS-IN, promoted jointly by the EMS, through its Committee for Applied Mathematics, and the ECMI, *2015 International Meeting AMS-EMS-SPM Porto, 10-13 June, Call for proposals for Special Sessions *EMS Summer Schools in Mathematics 2015,* The generic EMS call for proposals for scientific activities in 2015 * newsletter  March 2014.

Alek Vainshtein, Yuval Ginosar and Anna Melnikov      

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Newsletter 2013-3

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Dear Colleagues,

1.  The European Commission has published a call for independent experts to evaluate proposals for EU funding under HORIZON 2020, and also for other activities like monitoring, programme evaluation and policy development.
   See the press release:
   http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=newsalert&year=2013&na=na-221113
   Expert mathematicians are encouraged to apply. For that one should have to go first to the participant portal http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/home
   and create an account. The call remains open for the lifetime of HORIZON 2020.

2. This coming year one of the Balzan prizes will be awarded to a mathematician. Previous recepients of the Balzan prize (in mathematics)
   are: Kolmogorov (1962) Bombieri (1980) Serre (1985) Borel (1992) Gromov (1999) Deligne (2004)  Palis (2010).
   The General Prize Committee invites a nomination for the prize. Please send us your opinion on this issue.

3. A  first announcement for the three-day conference on: Probability, Ergodic Theory, Dynamical Systems (PETDS), dedicated to the memory of Meir Smorodinsky.    April 9th-11th 2014 Tel Aviv University.

4. The programme for the 12th Night Workshop in Representation Theory (WIS January 6-8) can be found in http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~gorelik/12thnight.pdf

5. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, the 2nd president of the European Mathematical Society (1995-98), will be the next president of the European Research Council (ERC). 

6. Newsletters from the International Mathematical Union. November.

7. Newsletters from the European Mathematical Union. See this link.

8. Newsletter from SIAM. See this link.

Alek Vainshtein, Yuval Ginosar and Anna Melnikov

        

Newsletter 2013-2

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Dear Colleagues,

1. Those of you who have not paid your dues yet, this year we start to gather the individual dues for IMU and EMS a little bit late.
   The IMU dues for years 2013-2014 are:
   For regular faculty member of the universities (those who have a scientific connections fund)  — 200 NIS;
   For adjunct faculty  and faculty members of colleges — 100 NIS;
   For Ph.D. students and postdocs   — 60 NIS.
   (the fee for one year is half the above).
   The EMS fee for the members of IMU for years 2013-2014 is 240 NIS.
   A strong representation in the EMS is important to secure budgets for mathematics from the EU on one hand and to ensure favourable policy of the EMS toward Israel on the other side. We strongly encourage you to continue your membership / become a member.
   If possible, we prefer that you pay through your institution: ask the secretaries to forward the payment from your scientific connections fund.
   If sending a check, then please print and fill out the attached membership form and send it to us with your check.
   Please address the check to  Israel Mathematical Union. It can be sent to
   Anna Melnikov
   Department of Mathematics,
   University of Haifa,
   Haifa, 31905.
   Please make sure we can identify the sender!
   Please find attached  letter  from Alice Fialowski concerning membership in EMS and  EMS letter on EMS membership benefits.

2. Congratulations to the Israeli team headed by L. Radzivilovsky and A. Kanel-Belov for winning the 3rd place in the international mathematical competition for university students in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. See this link.

3. Newsletters from the European Mathematical Union. See this link.

4. Newsletters from the International Mathematical Union. July September 

5. A special discount for IMU members joining SIAM. See this link.

6. EMS Diderot Mathematical forum first announcement.

7. Call for application for travel grants to attend the ICM 2014 in Seoul – can be found  here.

Alek Vainshtein, Yuval Ginosar and Anna Melnikov

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Newsletter 2013-1

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Dear All,

1. The IMU annual meeting 2013: The IMU annual meeting will take place on Sunday, June 16th at the University of Haifa. Anyone who is interested in organizing  a session, please let us know. 

2. The IMU-AMS joint meeting of 2014: A joint IMU-AMS meeting will take place in Israel, June 16-19, 2014. The program committee issues a call  for proposals of special sessions (deadline: April 15th, 2013).  Details on the meeting are in the conference website.

3. International Conference on Geometric, Combinatorial and Dynamics aspects of Semigroup Theory: The conference, in occasion of Stuart Margolis’ 60th birthday, will take place in Bar Ilan University, June 11-14, 2014.

