CAIMS/SCMAI E-News Volume 01 Number 3 August 9, 2001 Editor: Sue Ann Campbell (sacampbell@uwaterloo.ca) CONTENTS 1. President's Column 2. CAIMS 2001 - Report 3. Canada Research Chairs in Applied Mathematics 4. A letter from the past chair of NSERC GSC 337 re the Reallocation Exercise 5. Thematic Year on Numerical and Computational Challenges in Science and Engineering at the Fields Institute 6. Societa Italiana di Matematica Applicata e Industriale Biannual Conference 7. First International Conference of the New Millennium on History of Mathematical Sciences 8. Positions available at the University of Western Ontario 9. CAIMS/SCMAI E-News Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 1 ====== From: Sam Shen Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 13:40:29 -0400 July 9, 2001 President's Column Our last annual meeting was held during June 7-9, 2001 at the University of Victoria. It was a very successful meeting. In particular, the poster session attracted a huge audience and was a big success. The meeting was organized by Rod Edwards and David Leeming of the UVic. I'd like to thank them again for the great job. At the Victoria meeting, Anna Lawniczak passed the CAIMS/SCMAI presidency to me. I will work with the CAIMS/SCMAI members and the society supporters to continue to strengthen the society and help it grow. During her presidency, Anna worked very hard for the society. She strengthened our connection with several major mathematics societies, including the Canadian Mathematics Society (CMS), Statistical Society of Canada (SSC), Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and Gesellschaft fur Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik e. V. (GAMM). The CAIMS-CMS joint meeting of 2000 at Hamilton, called MATH2000, attracted more than 400 participants and our society made $12,800 profit from this meeting. CAIMS-2003 will be a joint meeting with SIAM in Montreal, and our 2004 annual meeting will be joint with CMS in Halifax. At the society's council meeting in Victoria, a motion of thanks to Prof. Lawniczak for all her hard work as president was carried unanimously. In the coming two years, I have three goals in mind. First, we need to drive up the membership. CAIMS/SCMAI membership application/renewal forms can be found at http://www.math.sfu.ca/caims/Society/subscribe.html I'd like to start a membership-drive. We have established a Membership Committee, consisting of Mike Foreman, Martin Gander, Abba Gumel, Ken Jackson, Paul Muir, Steve Ruuth, and myself. I was assigned to chair the committee initially. Considering my responsibilities to the other committees, I found that it is more appropriate for somebody else to chair the committee and I have appointed Ken Jackson, the President Elect, as the committee chair. I wish to use this opportunity to call upon you to encourage your students to join CAIMS, to encourage your supervisor to join CAIMS, and to encourage at least one friend to join CAIMS. For faculty members, I'd like to convince you to be a life-member. The cost is only $600 and it saves you the trouble of paying the annual fee. As you know, the membership fee can be reimbursed from your professional allowance. Junior faculty members benefit the most from the life-membership. Most major mathematics societies do not have this offer and I do not know whether this offer will last forever for CAIMS/SCMAI. Second, we will establish a CAIMS/SCMAI research prize. A prize committee has been formed and consists of Anthony Pierce (UBC), Don Dawson (Carleton), and Hermann Brunner (Memorial). Anthony chairs the committee. When the details of the prize are figured out, the committee will make an announcement through the internet. Third, we will strengthen our relationship with NSERC, CRM (Centre de recherches mathematiques), the Fields Institute, MITACS (Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems), and PIMS (Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences). CAIMS/SCMAI should play an important role in the NSERC fund reallocation exercise. CAIMS/SCMAI is our society and is your society. Let us work together to promote Canadian applied and industrial mathematics, to attract more talent to this field, and to get more funding for this field. Our next annual meeting (June 8-10, 2002) will be in Calgary. Please join us! The details can be found at http://www.math.ucalgary.ca/~ware/caims/index.html Paul Binding and Tony Ware are the organizers. I plan to call all the past presidents of our society and invite them to the meeting. I expect all of you to meet these past presidents and give them a big hand for their contribution to our society! That is all I wished to share with you in this issue of the newsletter. If you have any questions or need to contact me, please email me at shen@ualberta.ca. More information about me can be found from my webpage www.ualberta.ca/~shen. Cheers, Sam Shen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 2 ====== From: "Roderick Edwards" Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 17:08:52 -0700 CAIMS 2001 - Report by Rod Edwards, Co-chair of Organizing Committee, July, 2001 The 22nd Annual Meeting of CAIMS, held at the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, June 7-9, 2001, was a delightful event. About 120 participants enjoyed three busy and stimulating days in the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere of the university, and were