NEWS
2001/2002
Issue No 11
Report of the Scientific Director
In the summer of 1993 John Ball and Elmer Rees got me interested in the idea of becoming Scientific Director of ICMS, at that time recently set up. I was to continue in my Oxford position (all this facilitated by an EPSRC Senior Fellowship), and spend as much time in Edinburgh as my ICMS duties required. I took up the position in 1994, and have worked happily since then with the many who have given generously of their time and energies to make our enterprise a success.
After a few years I settled here, in my current position at Edinburgh University. As I take stock, it seems to me that mathematics is lively in Scotland, and surely ICMS deserves some of the credit for this. Mathematics flourishes only when there is an influx of ideas and personalities. We have aimed to bring to Scotland bright, emerging ideas and gifted expositors. That we have succeeded owes much to the commitment of many people in the Scottish community. I hope to remain a vigorous member of this group, and am particularly glad to see the growing involvement of younger colleagues, who will soon enough form the second generation to run ICMS.
From the beginning we have depended on the support of scientific leaders from outside the Scottish community. In earlier Newsletters I have tried to express our thanks to them. Now I want to give special thanks to Jerry Marsden, Klaus Kirchgässner, and Hans Duistermaat, each of whom served as Convenor of our Programme Committee during my time at ICMS. They have really helped to shape ICMS and with each it has been a pleasure and inspiration to work.
ICMS is now a respected member of the growing community of international research institutes in mathematics. It is surely characterised by informality and an ability to react rapidly to new ideas. There are of course times (when a grant application ends in disappointment, say) when we miss the financial cushions enjoyed by some of our larger cousins. Having recently spent a happy time (scientifically and socially) at the tenth birthday celebrations of the Fields Institute, I am keenly aware of how much can be achieved – combining advanced research activity and public involvement in all aspects of mathematical education – by a country with a relatively small population. We have proved that we can provide, over a long period, vibrant activity across the spectrum of mathematics. We have yet to show that we can attain, here in Scotland, what has been attained in Toronto in terms of commitment, whether by the public, state or private enterprise, to the nourishing of mathematical education. For me, informality (aka back of the envelope syndrome) comes naturally. But it can only we useful, in an institution like ICMS, if matched by the strong nerves, and wisdom, of the likes of Elmer Rees and Tracey Dart, my most tried and trusted collaborators.
Too many people have made a difference for me to list them all now. I feel, however, that I must thank specially Lucy Young, Madeleine Shepherd and Margaret Cook, for their organisational work and Toby Bailey and Tony Carbery for their special efforts on that crucial component of our activity, the Instructional Conferences in Analysis.
As in every year since I began writing for the Newsletter, the recent scientific events have been varied and timely (and I urge the reader to look at the individual reports). It was good to have the University of Stirling, in the person of Peter Rowlinson, mount a large-scale, and distinctly interdisciplinary, meeting on algebraic graph theory. Mike Titterington, from Glasgow, one of our most regular and valuable collaborators, ran a workshop on statistical mixtures and latent-structure modelling. And it seems likely that, through the efforts of Jack Carr and Andrew Lacey, we have been the first major institute to take up modelling council house allocation. As always, I mention only a few items from a rich menu.
In 2003 we will honour the leading Scottish mathematician of the 20th century, at the Hodge centennial celebrations. The speakers are of a distinction to match the man and his work. In this, as in so many other things, we owe much to Michael Atiyah. Perhaps no other mathematician of the first rank has been so generous with his energies and his talents (scientific and administrative) in the service of the whole mathematics community. His unflagging support is one of our greatest assets, and we are grateful.
My wishes for ICMS are that the collective commitment is maintained, alongside the scientific imagination and international perspective. I am confident that a younger generation will move naturally to shoulder the responsibilities taken earlier by the founding generation. I find it hard to imagine ICMS without Tracey and wish us many years of her as Administrative Director.
Fifty-odd years as a fooball enthusiast make me cautious about putting ‘Scotland’ and ‘goals’ in the same sentence, but I do urge ICMS not to lose sight of a future in which we may do more to increase public understanding of the beauty and practical importance of our subject.
Angus Macintyre
September 2002
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Under its first Scientific Director, Angus MacIntyre, ICMS has become an important international centre for workshops and conferences. Our job now is to maintain and enhance the scientific programme against a background where mathematical workshop activity proliferates internationally.
John Toland
July 2002
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