Scientific Committee Meeting Minutes for April 2017

Minutes for the meeting of 6 April 2017
University of Durham, Mathematics Meeting Room 12:45pm
  1. Welcome, confirmation of membership

    The Committee welcomed Oscar Randal-Williams (Cambridge), representing the BMC2017 attendees, and Kenneth Falconer (St Andrews), attending on behalf of the St Andrews representatives who were unable to attend. The membership was confirmed as:
    Chair: David Jordan (Sheffield) until 31 May 2017.
    LMS representatives:
    John Hunton (Durham) until 31 May 2017, Phil Rippon (Open)* until 31 May 2017, Sarah Rees (Newcastle) until 31 May 2019. EdMS representatives:
    Sophie Huczynska (St Andrews) until 31 May 2017.
    Michael Wemyss (Glasgow) until 31 May 2019.
    Durham (2017): Andrew Lobb, Alexander Stasinski, one to continue to 30 September 2017. St Andrews (2018): Colva Roney-Dougal, Mike Todd.
    Lancaster (2019): Jan Grabowski, Tony Nixon.
    Representative of the 2017 BMC: Oscar Randal-Williams (Cambridge).
    Ex officio: Fiona Nixon (Executive Secretary of the LMS) or Elizabeth Fisher (LMS).
    *: Chair-elect from 1 June 2017.

  2. Apologies for absence

    John Hunton, Sophie Huczynska, Michael Wemyss, Colva Roney-Dougal, Mike Todd, Tony Nixon, Fiona Nixon.

  3. Minutes of Scientific Committee meeting at De Morgan House on 5th September 2016

    These were confirmed with no matters arising.

  4. Immediate impressions on the 2017 BMC in Durham

    A full report will be on the agenda for the September meeting. The Committee agreed with the local organisers" view that the meeting had gone well. The choice of public speaker and closing plenary speaker were particularly commended. The main problem had been the late cancellation of one plenary speaker due to illness. The resulting gap in the programme was filled by a discussion panel on issues related to publishing. This was interesting but, unfortunately, had not been well attended.
    The final number attending the BMC was not yet known but was thought to be around 200. Funding had been received from LMS, the Heilbronn Institute and Foundation Compositio Mathematica.
    There was a request from LMS for the days of the LMS meeting and the Colloquium dinner to coincide in future. There was some discussion of the arrangements for the displays by publishers. These were an improvement on the previous year but there had been a communication breakdown whereby all the publishers exhibited in the same room although the plan had been for three publishers to be in each of two adjacent rooms, both with coffee available. This would have been preferred by all involved but, having set up their displays in one room, the publishers had chosen, when offered the possibility, not to revert to the original plan.

  5. Update on Plans for BMC in St Andrews 11-14 June 2018

    Kenneth Falconer reported that plenary lectures will be given by Laura De Marco (Northwestern), Irit Dinur (Weiz- mann), Martin Hairer (Warwick), Nalini Joshi (Sydney), Paul Seymour (Princeton) and Marcelo Viana (IMPA). A public lecture will be given by Julia Wolf (Bristol). Morning speakers confirmd so far are Holly Krieger (Cambridge), Jonathan Bennett (Birmingham), Mike Fellows (Bergen), Victoria Gould (York), Mark McCartney (Ulster), Ian Morris (Surrey), Meinolf Geck (Stuttgart), Dan Kr ?al (Warwick) and David Conlon (Oxford).
    The areas for workshops are Algebra, Analysis, Dynamics, Combinatorics, and History of Maths. A satellite meeting of the LMS Scheme 3 Ergodic Theory group was planned.
    Funding had been received from LMS, the Heilbronn Institute and the Clay Mathematics Institute and applications would be made to Foundation Compositio Mathematica and EdMS.

  6. Plans for BMC in Lancaster 8-11 April 2019

    Jan Grabowski reported that Michel Broué (Universit Paris Diderot, France; Representation theory), Nicolas Monod (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; Ergodic theory and geometric group theory), Yuval Peres ( Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA; Probability) and Gil Kalai (Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Combinatorics) had been confirmed as plenary speakers.
    A prominent mathematician had agreed to give a public lecture, subject to confirmation.
    Workshops were planned in Algebra, Geometry, Analysis, Probability, Combinatorics and Mathematics Education.
    Arrangements for accommodation and the publishers" displays were in hand and the LMS funding application was almost ready for submission.

  7. Future BMCs

    The Chair reported that, following a meeting between the Chairs of the BMC Scientific Committee and the BAMC Standing Committee, a potential host for a joint meeting with BAMC had been approached. There was some discussion of alternatives should the eventual response be negative.

  8. Other meetings

    YRM (Young Researchers in Mathematics) 2017 will be in Kent, 1-4 August 2017. BCTCS (British Colloquium in Theoretical Computer Science) 2017 will be in St Andrews, 26-28 April 2017.

  9. Any other business

    Retiring members of the Committee and the retiring Chair were thanked for their contributions by the Chair and Chair-elect respectively.

  10. Date of next meeting (at De Morgan House, Autumn 2017)

    This would be in September on a date to be arranged by the Chair-elect.

David Jordan 13 April 2017