fortunate to have the opportunity to hear and speak with some outstanding Canadian and international mathematicians and scientists. The list of speakers included some highly distinguished researchers with international reputations as well as some of our newer Canadian researchers. The poster session also proved extremely popular. Martin Taylor, the Vice-President Research of the University of Victoria, and Florin Diacu, our local PIMS site director, opened the conference on Thursday morning. The meeting was divided into 6 thematic sessions plus the poster session: Applied Dynamical Systems (organized by Florin Diacu; plenary speaker, Jerold Marsden), Data Compression (organized by Wu-Sheng Lu and Nigel Horspool; plenary speaker, Bin Yu), Fluid Dynamics (organized by Andrew Weaver; plenary speaker, Grae Worster), Computational Biology (organized by Valerie King and Ben Koop; plenary speaker, Tandy Warnow), Mathematical Biology (organized by Pauline van den Driessche; plenary speaker, Hal Smith) and Neural Networks and Neural Dynamics (organized by Rod Edwards; plenary speaker, Nancy Kopell). As there were no more than two parallel sessions at any time, it was possible (even for the organizers!) to attend a large percentage of the talks, including all the plenary talks and the poster session. Many participants commented on the overall high quality of the talks, people were able to find out what was occurring in fields other than their own main area, and the level of interaction, both in and out of the talks, was generally high. This interaction extended to the social events, too. The reception on Thursday evening and the salmon barbecue on Friday evening certainly contributed to the genial atmosphere of the conference. Sue Ann Campbell acted as Master of Ceremonies at the barbecue where the prize and other honours were presented, and Sam Shen was presented as the new president of CAIMS. A panel of five judges evaluated the contributed presentations (both posters and short talks) by graduate students and post-doctoral fellows for the traditional prize. Although the quality of all the presentations was high, the prize was awarded to Ricardo Carretero-Gonzalez of Simon Fraser University for his work on "Breathers in Soliton Lattices: From Multi- Soliton Interactions to Homoclinic Tangles". Two others received honourable mention: Gustavo Carrero of the University of Alberta for "Diffusion Process Monitored by Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching: Some Theoretical Aspects", and Chee Tiong Ong for "Interactions of Forced Solitons - fKdV & fNLS". The success of the conference was due in part to the calibre of researchers we were able to attract and in part to the effective organizing team that supported us. The session organizers listed above, representing five university departments (Mathematics and Statistics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Earth and Ocean Sciences, Biology), did a fine job of coordinating their speakers and in many cases did much more than that. The team also included my Co-Chair, David Leeming, Reinhard Illner, Kelly Choo, Mike Foreman, Gary MacGillivray, Gary Duncan and Ariana Clapton, with help during and immediately before the event from Julien Arino, Karissa Johnston, Julia Sigwart, Mary-Lou Zeeman and Dmitri Gokhman. Particular thanks go to Irina Gavrilova and Wendy Leyland, who actually managed a large part of the paperwork, bookkeeping and communications. On behalf of the University of Victoria, I would like to thank CAIMS for the opportunity to host such a satisfying meeting. Finally, here are some comments received from participants: "Thanks for putting together a spectacular meeting. It was a perfect mix of high fliers. and local talent." "I had a great time at CAIMS, and. I am absolutely in awe that you put together such a high-power list of speakers." "It was, easily, one of the best meetings (if not the best) that I have attended in Canada. Clearly, UVIC has a reputation for high quality and thoroughly enjoyable meetings." "The plenary and invited presentations. were of very high quality." "The lecture rooms were simply superb." "The Conference Dinner (Salmon BBQ) in the magnificent University Club was delicious and the atmosphere friendly." "The presence of the rather friendly rabbits population. also added to the beauty of the campus." "It was indeed a great conference--you did a wonderful job." "Congratulations on an excellent conference." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 3 ====== From: Sue Ann Campbell Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 I hope everyone will join me in congratulating the following individuals: Jonathan Borwein, Simon Fraser University Hadi Dowlatabadi, University of British Columbia Brigitte Jaumard, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal Mark Lewis, University of Alberta Jianhong Wu, York University each of whom has been awarded a Canada Research Chair in Applied Mathematics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 4 ====== From: Herb Freedman Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2001 Editor, CAIMS - SCMAI Newsletter In a letter in the February 2001 Newsletter, Ed Vrscay comments about various aspects of NSERC funding of applied mathematics. Since I was Chair of GSC 337, Pure and Applied Mathematics B, which includes applied mathematics for the 2001 competition, I thought that I would respond to some