4. News from the EMS: Can be found here.

5. News from the International  Mathematical Union: Can be found here.

6. ICIAM (International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Newsletter: Can be found here.

7. Information from Springer: Can be found here.

8. Modern Mathematics, Bremen 2013: An international summer school for students will take place in Bremen, Germany, between 2-12/7/13.

9. Membership: We remind the members who still have not paid their dues for 2013-4 and welcome new members to join either through the departments or individually.

Alek Vainshtein, Yuval Ginosar and Anna Melnikov

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Newsletter 2012-6

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Dear All,

1. The IMU-AMS joint meeting of 2014: as previously annouced, a joint IMU-AMS meeting will take place in Israel, June 16-19, 2014.

   • The program committee issues a CALL FOR PROPOSALS of special sessions (deadline: April 15th, 2013).

   • Initial details on the meeting are in the conference website.

2. Conferences:

   • A memorial conference for Joram Lindenstrauss, titled “Banach spaces: geometry and analysis”, will be held at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, May 26-31, 2013. The organziers are Gideon Schechtman, Benjamin Weiss and Tomek Szankowski (tomek.szankowski@mail.huji.ac.il).

   • More conferences at the IMU joint calendar.

3. Mathematical education:

   • You and your students are welcome to enjoy the Etgar booklets, presented with the publishers’ permission.

4. Positions:

   • An IMU portal for Israeli tenure-track and post-doctoral job offers in mathematics and CS.

   • The Basque Center for Applied Mathematics in Bilbao, Spain, in looking for a scientific director. See their website for details.

5. Petition on EU funding: The EMS endorses the Initiative for Science in Europe petition on research funding, including the ERC.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2012-5

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Dear All,

1. Services:

   • An IMU portal for Israeli tenure-track and post-doctoral job offers in mathematics and CS.

   • After scanning all of them, we plan to post the Etgar booklets soon.

   • Be aware of the EMS ethics committee.

2. Conferences:

   A spring school on group C*-algebras in Sde Boker (March): intended for non-specialists working in representation theory, geometric group theory and ergodic theory, as well as operator algebras, who want to learn about the connections.

   • Organize a joint EMS-IML summer school 2013: one week summer school with at most 20 participants, 22 May to 19 July 2013. Deadline: November 1st.

   • More conferences at the same old IMU joint calendar.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

Newsletter 2012-4

Dear All,

1. Friedrich Hirzebruch, who was a leading force in connecting the German and Israeli mathematical communities, passed away (the obituary in the New-York Times).

2. Prizes and grants:

   • The Latsis Prize is awarded this year in the field of Mathematics. Deadline: July 15th, 2012.

   • The EMS Monograph Award.

   • Call for proposals of EMS Distinguished speakers and EMS weekends.

   • Marie Curie Grants.

   • The EMS Prizes were annouced at the openning day of the 6ECM.

3. Services:

   • The Journal of the European Mathematical Society is now freely accessed online to every EMS individual member. Go to the member database, log in (the member username is a five digit number that is printed on your Newsletter address tag; if you don’t know your password, “create a new account” in the above-mentioned page), then go to JEMS.

   • Mathematics-in-Europe is a new website on mathematics, for the general public.

   • Springer and the EMS launch the Encyclopedia of Mathematics Wiki-like math project.

   • More EMS news.

4. Conferences:

   • The 6th European Congress of Mathematics is taking place in Krakow (Poland), 2-7 July 2012.

   • EMS list of Conferences and Workshops.

   • All the above and more in the IMU joint calendar – a community service in which you can take part.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2012-3

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Dear All,

1. The Israel Mathematical Union is saddened to annouce the passing of Israel Prize Winner Joram Lindenstrauss (1936-2012), and offers its condolences to the family.

2. Nessyahu Prize: The IMU is delighted to announce that the Nessyahu prize of 2012, for an excellent PhD thesis, will be awarded to Alexander Sodin from Tel Aviv University.

3. IMU annual meeting: The Annual IMU meeting of 2012 will take place on Monday, May 28th, one day after Shavuot. All lectures are in building 507. See program, abstracts and detailed map on the website. For your convenience, Bar-Ilan operates a shuttle inside the campus (station #11 is the nearest to the lectures hall).

4. Other forthcoming meetings.

    

    

   • The 6th European Congress of Mathematics will take place July 2-7. See this link for other EMS news.

