Recent News

EMS e-news 36, September 2020

EDITORIAL

Dear members of the EMS,

Mathematics, as many other scientific fields and our society as a whole, is facing a big challenge in the way we operate. We are used to travel, to meet and to cooperate in person. Over the centuries, many important mathematical developments have emerged as we work at the blackboard together. This way of doing research is very restricted right now and we can anticipate that this will continue for quite some time. But we are creative. E-seminars and webinars have emerged in many mathematical communities, new methods of teaching, research collaboration and communication are being explored. Some will be adopted by the mathematical community, and I guess others will not, once we return to a more normal way of life. But in the meantime we will make the best of it, I am sure, despite second and third waves hitting us.

The current situation has forced us to postpone the EMS’s 30th anniversary celebration and the meeting of presidents of EMS member societies, planned for the end of October, to next spring or later. An executive committee meeting will take place via video conference. However, in the meantime we have prepared a booklet to mark the EMS turning 30. Thanks to EMS Vice President Betül Tanbay for putting this together. It will be published in October by EMS Press.

 

Wed, 30 Sep 2020
Sonia Kéfi wins prestigious Erdos-Renyi Prize for young scientists

Congratulations to Sonia Kéfi (@cnrs.fr) who has won the 2020 e Erdős-Renyi Prize “for foundational and empirically grounded theoretical research that has advanced network science and its applications in ecology, with a focus on multiple types of interactions among species and the implications for global change, opening the path to new ways to study ecosystems.”

Sun, 27 Sep 2020
EMS 30 year celebratory event postponed

The celebratory event planned to mark the European Mathematical Society's 30th anniversary, originally planned 

to take place in the last weekend of October at the ICMS Edinburgh, has sadly been postponed till next Spring due to the current sanitary situation in Europe.

Fri, 18 Sep 2020
Passing of Vaughan Jones

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Vaughan F. R. Jones.

Sir Vaughan Jones, Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Mathematics of Vanderbilt University and Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley, passed away suddenly this week. Vaughan Jones was a New Zealand-born mathematician based in the USA, renowned worldwide for his remarkable work on von Neumann algebras and knot polynomials.

In 1990 he was awarded a Fields medal for his discoveries in the mathematical study of knots, including an application to an invariant now known as the Jones polynomial. This led to the solution of a number of classical problems in knot theory, and to increased interest in low-dimensional topology.

EMS Vice-President Betül Tanbay, who knew him for more than thirty five years since the "bright guy on bike" had arrived to Berkeley, describes him as "a wonderful human being, a shining windsurfer and a great mathematician".

Prof. Jones was to deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress in Mathematics in Slovenia in 2021. The EMS extends deepest condolences to his family and friends. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and the wider mathematical community.

Fri, 11 Sep 2020
Passing of Vaughan Jones

It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Vaughan F. R. Jones.

Sir Vaughan Jones, Stevenson Distinguished Professor of Mathematics of Vanderbilt University and Professor Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley, passed away suddenly this week. Vaughan Jones was a New Zealand-born mathematician based in the USA, renowned worldwide for his remarkable work on von Neumann algebras and knot polynomials.

In 1990 he was awarded a Fields medal for his discoveries in the mathematical study of knots, including an application to an invariant now known as the Jones polynomial. This led to the solution of a number of classical problems in knot theory, and to increased interest in low-dimensional topology.

EMS Vice-President Betül Tanbay describes him as "I had known him for more than thirty five years as  "a wonderful human being, great mathematician too. I had known him for more than thirty five years as the "bright guy on bike" arrived to Berkeley. He loved windsurfing, me too."

Prof. Jones was to deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress in Mathematics in Sloveinia in 2021. The EMS extends deepest condolences to his family and friends. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues and the wider mathematical community.

Fri, 11 Sep 2020
Zemánek Prize awarded to Michael Hartz

The Jaroslav and Barbara Zemánek Prize in functional analysis with emphasis on operator theory for 2020 is awarded to Michael Hartz (Universität des Saarlandes, Germany) for his work on operator-oriented function theory of several variables.

Fri, 14 Aug 2020
Decease of C. S. Seshadri

Prof. C. S. Seshadri, Chennai Mathematical Institute, India, passed away on July 17, 2020, at the age of 88.

Fri, 31 Jul 2020
Calls for Minisymposia and Satellite conferences at 8ECM reopened

The organizers of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics have reopened the calls for Minisymposia and Satellite conferences.
We remind that the congress been rescheduled and will take place 20 – 26 June 2021 in Portorož, Slovenia.

Conditions for applications remain the same, all received proposals will be reviewed by the Local Scientific Committee.

Deadline for applications is 31 January 2021.

Tue, 7 Jul 2020
9ECM will be held in Seville on 15-19 July 2024

The EMS Council, in its online meeting of 4 July 2020 has decided that the 9th European Congress of Mathematics in 2024 will be held in Seville (Spain).

Sat, 4 Jul 2020
EMS Council elects new members of Executive Committee

The EMS Council was meant to be meeting in Bled (Slovenia) on 4-5 July 2020, but because of the pandemic instead met online on 4 July 2020. The following new members of the Executive Committee (EC) have been elected by the EMS Council, and will start at the beginning of 2021.

  • Vicepresident: Jorge Buescu (Portugal)
  • Secretary: Jiří Rákosník (Czech republic)
  • Members-at-large: Fréderic Hélein (France), Barbara Kaltenbacher (Austria), Luis Narváez (Spain), Beatrice Pelloni (UK), and Susanna Terracini (Italy).
Sat, 4 Jul 2020