of the comments and queries, perhaps answering and clarifying some of them. Perhaps I can begin with a bit of history concerning the Pure and Applied Mathematics Committees. I was a member of what was then called CAMS-SCMA from its very beginning and eventually served on its Council and Executive (as Secretary) for about six years. During that period, it was strongly felt by many (including myself) that applied mathematicians where getting a raw deal from the predominantly pure mathematicians on the NSERC grant selection committees over the years, and that there ought to be a separate Grant Selection Committee (GSC) for applied mathematics. We wrote to NSERC on many occasions giving what we felt were sound academic reasons for a separate committee, but our letters so to speak fell on deaf ears. Eventually, however, NSERC did agree to split Pure and Applied Mathematics into two committees, Committee A (GSC 336) and Committee B (GSC 337). The split was not made on academic grounds, but rather for administrative reasons, namely there were so many applicants and such a wide variety of areas that the work of the GSC became too unwieldy, took too long, and there was not enough expertise in one committee satisfying language, geography, gender and other requirements to cover all or even most areas of mathematics. The split was by topic so that the committees handled mathematical topics (and still does) mainly as follows. GSC 336 looks after algebra, number theory, topology, classical and functional analysis, approximation theory, etc. GSC 337 covers combinatorics, graph theory, differential equations, fluid dynamics, control theory, mathematical biology, mathematics of finance, etc. Certainly all applications in applied mathematics are handled by GSC 337 if they are handled by a mathematics committee. However all equipment grants are handled by both committees meeting jointly. Note that Statistics has its own committee. Also note that last year Computing Science was split into A and B committees, also for administrative reasons. As pointed out by Ed Vrscay, it is indeed the case that not all researchers in applied mathematics apply to GSC 337. Many apply to the Interdisciplinary Committee, Mechanical Engineering Committee, Physic Committee, Earth Sciences Committee, etc. I don't know what the percentage is, but in my department all but three or four applied mathematicians receive their grants from GSC 337. I should point out that the applicant indicates which committee is preferred to adjudicate the application, but in the end it is NSERC through committee chairs consultations that make the final selection. Dr. Vrscay asked in his letter "... is there even a need for GSC 337 as far as Applied Math is concerned?" The answer is clearly yes. NSERC will not revert to a single mathematics committee again. Applied mathematicians may ask that their applications be considered by other committees, but the applications will be sent to where the expertise lies, and if the mathematics outweighs the applications as it did in over fifty of the applications last year, the application will be sent to a mathematics committee for adjudication. The fact is that I believe in Canada, most applied mathematicians at Universities are mathematicians first and are located in Mathematics Departments. To address the next point, one must understand how NSERC's budgeting works. Each committee is given a budget which, subject to some adjustments for reallocation funds (which is why the reallocation exercise is extremely important), is directly related to the total amount of funds previously allocated to applicants who are up for renewal. This year additional funds were made available for new applicants (junior and senior researchers). The fact is that for the 2001 competition the majority of the applicants to GSC 337 were applied mathematicians. Almost all the "pure" applicants were in combinatorics, graph theory and design theory. Certainly the largest grants awarded were to applied mathematicians and these were comparable to any grants awarded by either committee in any year. The statement that applied mathematics does poor compared to pure mathematics is a myth. One only has to sit on a GSC to see that to the best of our ability, all applicants and applications are thoroughly examined equally and treated with respect. By NSERC rules, which I made sure were followed, no area of mathematics or its applications was considered to be worse or less worthy than any other. In his letter, Dr. Vrscay asks "So then how much of 337 money goes to applied mathematics?" I cannot answer this question exactly and the answer would vary from year to year. Certainly the majority by far goes to applied mathematics because the majority by far of the applicants are in applied mathematics. Under the rules of equal treatment, the answer would clearly depend on quantity and quality of the "applied" applications versus "pure". I really must address the issue of "horror stories" as presented by Dr. Vrscay. Of course, they do happen in every GSC upon occasion (I hope it didn't happen this year under my guidance), but never intentionally. The fact is that almost all "horror" situations from the point of view of the applicant, are even more horrific from the point of view of the committee. The plain fact is that almost all applications which don't get funded or which were funded at a drastically reduced level from previous