   • A joint IMU-AMS meeting will take place in Israel, June 16-19, 2014. Details will be added to the conference website when available.

   • All the above and more in the IMU joint calendar – a community service whose usefullness depend on you.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2012-2

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Dear All,

1. Membership: Most members paid their dues in 2011 for two years. We are welcoming new members for 2012. You may join either through your respective departments, or individually.

2. Erdos Prize: The IMU is delighted to announce that the Erdos prize in mathematics for 2012 will be awarded to Irit Dinur from Weizmann Institute.

3. IMU annual meeting: The Annual IMU meeting of 2012 will take place on Monday, May 28th, one day after Shavuot.
   If you wish to speak at the meeting, please contact the session organizers. Suggestions for other viable special sessions are also welcome.

4. Other meetings and special lectures.

   • The Chaim Leib Pekeris Memorial Lecture will take place March 21st.

   • The 6th European Congress of Mathematics will take place July 2-7. Early registration ends March 31st. See this link for other EMS news.

   • A joint IMU-AMS meeting will take place in Israel, June 16-19, 2014. Details will follow.

   • All the above and more can be found in the IMU joint calendar – a community service whose usefullness depend on you.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2012-1

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Dear All,

1. Membership: Most members paid their dues in 2011 for two years. We are welcoming new members for 2012. You may join either through your respective departments, or individually.

2. IMU meetings

   • The Annual IMU meeting of 2012 will take place on Monday, May 28th, one day after Shavuot.
     In the interest of diversity, we welcome suggestions for special session topics.

   • A joint IMU-AMS meeting will take place in Israel, June 16-19, 2014. Details will follow.

3. Joint calendar: We are establishing a new joint calendar service for conferences, workshops and special lectures.
   Some information on forthcoming events is already there — but keeping the calendar alive and useful will require your active participation.

4. Other annoucements:

   • The deadline for a biannual prize for work in finacial math or risk management is February 1st.

5. EMS meeting:

   • The 6th European Congress of Mathematics will be held July 2-7, 2012, in Krakow.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2011-4

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Dear All,

1. We still accept members for 2011-2012. You are welcome to join, either through your respective departments, or individually.

2. EMS matters:

   • The 6th European Congress of Mathematics will be held July 2-7, 2012, in Krakow. The nearest deadline is for people wishing to organize mini-symposia: contact the congress organizers by October 31st.

   • the EMS is calling for nomination of prizes, to be delivered at the 6ECM in Krakow next year. These are The EMS Prizes (deadline Nov. 1st, 2011); The Felix Klein Prize (deadline Dec. 31st, 2011) and the Otto Neugebauer Prize (deadline Dec. 31st, 2011).

   • The EMS is looking for candidates for the position of an editor-in-chief of its Newsletter.

3. Exhibition on German-Jewish mathematics: a special exhibition on Jewish mathematicians in German speaking academic culture will be presented in Beit Hatfutsot (Nov 14-Dec 14), The Hoenich center for arts at the Technion (Dec 19-Jan 10) and the National Library (Feb 12-Mar 2). A conference Trends and Perspective in Mathematics, to be held Nov. 14-15, 2011, will accompany the openning.
   A third day devoted to young mathematicians from Israel and from Germany is planned for the 16th. Contact Lior Bari-Soroker or Shahaf Nitzan for details.

4. Highschool education:

   • A special Geometry Day in Haifa University, Oct. 26th, 2011, will be devoted to teaching geometry in schools and highschools. Registration is requested.

5. Mathematical competitions: The Israeli national student team attained fifth place in the IMC (the International Mathematical Competition for university students) of 2011. The team (Alexey Gladkich (TAU), Ofir Gorodetsky (Tech), Gal Dor (BIU), Shahar Papini (Tech), Shachar Carmeli (TAU), Ohad Nir (BGU) and Mark Shusterman (TAU)) returned with one grand first prize, 3 first prizes and 3 second prizes – a very respectible achievement. We thank the department chairs for sponsoring their respective students.
   Special thanks to the team leaders – Dmitry Faifman, Lev Radzivilovsky and Alexei Belov, who not only took the time to escort the team, but also put in great effort in selecting and preparing them; and to Gregory Soifer for coordinating the event for the IMU.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2011-3

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Dear All,

1. We still accept members for 2011-2012. You are welcome to join, either through your respective departments, or individually.

