ICM98-CL27 (98/04/28): Early Registration Deadline/Financial Support/Berlin as a Centre ...
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E-mail information service of the
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF MATHEMATICIANS
Berlin, Germany, August 18 - 27, 1998
27th Circular Letter
Subject: ICM98-CL27: Early Registration Deadline is May 1/
Financial Support for ICM'98 Participation/
Berlin as a Centre of Mathematical Activity
Dear colleague:
I apologized for some kind of "overorganization" of our
registration process in my last circular letter. However,
I was happy to receive a number of very positive comments
from colleagues such as:
"I'm surprised to learn that some mathematicians were confused by
the registration process. I love it! It was fast, efficient, ... I
know something about organization, and you're doing a great job."
"... the registration process was explained very well, extremely
clearly."
Thanks for such supportive remarks, they keep us going on when
(occasionally) organizing ICM'98 appears to be a real burden and
not so much fun, e.g., when persons complain that we haven't answered
their requests within a few days. Frightening subjects such as
"NO ANSWER TILL TODAY TO THIS MESSAGE !!!" appear every now and
then. We do our best to match your expectations, but our capacity is,
unfortunately, only finite! In particular, it will take some time
to recover from the mail and e-mail avalanches coming in at present.
1. THE EARLY REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS APPROACHING FAST
Here is the most important message to those who haven't registered
yet: The DEADLINE for early (and thus cheap) ICM'98 registration is
MAY 1, 1998!
Get going before prices go up! And don't forget to send the
title of your talk and your abstract to Ulf Rehmann before
May 1 which is also the deadline for the submission of short
communications and poster presentations. Check the ICM'98
server or the Second Announcements for details.
2. FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR ICM'98 PARTICIPATION
One of the avalanches mentioned above consists of requests
to reduce or waive the registration fee. We understand
that even a modest (in comparison to what is going to be
offered) fee of DM 450.- is a huge amount in some parts
of the world and that many colleagues live in difficult
financial or personal situations and have good reasons to
ask for financial help. Nevertheless, we reject all these
requests due to the following reasons.
We have set up (with the support of IMU, donations by companies,
institutions, societies, and many individuals for which we are
very grateful) three support programs for mathematicians from
developing countries and Eastern Europe to attend ICM'98, see
the Circular Letters 6, 8, 14, and 16. We decided to concentrate
our support on mathematicians from these parts of the world since
we felt that support is much more needed here than elsewhere. We
received an overwhelming number of about 1500 applications, many
of them absolutely excellent. The colleagues in the support
committees spent about three months to screen the applications
very carefully.
About 400 grants could be awarded (so far). The selected "lucky"
colleagues have received invitations in the recent weeks. It is
a pity that - due to budget limits - very good applications
had to be rejected. Nevertheless, we are still keeping a list of
"open cases" who may get a grant if new sponsors are found,
additional donations come in, or the number of "paying ICM'98
participants" is higher than estimated.
The ICM'98 Organizing Committee met today to discuss the
"fee waiving" issue again. We decided to keep our policy
and to focus our support on those who have applied to one of
the programs, who have received an excellent rating in the
evaluation, but could not get a grant due to insufficient
funds.
We apologize to those colleagues who got or get a negative
response to their request for financial help (e.g. waiving
of the fees), but we also hope that they understand
our reasons.
On the other hand, by registering right now you can improve
the probability significantly that more people on our list
of undeciced cases receive a grant!
3. BERLIN AS A CENTRE OF MATHEMATICAL ACTIVITY
Another event of general interest has reached its final shape.
The workshop "Berlin as a Centre of Mathematical Activity",
suggested by the International Commission on the History of
Mathematics (ICHM) and organized on its behalf by G. Israel
(Rome) and E. Knobloch (Berlin), was approved as one of the
events of the "Section of Special Activities". It will take
place in the afternoon of Saturday, August 22. Here is the
program of this workshop:
Berlin as a Centre of Mathematical Activity
Organized by G. Israel and E. Knobloch
Saturday, 22 August 1998
Program
14.00 - 14.15 h G. Israel, University of Rome:
Introduction
14.15 - 14.45 h David Rowe, University of Mainz:
The Berlin-Goettingen Rivalry, 1870-1920
14.45 - 15.00 h Discussion
15.00 - 15.30 h Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Middlesex Polytechnic,
England:
Weierstrassian analysis and Cantorian set
theory in Britain and the USA, 1890-1910
15.30 - 15.45 h Discussion
Coffee break
16.15 - 16.45 h U. Bottazzini, Centro Linceo Interdisciplinare 'B. Segre'
Accademia dei Lincei, Rome:
Weierstrass's school of analysis and its influence on Italian mathematics
16.45 - 16.50 h Discussion
16.50 - 17.20 h S. Demidov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow: Russian
mathematicians in Berlin in the 2nd half of the XIXth and at the beginning
of the XXth centuries
17.20 - 17.25 h Discussion
17.25 - 17.55 h A. Dahan, CNRS Paris: Images croisees des centres
mathematiques de Paris et de Berlin, dans les annees 1860/80
17.55 - 18.00 h Discussion
Please find the abstracts of the presentation in the appendix below.