funding are because either the proposal is poor or poorly written, or the proposer's research is poor or scanty, or there is no demonstration for the need for funds, or in the case of renewals, very poor training of highly qualified personnel. Prominent researchers who cease doing research won't be funded. There is too much need for funds for young, up and coming researchers in a limited budget. If you are applying as an applied mathematician and the mathematics is poor or routine, and the applications are poor or nebulous, don't expect funding from any committee. I wish Dr. Vrscay had consulted with a committee member before writing his comments on this subject. I hope I have shed some light on the workings of NSERC and on GSC 337 in particular. I can assure the applied mathematics community that applied mathematics is treated fairly and justly by all concerned. Good researchers get good grants (at least for mathematics). If it seems that more money is allocated to pure mathematics as a whole, it is because there are far more "pure" mathematicians than "applied", but the average grant sizes are comparable. I wish the reallocation committee well, for their task is far more important than most of us realize. I am happy to discuss NSERC policy and procedures with anyone who has concerns. I can be reached at (780) 492-3530 or e-mail me at hfreedma@math.ualberta.ca. H.I. Freedman Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences University of Alberta ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 5 ====== From: Ken Jackson Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 14:29:35 -0400 Thematic Year on Numerical and Computational Challenges in Science and Engineering at the Fields Institute August 2001 to August 2002 The Fields Institute in Toronto is sponsoring a Thematic Year on "Numerical and Computational Challenges in Science and Engineering" (NCCSE) from August 2001 to August 2002. The main point of this announcement is to inform the scientific computing committee about this event so that any people interested in participating can include it in their plans for 2001-02. More information about the Fields Institute in general and the NCCSE Thematic Year in particular can be found at http://www.fields.utoronto.ca and http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/numerical.html respectively. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 6 ====== From: Mario Primicerio Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 11:16:12 +0100 Dear colleague, In May 2002 (May 27th to 31st) SIMAI will organize its biannual Conference at Chia Laguna, a nice place in Sardinia. I proposed that all members of Scientific Societies affiliated to ICIAM are entitled to pay the reduced fee offered to members of SIMAI. The Organizing Committee accepted. I would like to ask you to circulate this information among the members of your society. Some more information on the conference can be found on the web site http://www.iac.rm.cnr.it/simai/simai2002. Best wishes Mario Primicerio ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 7 ====== From: "Dr.Man Mohan" Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 09:58:58 +0530 First International Conference of the New Millenium on History of Mathematical Sciences Delhi : December 20-23, 2001 Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India ANNOUNCEMENT December 2001 20-23. The First International Conference of the New Millennium on History of Mathematical Sciences, will be held at Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India. Organizers: The Indian Society for History of Mathematics, Ramjas College, University of Delhi and other national institutions. International Steering Committee: Bruce C Berndt(USA), Chandra Gulati (Australia), E Von Collani(Germany), Eberhard Knobloch(Germany), G E Andrews(USA), Ivor Grattan-Guinness(UK), Jan P Hogendirk(Netherlands), Jasbir Singh Chahal(USA), Jose Maria Balmaceda(Philippines), Ken Ross(USA), Liyaquat Khan(India), M Monastyrsky(Russia), Mariana L Ferreira(USA), Mary Croarken(UK), Mohammad Bagheri(Iran), Navin Singhi(USA), R C Gupta(India), Roland Duduchava(Georgia), S M R Ansari(India), V Lakshmikantham(USA), Volker Peckhaus(Germany) Invited Speakers: Abhilasha Aggarwal(UK), Ananda Prasad Pant(Nepal), Antonio Drago(Italy), Benno Artmann(Germany), Catherine Goldstein(France), Dana Schlomiuk(Canada), De G Young(Egypt), E Von Collani(Germany), Enrico Giusti(Italy), Frank Hawkins(USA), Frank Swetz(Philippines), George Gheverghese Joseph(UK), Guru Prasad Dhakal(Nepal), Ivor Grattan-Guinness(UK), Jasbir Singh Chahal(USA), Jose Maria Balmaceda(Philippines), K V Mardia(UK), Kamal Chanda(USA), Kenneth Williams(UK), Mariana L Ferreira(USA), Milogardner(USA), Mohammed Bagheri(Iran), Navin Singhi(USA), Prem Nath Bajaj(USA), Ravinder Kumar(USA), Ritu Gupta(Australia), Roland Duduchava(Georgia), Rolf Jeltsch(Switzerland), S Leela(USA), Saeed S Hashemi(Iran), Umberto Bottazzini(Italy), V Lakshmikantham(USA), Vitali Milman(Israel), Volker Peckhaus(Germany), and a number of eminent mathematicians from the country. FOCUS: The conference will cover all aspects of the history of mathematical sciences including mathematics, statistics, Operations Research and computer science and applications thereof to societal needs. In particular the conference will focus on the following areas: 1. General Histories, Source Books and Biographies of Mathematicians 2. Mathematics and indigenous Cultures of the World 3. Ancient Indian Mathematics 4. The Origin of Mathematics 5. Mathematics in 15th to 18th Centuries, Renaissance 6. 