2. Congratulations to Saharon Shelah and Noga Alon, recipients of the EMET prize for 2011.

3. The call for nominations for the Abel prize 2012 has been published. The deadline for submission is September 15, 2011.

4. See the third annoucement on the IMU-PTM joint meeting, to be held September 12-15 at Lodz.

5. The 6th European Congress of Mathematics will be held July 2-7, 2012, in Krakow. The nearest deadline is for people wishing to organize mini-symposia: contact the congress organizers by October 31st.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2011-2

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Dear All,

1. If you have not already done so, you are encouraged to renew your membership at the IMU.

2. IMU meetings:

    

   • The IMU meeting is coming soon: Thursday, June 16th.

      

     • Please submit titles to the session organizers by May 12th.

     • Recent work may be presented in poster form, near the main hall. Please let us know in advance if you wish to present a poster.

   • We have limited funds to support students going to The Israeli-Polish Mathematical Meeting in September. See details here.

3. Opportunities for students:

   • Jacobs University at Bremen is organizing a 10-day special International Mathematical Summer School (July 2-12) for students in their last two years of highschool or first two years of university. The deadline has been extended to May 13th.

4. EMS matters:

   • The Department of Mathematics at the VU Amsterdam Univsersity has put forward a proposal to close the Geometry Section. We were asked to disribute a petition concerning this matter.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2011-1

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Dear All,

1. If you have not already done so, you are encouraged to renew your membership at the IMU.

2. IMU meetings:

   • The 2011 IMU meeting will be held Thursday, June 16th at Bar-Ilan University. Please mark your calendars!

   • The Israeli-Polish meeting will be held September 11-15, 2011. For details, see meeting website. Anyone interested in participating should contact the sectional organizers.

   • We have scheduled a joint IMU-AMS meeting in Tel-Aviv, to be held June 16-19, 2014.

3. Other conferences: see the list of upcoming events.

4. Prizes:

   • The Israel Mathematical Union is delighted to announce:

     • The Erdos prize in mathematics for 2011 will be awarded to Prof. Tamar Ziegler from the Technion.

     • The bi-annual Levitzki prize in algebra will be awarded to Dr. Michael Temkin from the Hebrew University.

     • The Haim Nessyahu Prize will be awarded to Dr. Lev Buhovsky from Tel-Aviv University.

   • All prizes will be awarded at the coming IMU meeting. The Union will issue a formal press release closer to the event.

   • The Japan Prize for 2011 will be awarded to Dennis Ritchie, Ken Thompson, Tadamitsu Kishimoto and Toshio Hirano. Citations and details can be found on the prize committee website.

   • The call for nomination of candidates for the EMS Prizes has been published. The deadline for submission is 1 November 2011.

   • The call for nominations of candidates for the Otto Neugebauer Prize for the History of Mathematics has been published. The deadline for submission is 31 December 2011.

5. Positions:

   • The applied math research center BCAM and the high-speed fans company BALTOGAR open a joint research line, and are looking for senior researchers. See here.

   • A research fellowship is available in “Automata, Languages, Decidability in Algebra”, at the university of St. Andrews: see here.

   • Postdoctoral position in arithmetic geometry / number theory / algebraic geometry at LMU Munich (Germany): deadline April 11, 2011. Details can be found in Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat website.

   • Eight Fulbright post-doctoral fellowships, of $20000 per year for two years each, are available for American candidates coming to Israeli universities. Deadline: Aug. 1st.

6. EMS matters:

   • The EMS has written a position paper on the Strategic Framework for Future EU Research and Innovation Funding. Responses can be viewed here. One can contribute to the EC debate by filling out this online questionnaire.

   • The EMS has become a partner of the project Mathematics of the Planet Earth 2013, see details.

Louis Rowen, Uzi Vishne and Tahl Nowik

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Newsletter 2010-7

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Dear All,

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1. As of January 1, 2011, the Bar-Ilan team will be heading the IMU:
   President: Prof. Eliezer (Louis) Rowen
   Secretary: Prof. Uzi Vishne
   Treasurer: Dr. Tahl Nowik

2. We have been informed by the incoming administration that they plan to hold the annual meeting of the IMU on June 16 at Bar-Ilan University – please mark your calendars!