Best Regards
Martin Groetschel
President of the
ICM'98 Organizing Committee
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APPENDIX
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Abstracts
The Berlin-Goettingen Rivalry, 1870-1920
By David Rowe
By mid 19th century, Berlin and Goettingen had emerged as the two dominant
mathematical centres within Germany. During the era of Weierstrass and
Riemann, relations between the two centres were cordial, but by 1870 the
situation began to change. Berlin maintained the upperhand up until the
death of Kronecker (1891) and Weierstrass's retirement (1892), but
thereafter Felix Klein forged an aggressive effort that placed the Berlin
mathematicians, led by Frobenius and Schwarz, in a defensive position. These
events, including several key turning points in the conflict, shed light on
the process of modernization within the German mathematical community.
Weierstrassian mathematical analysis and Cantorian
set theory in Britain and the USA, 1890-1910
By Ivor Grattan-Guinness
Two rather different stories of German influence upon Anglo-Saxon culture
are told here. The USA was late in emergence as a research country in
mathematics; but when advances were made, from the 1880s, analysis and set
theory were prominent. E.H. Moore took a considerable interest and diffused
it (especially set theory) from Chicago. Several American mathematicians
took their doctorates at Berlin, and the influence upon W.F. Osgood went
deeper, to important monographs. The Open Court Publishers Company included
mathematical works by Cantor and Dedekind in its programme of translations
of German texts.
Britain, especially England, was largely dominated by algebras; but A.R.
Forsyth and E.W. Hobson drew upon Weierstrass for their work in analysis,
especially for real variables. Set theory came through Bertrand Russell in
the early 1900s; but the definitive change, especially for point-set
topology was effected soon afterwards by G.H. Hardy, particularly when
boosted by J.E. Littlewood from around 1910.
Weierstrass's school of analysis and its influence on
Italian Mathematics
By Umberto Bottazzini
Berlin emerged as the leading centre of mathematical analysis in the early
1860s when Weierstrass, who had joined Kronecker and Kummer in 1856, began
to teach the theory of analytic functions at the university and founded the
mathematical seminar together with Kummer. In autumn of 1864 the Italian
mathematician Casorati visited Berlin to discuss with Weierstrass,
Kronecker, Kummer and their pupils the most recent progress in mathematics.
The notes taken by Casorati of the talks with the Berlin mathematicians
provide a vivid picture of the questions which were then at the forefront of
mathematical research. In particular, they discussed such topics as
continuity, differentiability, analytic continuation, natural boundaries,
and Riemann's use of the Dirichlet principle. The latter became the main
subject of the correspondence between Casorati and Schwarz, the student of
Weierstrass who mostly contributed to the diffusion of his teacher's methods
in Italy. Indeed, Schwarz was the true trait d'union between the Berlin
mathematicians and their Italian colleagues. In the early 1870s he had an
intensive correspondence with Casaroti and Dini in particular. In his
letters to them Schwarz presented the methods and the main results as
expounded by Weierstrass in his lectures and seminars. Dini's lectures at
the university of Pisa, inspired by the new methods of Weierstrass (and
Cantor), were at the basis of his celebrated treatise Fondamenti per la
teorica delle funzioni di variabili reali (1878) where Dini acknowledged his
debt to Schwarz. From the mid-1860s on, Weierstrass lectured regularly on
the theory of analytic functions, the theory of elliptic and Abelian
functions and the calculus of variations. This set of lectures, which
Weierstrass repeated and refined for nearly 30 years, was never published
during his lifetime. The first presentation in Italy of Weierstrass's theory
of analytic functions was given in 1880 by Salvatore Pincherle. A student of
Dini and Casorati, Pincherle spent one year in Berlin before being appointed
in 1880 to a chair of analysis at the University of Bologna. By then
Weierstrass's theory of analytic functions was beginning to be taught in Italy.
Russian mathematicians in Berlin in the second half of
the XIXth until the beginning of the XXth centuries
By S.S. Demidov
In the second half of the XIXth century Berlin became one of the basic
European mathematical centres and played an important role in the
development of the mathematical thought in Russia. In this period, it was a
tradition for Russian universities to send young scholars to the best
European scientific centres to improve their qualifications. In this period
such centres were German and French universities. The Berlin University was
especially popular for Russian young mathematicians of this time, the most
famous professor there was C. Weierstrass. Among his Russian pupils we find
M.A. Tikhomandritckii, S.V. Kovalevskaya, A.V. Vasil'ev, D.F. Selivanov.
Many Russians attended lectures of E. Kummer, L. Kronecker, and L. Fuchs.
The scientific community of Berlin stimulated the development of some modern
branches of mathematics in Russia, among them the theory of functions of a
complex varable and the analytical theory of the differential equations
(S.V. Kovalevskaya, P.A. Nekrasov, V.A. Anisimov). It was in Berlin where
we have to look for the roots of the Moscow geometrical school (F. Minding -
K.M. Peterson - D.F. Egorov), which determined, in many respects, the
character and special features of mathematical studies in Moscow at the end
of the XIXth until the first third of the XXth century.
Images croisees des centres mathematiques de Paris et de
Berlin, dans les annees 1860-80
By Amy Dahan
L'expose portera:
1) d'une part sur les differentes representations des activites et milieux
mathematiques a Paris, qui pouvaient etre perceptibles a l'etranger et
notamment a Berlin;
2) d'autre part sur le role que l'image du centre mathematique de Berlin a
pu jouer dans la constitution d'une hierarchisation des domaines
mathematiques a Paris et dans la marginalisation correlative de certains
groupes.
Une attention particuliere sera portee sur la conception des mathematiques
pures a Paris et a Berlin.
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