Page 5 - 8th European Congress of Mathematics ∙ 20-26 June 2021 ∙ Portorož, Slovenia ∙ Book of Abstracts
P. 5
LCOME, FRIENDS OF MATHEMATICS!
When we first considered whether or not to apply for organising the 8th European Congress
of Mathematics (8ECM), one of our prevailing aims was a commitment to make the Congress
stand out from previous ones. Unfortunately, with the help of the Covid pandemic, we cer-
tainly succeeded. This is the first international mathematical congress that runs mainly over the
internet.
After it became clear that the virus would not be conquered in time to keep the original dates for
the 8ECM, we moved it forward a year, from 2020 to 2021. We remained cautiously optimistic
that we would be able to hold a regular in-person congress this year, but when we followed the
increase of numbers in a second wave of the virus through many parts of the world, and after
some of us even had a first-hand experience of it ourselves, we had to make the tough decision
to hold the 8ECM mostly on-line.
Despite the possibility of a worst-case scenario in which the 8ECM would have to be totally
on-line, we wanted to pursue our original strategy and bring to the congress a large number
of mathematicians. In this respect, there are two kinds of mathematicians: those who like
big events covering all pertinent topics of mathematical science, and who enjoy learning how
mathematics has advanced in recent years, and others who prefer smaller, more specialised
workshops and conferences in which only topics from their own field of research are addressed.
We wanted to reconcile both kinds of expectation, by designing a congress that would satisfy
the needs of as many mathematicians as possible.
We wanted to combine the top-down approach, where committees appointed by the EMS select
the best speakers and awardees, with the bottom-up approach where mathematicians propose
topics for mini-symposia and then invite other colleagues to join them. We did not put any
restrictions on the upper limit of the participants in a minisymposium. It seems that this strategy
was quite a success.
There are 62 minisymposia (MS), with eight involving more than 20 talks, namely: Combinato-
rial Designs (MS-16, with 33 active participants), Operator Algebras (MS-14, with 30), Topo-
logical Methods in Differential Equations (MS-13, with 23), Graphs, Polynomials, Surfaces,
and Knots (MS-49, with 22), Modeling roughness and long-range dependence with fractional
processes (MS-18, with 22), Approximation Theory and Applications (MS-78, with 21), Har-
monic Analysis and Partial Differential Equations (MS-28, with 21), and Recent Developments
on Preservers (MS-38, with 21).
Also there are 19 countries with more than 20 participants: Slovenia (286), Italy (194), Germany
(120), United Kingdom (109), Spain (94), United States (86), France (77), Russian Federation
(56), Poland (48), Czech Republic (43), Croatia (41), Hungary (40), Austria (36), Ukraine (32),
China (29), Switzerland (29), Canada (23), Belgium (21), and Romania (21). In total there are
over 1000 contributions.
We are grateful to the Executive Committee of the EMS for supporting our approach to the
8ECM, resulting in such a great quantity, while at the same time maintaining high quality.
Among the participants of the 8ECM there are three Fields medalists, an Abel Prize winner, the
President of the ERC, and 50 ERC Grant holders.
We are very happy that the 8ECM has attained a truly all-European character, with substantial
contributions by mathematicians from central Europe as well as the more traditional western
3
When we first considered whether or not to apply for organising the 8th European Congress
of Mathematics (8ECM), one of our prevailing aims was a commitment to make the Congress
stand out from previous ones. Unfortunately, with the help of the Covid pandemic, we cer-
tainly succeeded. This is the first international mathematical congress that runs mainly over the
internet.
After it became clear that the virus would not be conquered in time to keep the original dates for
the 8ECM, we moved it forward a year, from 2020 to 2021. We remained cautiously optimistic
that we would be able to hold a regular in-person congress this year, but when we followed the
increase of numbers in a second wave of the virus through many parts of the world, and after
some of us even had a first-hand experience of it ourselves, we had to make the tough decision
to hold the 8ECM mostly on-line.
Despite the possibility of a worst-case scenario in which the 8ECM would have to be totally
on-line, we wanted to pursue our original strategy and bring to the congress a large number
of mathematicians. In this respect, there are two kinds of mathematicians: those who like
big events covering all pertinent topics of mathematical science, and who enjoy learning how
mathematics has advanced in recent years, and others who prefer smaller, more specialised
workshops and conferences in which only topics from their own field of research are addressed.
We wanted to reconcile both kinds of expectation, by designing a congress that would satisfy
the needs of as many mathematicians as possible.
We wanted to combine the top-down approach, where committees appointed by the EMS select
the best speakers and awardees, with the bottom-up approach where mathematicians propose
topics for mini-symposia and then invite other colleagues to join them. We did not put any
restrictions on the upper limit of the participants in a minisymposium. It seems that this strategy
was quite a success.
There are 62 minisymposia (MS), with eight involving more than 20 talks, namely: Combinato-
rial Designs (MS-16, with 33 active participants), Operator Algebras (MS-14, with 30), Topo-
logical Methods in Differential Equations (MS-13, with 23), Graphs, Polynomials, Surfaces,
and Knots (MS-49, with 22), Modeling roughness and long-range dependence with fractional
processes (MS-18, with 22), Approximation Theory and Applications (MS-78, with 21), Har-
monic Analysis and Partial Differential Equations (MS-28, with 21), and Recent Developments
on Preservers (MS-38, with 21).
Also there are 19 countries with more than 20 participants: Slovenia (286), Italy (194), Germany
(120), United Kingdom (109), Spain (94), United States (86), France (77), Russian Federation
(56), Poland (48), Czech Republic (43), Croatia (41), Hungary (40), Austria (36), Ukraine (32),
China (29), Switzerland (29), Canada (23), Belgium (21), and Romania (21). In total there are
over 1000 contributions.
We are grateful to the Executive Committee of the EMS for supporting our approach to the
8ECM, resulting in such a great quantity, while at the same time maintaining high quality.
Among the participants of the 8ECM there are three Fields medalists, an Abel Prize winner, the
President of the ERC, and 50 ERC Grant holders.
We are very happy that the 8ECM has attained a truly all-European character, with substantial
contributions by mathematicians from central Europe as well as the more traditional western
3