3. Additional information on the Israeli-Polish meeting in September 2011 is now available; see http://imuptm.math.uni.lodz.pl/ for details and a tentative list of special sections. In particular, Vladimir Rovenski asks that people interested in participating in the session on Contemporary Geometry (broadly understood – including differential, symplectic and classical geometry) should contact him (with proposed title and abstract).

4. The winter conference for young mathematicians at Tel Aviv University welcomes the participation of all IMU members and others, Thursday Afternoon December 30 and Friday Morning December 31, see http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~barylior/IMUYoungDec2010.html

5. If you are in contact with mathematically inclined youngsters between the ages of 12 and 18, please call their attention to the 2011 Euromath conference. The link is available on the IMU home page under Youth Activities http://www.imu.org.il/#youth .

6. The call for the IMU prizes ( http://www.imu.org.il/#prizes ) has been sent to department heads – please make sure that deserving candidates from your recent graduates and faculty are nominated. The deadline for submitting names is December 31, 2010.

This is probably our last newsletter as IMU officers. We wish the new administration much success, and cooperation from all the members of the IMU.

Harry, Robi and Vered

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Newsletter 2010-6

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Dear All,

1. Hearty congratulations to Prof. Eilon Lindenstrauss from the Hebrew University for being the first Israeli to win the Fields Medal.

2. Also, congratulations to the Israeli mathematical competition team for getting the fourth place on the International Mathematics Competition for University Students on July 2010, with some very impressive individual achievements (details).

3. Many thanks to our representatives at the EMS Council meeting in Bulgaria on July 2010: Prof. Zvi Artstein (WIS), Prof. Mark Agranovsky (BIU) and Prof. David Blanc (Haifa).

4. The organizers of the Israeli-Polish Mathematical Meeting at Lodz, September 2011, encourage the organization of additional sessions, see the meeting website for details.

5. The IMU is helping to sponsor a winter conference at Tel Aviv University on Thursday December 30 and Friday December 31, with speakers chosen primarily from the current crop of new postdocs. For updated details see http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~barylior/IMUYoungDec2010.html If you know of a young postdoc who would like to participate, please forward this information to her/him.

6. Please keep us updated regarding upcoming conferences and events in Israel, see http://www.imu.org.il/upcoming-conf.html .

7. We plan to add a list of “Recommended reading for the young mathematician” which is composed of titles of some classical books written expressly for youngsters with an interest in math, with a brief description, when available. These include a number of books coauthored by I. M. Gelfand (Algebra, Trigonometry, The Method of Coordinates, Functions and Graphs), Stories About Sets by N. I. Vilenkin and a number of books by Ya. I. Perelman. This can be a good source for your favorite young mathematician. You are most welcome to contribute to this list.

Wishing you a fruitful and enriching academic year,

Harry, Robert and Vered

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Newsletter 2010-5

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Dear All,

1. Thank you for participating in the annual IMU meeting last month. For those who missed it, we had more than 120 pre-registered participants and several more who registered on site. The lectures and mini-symposia were very well attended and we felt the atmosphere was both pleasant and scholarly. For more information you are most welcome to read the IMU meeting protocol at http://www.imu.org.il/prot10.pdf and see the program, abstracts, and the presented slides for the business meeting and the prize ceremony at https://imu.org.il/conf2010/2010-meeting.html .

2. For those who have not joined yet the IMU and/or the EMS for the year 2010 please do so asap (A tentative list of members who have already prepaid for 2010 is available at: http://www.imu.org.il/Members2010-prepaid.html ).

3. Details regarding the Israeli-Polish meeting in Ldz, Poland, on September 11-15, 2011 can be found at: http://imuptm.math.uni.lodz.pl/ .

4. We remind that EMS individual members have the possibility of having an individual password in order to gain free access to Zentralblatt. Please use this opportunity. Zentralblatt is continuously developing in order to serve our community in the best possible way. To receive a login + password please contact Olaf Teschke (teschke@zblmath.fiz-karlsruhe.de). There is now a new ZBMATH webpage which is still under construction but already much improved, see http://www.zentralblatt-math.org/zmath/.

5. We also remind our members that we have reciprocal agreements with AMS, SIAM and EMS, meaning that you get a reduced membership dues in all these societies.

6. If any one is planning to attend the ICIAM in India this August, we would appreciate if you would let us know by return E-mail.

7. Please keep us updated regarding upcoming conferences and events in Israel, see http://www.imu.org.il/upcoming-conf.html .

