WMY2000 NewsLetter 3
EDITORIAL
The Twelfth General Assembly of the International Mathematical
Union
(IMU) was held in
Lucerne (Switzerland) on July 31st and August 1st, 1994, just
before the
International
Congress of Mathematicians, ICM'94, in Zurich.
It was on the occasion of the previous General Assembly in Kobe
(Japan),
August 18-19,
1990, that the following Resolution was voted :
"Since the IMU wishes to mark the turn of the century in a
manner
appropriate to the
standards set up by David Hilbert in 1900, the General Assembly
directs
the Executive
Committee (EC) to set up a committee to report to the adhering
bodies by
September 1991 on
how to accomplish this, so that in 1994 the Assembly can discuss
it and
decide how to
proceed".
Following this Resolution, the EC of IMU created a ``Turn of the
Century
Committee",
chaired by Professor Jacob Palis Jr, Secretary of IMU, and having
as
members Professors V.
Arnold, F. Hirzebruch, L. Lovasz, B. Mazur, S. Mizohata, W.
Thurston, J.
Tits, and S.
Varadhan.
The IMU launched in May 1992 the World Mathematical Year (WMY
2000) with
the
sponsorship of UNESCO (Professor Federico Mayor), of the Third
World
Academy of
Sciences (Professors Abdus Salam and Carlos Chagas), of the French
Minister of Research
and Space (Professor Hubert Curien), of the Brazilian Secretary of
State
for Science and
Technology (Professor Helio Jaguaribe), of the Brazilian Academy
of
Sciences (Professor
Israel Vargas) and, ICM'94 being organized in Switzerland, of the
Swiss
Federal Counsellor
(Dr. Flavio Cotti). The document issued after this meeting was
named
"Declaration of Rio de
Janeiro for Mathematics".
At the Lucerne General Assembly, a report was presented on the
work of
the Turn of the
Century Committee and on the plans for WMY 2000.
The corresponding proposals were unanimously endorsed by the
General
Assembly :
Resolution 2
"The General Assembly thanks the Turn of the Century Committee for
its
report. It asks the
new Executive Committee to proceed with the planning of World
Mathematical Year 2000,
and to organize and coordinate activities such as :
- a) inviting a select group of outstanding mathematicians to
present their
views on topics they
expect to be central to mathematical activity in the next century.
- b) selecting a number of symposia, some possibly organized
together with
other scientific
bodies, dedicated to mathematics, its applications and its role in
society.
- c) events to be held under the auspices of the International
Commission
for Mathematical
Instruction (ICMI), the Commission for Development and Exchange
(CDE) and
the
International Commission for History of Mathematics (ICHM).
The Executive Committee is asked to explore the possibilities
provided by
communications
technology for uniting activities the world over".
It is to be noted that, in her address at the Opening Ceremony of
ICM'94,
the Federal
Counsellor, Mrs Ruth Dreifuss, endorsed WMY 2000.
Following these important decisions, there was considerable
exchange of
views on the
subject during ICM'94, where many ideas and proposals were
discussed.
A world-wide coverage for the Newsletter should therefore be
systematically organized.
The Editors of the Newsletter, starting 1995, are :
Professor Mireille CHALEYAT-MAUREL (FRANCE)
Professor Gérard TRONEL (FRANCE)
World Correspondents for the Newsletter are :
Professor A. A. ASHOUR (ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT)
Professor Mohammed H. A. HASSAN, Third World Academy of Sciences
(ITALY)
Professor Angelo MARZOLLO , UNESCO (ITALY)
Professor Mitsuo MORIMOTO (JAPAN)
Professor Mogens NISS, Secretary of ICMI (DENMARK)
Professor Rolando REBOLLEDO, Chairperson of CDE (CHILE)
Professor Anna SIERPINSKA, Vice President of ICMI (CANADA)
All ideas and proposals connected with WMY 2000 should be sent to
the
Editors and to the
World Correspondents.
It may be useful here to comment on part c) of the Resolution
voted at
the General Assembly
of Lucerne. We recall, among the goals of WMY 2000, :
- help for less developed countries. It is essential that the
countries
that are members of
UNESCO be gradually able to reach a level justifying their
admission to
IMU by the turn of
the century. This implies considerable additional efforts in the
field of
education, training
and access to scientific information (Aim No. 2 of the Declaration
of Rio
de Janeiro).
- promotion of the image of Mathematics. Mathematics should be
systematically present in
the world of Information Sciences, thanks to examples and
applications
which will be
scientifically exact and open to the largest number of people (Aim
No. 3
of the Declaration
of Rio de Janeiro).
Here it is important to note the complete agreement of these goals
with
those of the
American Mathematical Society (AMS). They are all related, in one
way or
another, to the
task of teaching mathematics, hence to the key role played in this
respect by ICMI, CDE and
ICHM.
We also want to stress the part to be played by the various
electronic
communication
technologies. Witness the growing importance of e-mail and the
ever-rising number of
electronic journals.
Note that WMY 2000 Newsletter is now available on the
IMU's WWW server and on
the server of
European Mathematical Society
.
Electronic libraries and tele-conferences should be a set of
fundamental
tools for the end of
this century and for the century to come. These tools should be
made
available to all
mathematical centres in the world as soon as possible.
After our international discussions in Zurich, let us now all work
together to achieve these
goals.
Jacques Louis LIONS
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