19th and 20th Centuries Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences 7. History of Mathematics as a subject in Educational Curricula 8. Future Prospects The academic sessions will consist of invited plenary talks and contributed paper presentations. CALL FOR PAPERS: Papers covering topics pertaining to the above areas are invited for the conference. The authors are requested to submit the full version of their papers in the publishable form latest by October 1, 2001 along with the abstract. The Proceedings of the conference will be published. LOCAL HOSPITALITY: Outstation participants will be provided free local hospitality including local accommodation, transportation and meals at the venue of the conference. REGISTRATION FEE: The Registration fee of US $200 for foreign participants and Rs.500 for participants from India is payable latest by 30th September 2001. All payments should be made either by a local Cheque or a Demand Draft drawn in favour of ICHM2001, Delhi and payable at New Delhi. COMMUNICATION ADDRESS: All communications, including papers and payments, should be addressed to: Professor Y P Sabharwal Organizing Secretary, ICHM2001 Department of Mathematics & Statistics Ramjas College, Delhi 10007, India ichm2001rjc@yahoo.com ******************************************************************************** Preliminary Registration Form Position: First name: Surname: Affiliation: Contact Mailing address: Phone: Fax: E-mail: Payment Details: Tentative title of paper: ................................................................................ ............................ FORM - F PERSONAL PARTICULARS OF FOREIGN SCHOLARS COMING TO INDIA Part -A 1. Full Name (expanding the initials) : 2. Nationality : 3. Date and place of Birth : 4. Parentage : 5. Present address : 6. Permanent address ; 7. Passport number, date and place of issue and validity : 8. Whether previously in India, if so, date and place of previous stay : 9. Occupation : 10. Purpose of visit : 11. Expected duration of stay : 12. Places in India likely to be visited or a copy of itinerary : 13. The name of the Indian Mission Abroad at which the foreigner will apply for visa authorization : 14. Source of funding and terms/conditions of funding/appointment : 15. Whether accompanied by spouse/ dependents, and if so, full personal particulars and source of funding should be indicated : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 8 ====== From: gayle mckenzie Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2001 14:47:30 -0400 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS The Department of Applied Mathematics at The University of Western Ontario invites applications for up to two, tenure-track positions at the Assistant Professor Level. The Department seeks applicants with an established record of computationally intensive research in at least one of materials physics, financial mathematics, mathematical biology, or numerical solutions of applied partial differential equations. The position requires teaching in the graduate and undergraduate program and establishing an independent research program including the supervision of and securing funds for graduate students. At least one of the successful applicants will be appointed as a SHARCNET (tm) Research Chair. SHARCNET (tm) is a $43 million, multi-institutional, high- performance computing initiative in southwestern Ontario, with a head office and major computing infrastructure housed within the Department of Applied Mathematics. For more information on SHARCNET (tm) see www.sharcnet.ca. Applications including a detailed curriculum vitae and the names of 3 referees should be sent to: Dr. Paul J. Sullivan, Chair Department of Applied Mathematics Western Science Centre The University of Western Ontario London, Canada, N6A 5B7 e-mail: pjsul@uwo.ca Closing Date: The selection process will begin October 31, 2001 and continue until suitable candidates are found. Positions are subject to budget approval. In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, this advertisement is directed to Canadian Citizens and permanent residents. The University of Western Ontario is committed to employment equity, and welcomes applications from all qualified women and men including visible minorities, aboriginal people and persons with disabilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====== ITEM 9 ====== From: Sue Ann Campbell Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 CAIMS/SCMAI E-News Information CAIMS/SCMAI E-News is distributed electronically approximately three times a year by the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society/Societe Canadienne de Mathematiques Appliquees et Industrielles (http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~caims). Past issues are available on the web at http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~caims/Society/pub.html Submissions are welcome and should be sent in plain text format to: sacampbell@uwaterloo.ca. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Board or Membership of CAIMS/SCMAI. The editorial policy of this publication is to encourage the discussion of issues and facilitate the dissemination of information relevant to Canadian applied and industrial mathematics.