Wishing you a pleasant summer,

Harry, Robert and Vered

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Newsletter 2010-4

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Dear All,

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We are in the final stages of organizing the annual meeting, which takes place on June 2 at the Weizmann Institute.

There is a rather full program, including plenary lectures by Peter Sarnak, Alfred Bruckstein and Erdos prize winner Boaz Klartrag; invited talks in the afternoon; a poster session and 8 specialized sessions in the late afternoon through the early evening;

see http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~diana/2010-meeting.html

We have extended the deadline for POSTER abstract submission and for REGISTRATION till MAY 30 – please submit your posters and register asap to help us better organize!

IMPORTANT TRAVEL ALERT:

There is no train service to Rehovot on June 2; for the stations in service that are closest to Rehovot, see

http://www.rail.co.il/EN/Pages/AlterationsMay.aspx#ParagraphTitle2 .

We are considering organizing a bus from Lod train station to the Institute at 8:45 am if there is sufficient interest; please drop us a note at imumeetings@gmail.com if you are interested.

Participants are encouraged to carpool – participants will be allowed to enter with their car, yet finding convenient parking may require some effort. There is ample parking near the swimming pool, but that's a 15 minute walk to the Ebner Auditorium, where all the morning activities and lunch take place.

Hope to see you on June 2,

Harry, Robert and Vered

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Newsletter 2010-3

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Dear members of the IMU,

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1. IMU meeting: The annual IMU meeting is on Wednesday June 2 at the Weizmann Institute. Please preregister via the site http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~diana/2010-meeting.html
   This site will also contain program details as they become available. We are still open for posters and special sessions.

2. High school education: In the past few weeks we have received a number of letters expressing general concern with the level of mathematical education in Israel and specific concerns with curriculum changes that have been proposed for the teaching of geometry in middle level schools. We believe that these are important issues and have opened a site on the home page of the IMU called Mathematical Education (see http://www.imu.org.il/imu-edu.html ) in order to provide a forum for discussing these concerns and for proposing methods of operation. To express your views on this site, please send an e-mail to imu@imu.org.il.

3. The Polish-Israeli meeting is forming. It is planned for Monday September 12, 2011 to Thursday September 15, 2011. The Israeli members of the Scientific Committee for the meeting are Michael Krivelevich, Allan Pinkus , Benjamin Weiss and Lawrence Zalcman. We sent them the responses that we received.

4. Congratulations to the Israeli national team for university students for winning 2 gold medals, 1 silver and 3 bronze in SEEMOUS 2010, see http://www.imu.org.il/math-compet.html for details.

5. Follow the Youth activities section for updated information on summer camps and activities for talented youth: http://www.imu.org.il/#youth

6. See the very beautiful SIAM site “Why do Math” : http://www.whydomath.org/

Hope to see you all on June 2,

Harry, Robert and Vered

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Newsletter 2010-2

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Dear members of the IMU,

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The next IMU meeting will be held at the Weizmann Institute on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. Mark your calenders!

Keep yourself up to date by visiting (and revisiting) the meeting web site:

http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~diana/2010-meeting.html

1. For free lunch, name tag, and to help us to better organize, please register asap to the IMU meeting – the registration is now open!

2. We are still collecting proposals for mini-sessions. They will start at 16:30 and can last up to 20:00. Please send us an email if you would like to organize one. So far, we have the following tentative list of sessions: Algebraic topology (David Blanc), Geometry (Dimitry Novikov), Math Education (Tommy Dreyfuss), Complex Dynamics (David Shoichet and Mark Agranovsky), Probability (Gadi Kozma).

3. We will have a poster session at the coffee and lunch breaks. This is a good opportunity for students to present their results. The deadline for submission of the posters abstract is May 16. See the conference web-page for instructions and a poster submission form.

4. Congratulations to Boaz Klartag for winning the Erdos Prize and to Elad Paran and Zeev Dvir for winning the Nessyahu Prize.

5. New information regarding Fulbright Fellowships for Visiting US Post-Doctoral Researchers is now posted on the IMU web site, offering very attractive fellowships to potential candidates, see http://www.imu.org.il/inq-offers.html .

