2022 ICM satellite coordination group

[Note: while I happen to be the chair of the ICM Structure Committee, I am authoring this blog post as an individual, and not as a representative of that committee or of the IMU, as they do not have jurisdiction over satellite conferences. -T.]

The International Mathematical Union (IMU) has just released some updates on the status of the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which was discussed in this previous post:

• The General Assembly will take place in person in Helsinki, Finland, on July 3-4.
• The IMU award ceremony will be held in the same location on July 5.
• The ICM will take place virtually (with free participation) during the hours 9:00-18:00 CEST of July 6-14, with talks either live or pre-recorded according to speaker preference.

Due to the limited time and resources available, the core ICM program will be kept to the bare essentials; the lectures will be streamed but without opportunity for questions or other audience feedback. However, the IMU encourages grassroots efforts to supplement the core program with additional satellite activities, both “traditional” and “non-traditional”. Examples of such satellite activities include:

• “Traditional” satellite conferences, held in person at a time near the ICM. Several such satellite events had already been scheduled, and are now satellite events for the virtual ICM:
  • 34th International Conference on Formal Power Series & Algebraic Combinatorics (July 18-22, India)
  • Probability and Mathematical Physics (June 28-July 5, Finland)
  • Geometric Representation Theory (June 27-July 2, Japan)
  • Effective Methods in Algebraic Geometry (June 20-24, Poland)
  • Recent Advances in Classical Algebraic Geometry (June 28-July 7, Poland)
  • Operator Algebras, Dynamics and Groups (July 1-4, Denmark) [Note: several ICM speakers from Section 8 will present their lecture here.]
  • Differential Geometry and its Applications (July 17-23, Czech Republic)
  • Seminar Sophus Lie (June 12-19, Norway)
  • 27th International Conference on Difference Equations and Applications (July 18-22, France)
• “Watch parties” or “mirror conferences” hosted by institutions and departments around the world.
• “Sectional overlay conferences”, in which ICM speakers from a specific section (or pair of sections) are invited to present their ICM talk in person in front of a live audience from that section. Some overlay conferences will be held concurrently with the ICM; others are planned to be held shortly beforehand, and the talks then supplied to the ICM as prerecorded talks. Of course, ICM speakers would not be obligated to attend these conferences (and several of these meetings may also schedule additional events not associated to the ICM). Currently we have the following such conferences:
  • An ICM sectional workshop in number theory and algebraic geometry, ETH Zürich, July 11th–14th 2022, covering Sections 3 and 4 of the program.
  • Geometry and Topology ICM sectional workshop, University of Copenhagen, July 6-14 2022, covering Sections 5 and 6 of the program.
  • Representations and Characters: Revisiting the Works of Harish Chandra and André Weil, National University of Singapore, Jul 1-15, covering Section 7 of the program.
  • Dynamics in Jerusalem, Hebrew University, July 6-8, covering Section 9 of the program.
  • The aforementioned Probability and Mathematical Physics meeting in Finland on June 28-July 5 will also overlay Sections 11 and 12 of the program.
  • Applied mathematics ICM overlay/satellite meeting, Imperial College London, July 8-12 2022, covering Sections 15 and 18 of the program.
• Regional satellite events, which would be similar to sectional overlay conferences but focused on a single geographical region rather than a section. Efforts are underway to set up such events in Australia, Boston, Bonn, Japan, and possibly Vietnam.
• Q&A sessions or online chats. A Discord channel has been set up (administered by Martin Hairer, Kevin Buzzard, and myself) to (unofficially) discuss the ICM lectures as they are being given; input is welcome on how best to utilize this channel.
• An online short communications satellite for the virtual ICM.
• The London Mathematical Society has kindly agreed to host the ICM public lectures (as well as the LMS lecture) as a virtual satellite event; details will be announced as they become available.
• Other creative examples of “non-traditional satellite events”. (For instance, one idea would be to create a wiki-type web site for the ICM in which speakers could supply introductory videos, slides, and other material for their talks; the IMU unfortunately does not have the logistical and technical capability to run this themselves, but one could imagine some third party being able to set this up instead.)

A more updated list of these events can be found here.

I will also mention the second Azat Miftakov Days, which are unaffiliated with the ICM but held concurrently with the beginning of the congress (and the prize ceremony).

Strictly speaking, satellite events are not officially part of the Congress, and not directly subject to IMU oversight; they also receive no funding or support from the IMU, other than sharing of basic logistical information, and recognition of the satellite conferences on the ICM web site. Thus this (very exceptional and sui generis) congress will differ in format from previous congresses, in that many of the features of the congress that traditionally were managed by the local organizing committee will be outsourced this one time to the broader mathematical community in a highly decentralized fashion.

In order to coordinate the various grassroots efforts to establish such satellite events, Alexei Borodin, Martin Hairer, and myself have set up a satellite coordination group to share information and advice on these events. (It should be noted that while Alexei, Martin and myself serve on either the structure committee or the program committee of the ICM, we are acting here as individuals rather than as official representatives of the IMU.) Anyone who is interested in organizing, hosting, or supporting such an event is welcome to ask to join the group (though I should say that most of the discussion concerns boring logistical issues). Readers are also welcome to discuss broader issues concerning satellites, or the congress as a whole, in the comments to this post. I will also use this space to announce details of satellite events as they become available (most are currently still only in the early stages of planning).