If you are planning to attend the satellite ICM2010 conference on Applied Mathematics in New Delhi on August 15-17, please let us know. For more information on this conference, see http://icm2010.co.cc/ 

Hope to see you all on June 2,

Harry, Robert and Vered

Newsletter 2010-1

Dear members of the IMU,

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1. The next IMU meeting will be held at Weizmann institute on Wednesday, June 2, 2010. Please mark your calenders! We are planning to devote the morning and early afternoon to a mixture of Plenary and Semi-Plenary sessions, lunch and Posters. The late afternoon and early evening hours will be devoted to the traditional specialized sessions. If there is sufficient demand, additional specialized sessions will be held on Friday, June 4.

2. If you are interested in organizing a specialized session on June 2, or, possibly on June 4 (Friday morning) please let us know as soon as possible and please include the proposed title and the preferred day (i.e., late Wednesday or Friday morning).

3. Please encourage your students to attend the meeting and to prepare and submit a poster. Posters provide a very good exposure for advanced students and an opportunity to initiate discussions with experts. Mathematical posters do not necessarily need to be high-tech (as customary in other fields) – several A4 pages with LARGE fonts and short explanations of the main goals and current results will do.

4. Thank you for your inputs to our constantly updated web-page; please continue to contribute!

5. Thank you for your responses regarding the Polish-Israeli meeting which is planned for middle of September 2011 in Lodz, Poland. We will keep you informed of developments.

With best wishes, Harry, Robi and Vered

Newsletter 2009-4

Dear members of the IMU,

 

1. The next IMU meeting will be at Weizmann institute on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 with possibly additional specialized sessions on June 4. Please mark your calenders! We are planning to have plenary sessions, an extended Poster session and the traditional specialized sessions. If you are interested in having a specialized session in this meeting please let us know the area and whether you are willing to organize it.

2. The Polish Mathematical Union has expressed an interest in organizing a joint meeting with the IMU, to be hosted by the University of Lodz in mid September 2011 (Rosh Hashana begins on the evening of September 28, so there is no conflict with the holidays). If you have a tentative interest in participating in such a meeting, or are aware of fields of common interest between Polish and Israeli mathematicians, please let us know.

3. The EMS and ESF are gathering information on connections of mathematics with industry and would very much appreciate if you could fill out a short questionnaire that is available at: http://esf.icm.edu.pl/?hid=71adc6c3b064161bdbfa63b3da767011
   username: questionnaire (DO NOT CUT AND PASTE – YOU NEED TO WRITE IT WITH ONLY ONE N !)
   password: questionnaire (AS ABOVE, WRITTEN WITH ONLY ONE N !)

4. Thanks for the input regarding our constantly updated web-page – please continue to contribute.

With best wishes,
Harry, Robi and Vered


Newsletter 2009-3

Dear members of the IMU,

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1. We are starting to organize the next IMU meeting. We are planning to have plenary sessions, an extended Poster session and the traditional specialized sessions. We hope to fit it all in one day, but will add a second day if there is sufficient interest. If you are interested in having a specialized session, please let us know the area and whether you are willing to organize it. Dates and other details will follow soon.

2. We are happy to report that we now have a reciprocity agreement with SIAM – if you are an IMU member and live outside of the USA you can now join SIAM at a reduced rate of $91 per year (instead of $130), see http://www.imu.org.il/affil-soc.html .

3. We are constantly updating the IMU web-page
   http://www.imu.org.il/index.html
   including in it relevant mathematical links and news. Your input will be highly appreciated.

   1. We are trying to promote a calendar for mathematical conferences and main mathematical events in Israel, see
      http://www.imu.org.il/upcoming-conf.html
      Please send us even preliminary announcements – the idea is that people will be able to use this calender to avoid overlaps between related workshops and conferences.

   2. We have added a “youth activities” section in which we have links to some of the Olympiads and special university programs for high-school students, see
      http://www.imu.org.il/#youth
      These activities are not always properly advertised at schools – so send your kids these links !

   3. We have now listed all the IMU members on our web-site (with no e-mails for obvious reasons). Please check that we have listed your name (Hebrew and English) and affiliation correctly, see
      http://www.imu.org.il/members2009.html
      Please send corrections to
      diana.mandelik@weizmann.ac.il (in English please).

4. Please recall that PhD students of the IMU member departments are now entitled to a free one-year IMU student membership – to register please use the online form
   http://www.imu.org.il/membership.txt .

With best wishes,
Harry, Robi and Vered

Newsletter 2009-2

Dear Members of the IMU,

 

1. We are happy to announce that SIAM Council and Board of Trustees approved reciprocity with the IMU. This means that soon you will be able to join SIAM at reduced rates – details will follow.

2. Neal Sherman from the United States-Israel Educational Foundation asked to bring to your attention the information regarding the possibility of receiving Fulbright Fellowship support for US postdocs joining their research teams, see his letter and details on the program at http://www.fulbright.org.il/US-PostDoc.

3. Mikhail Klin from BGU asked us to distribute the letter enclosed below regarding the KAMEA program.

4. PhD students of the IMU member departments are now entitled to free two-year IMU student membership – please encourage your students to register.

Have a great summer,

Harry, Robi and Vered.

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***

Letter by Mikhail Klin to IMU members: 

Dear colleagues,

During last few weeks it became transparently clear that there is a strong danger of ruining of Kamea program.
Recall that this program creates funding for hundreds of scientists, mainly from former USSR, who came to Israel during last 15-20 years.
Essential part of these scientists are mathematicians. During last decade financial and logistical status of the participants of Kamea was reasonably stable.
At some moment we were pleased to start to believe that our part of scientific community is recognised as an essential ingredient of Israeli Academia.
Now it is clear that our illusions are finished. Participants of Kamea are forced in extraordinary circumstances to make pressure on government structures, to participate in demonstrations, to cry on squares about their rights.
During long time, we however used to different standards: to publish papers, to teach students, to govern scientific seminars, to host colleagues from other countries, to advise young scientists, to work as visiting professors around the world, to represent Israel on conferences, to struggle in an honest competition for research grants, and after that to fulfil challenging projects, to admire freedom of ongoing scientific research, to enjoy lucky mathematical insights.
I am sure that the scientific community of IMU is a strong part of Israeli Academia.
Please raise your voice against cinic bureacratical games. Please tell your opinion to a wide audience of Israeli society via newspapers, TV and other kinds of mass media. Please express efficient solidarity with your colleagues.
It is still not too late.
Make all your best to defend status of Kamea program at least on the level of the last 10 years.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Misha Klin

Newsletter 2009-1

1. 
   Dear IMU members, A few updates regarding our activities:

    

   The annual meeting took place on April 30-May 1 at the Weizmann Institute, with much technical and financial help and support from the local staff and faculty; we are very appreciative to all of the many people who contributed their efforts. On April 30 we had 16 invited talks, a small poster session and 2 specialized evening-sessions; on May 1 we had 3 more specialized sessions. There were 130 registered participants, and we felt that the general atmosphere was pleasant and that the level and clarity of the talks were indeed very good. We received mostly positive responses on this format of the meeting. You are most welcome to send us your impressions and suggestions. We plan to continue with a similar format next year. We do hope to enhance the poster session; we think it is a good opportunity for graduate students to expose some of their work to the Israeli Math community.

   1. We are in the process of updating the IMU web page.

      • We initiated an “upcoming conferences” page that is intended to both advertise and coordinate the planning of conferences in Israel. We encourage you to examine this page when planning a conference in order to minimize overlaps with other conferences that may be intended for similar audiences.

      • We plan to add information on youth activities, awards received by Israeli Mathematicians and general news related to the community, including links to foreign visitors at each of our member institutions. Your input and cooperation are crucial for the success of such endeavor.

      • We can also add links to pages for the “working groups” that run one-day specialized workshops in Israel – please inform us of such activities and we will be happy to promote them.

   2. The Israeli undergraduate students national team, that was created by the former IMU management, had a great success in their last SEEMOUS competition, and is getting ready for their next competition, the IMC in Budapest. We do need donations and sponsors to help finance the travel expenses of some of the students and the coaches. Please contact us if you can help.

   3. We view the representation of Israel mathematicians at international organizations as an important role of the IMU and shall try very hard to insure that we are represented in international committee meetings in which policies, awards and future conferences are discussed. In May of 2009 Z. Artstein represented the IMU at a board meeting of the EMS in Poland and E. Titi represented the IMU at the ICIAM board meeting in Oslo.

   4. The ICIAM is calling for nominations for five ICIAM Prizes in applied and industrial mathematics. The deadline for the nominations is 21 September 2009. Please consider nominating Israeli candidates.

   5. It is time to pay your dues and to consider joining the EMS – the European Mathematical Society (see below) – please pay through your department secretary (or directly by mail, using the form).

2. Have a great summer, The IMU management
   Harry Dym, Robert Krauthgamer, Vered Rom-Kedar