Scientific Committee Meeting Minutes for 1997

Minutes of the Scientific Committee Meeting Royal Holloway, University of London, held on Wednesday 16th April 1997 at 7.30 pm.

Present:
Chair Prof R J Plymen (Manchester), Chairman of the 50th Colloquium
Secretary Dr G Walker (Manchester), Secretary of the 50th Colloquium
Dr G de Barra (Royal Holloway), Secretary of the 49th Colloquium
Prof M J Dunwoody (Southampton), Chairman of the 51st Colloquium
Prof E G Rees (Edinburgh), Edinburgh Mathematical Society
Prof R J Archbold (Aberdeen), Edinburgh Mathematical Society
Prof P Rowlinson (Stirling), Edinburgh Mathematical Society
Prof J W Bruce (Liverpool), London Mathematical Society
Prof E B Davies, (King's College London) London Mathematical Society
Prof M J Taylor (UMIST), London Mathematical Society
Dr P E Newstead (Liverpool), elected at AGM

Minutes of the 1996 Scientific Committee meeting at UMIST

These were approved subject to the correction of 'Mark Taylor' to 'Martin Taylor' in item 7.
Matters Arising

There were none.
Report on 49th BMC at Royal Holloway

Dr de Barra reported that numbers attending were down from 280 at UMIST to about 190. In particular, the, numbers of postgraduates attending had fallen from about 100 to about 50. One reason was that changes to university calendars since the dates for Royal Holloway were chosen meant that, for several universities, the BMC was taking place during a teaching week.

Prof Rees commented that the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium recently held in Edinburgh had succeeded in attracting a large number of postgraduates. There was some discussion on the financial aspects of postgraduate participation. Dr de Barra explained that LMS funds were used to provide postgraduates with a substantial discount on their accommodation costs, but no travel money. Prof Taylor suggested that more generous discounts might help. Prof Davies suggested emailing all UK postgraduates with preliminary notices and booking forms for the BMC.

Prof Bruce congratulated the local committee on their good organisation of the BMC at Royal Holloway, and this was echoed by the meeting.
Progress report on 50th BMC at Manchester

Dr Walker reported that the 50th BMC is to be held from 6-gth April 1998 at the University of Manchester. This is the week leading up to the Easter weekend. Three main speakers have accepted invitations:

Prof Alain Connes (Collège de France), non-commutative geometry;

Prof Richard Stanley (MIT), combinatorics;

Prof Hugh Woodin (Berkeley), mathematical logic.

In addition, Prof Jean-Christophe Yoccoz (Paris-Sud) had been invited, but had not replied to letters or emails.

The committee agreed that a fourth main speaker should be invited. It was suggested that a final attempt might be made to contact Prof Yoccoz by telephone. Suggested alternative speakers were (1) Karen Uhlenbeck (Texas) and (2) Michael Atiyah (Cambridge).

Dr Walker stated that travel expenses for Prof Stanley would be unusually costly because a back problem made it necessary for him to travel business class. Prof Taylor commented that this should be mentioned when applying for financial support from the LMS.
Speakers and special session topics for future BMCs

Special Sessions for 50th BMC It was agreed that the special sessions for Manchester will be on Mathematical Logic and Dynamical Systems, and that Prof A J Macintyre (Oxford) and Dr S M Rees (Liverpool) should be invited to organise the special sessions with the help of Manchester staff in these areas. It was suggested that LMS funding might be available to assist with travel expenses for the special session speakers, in order to make the programmes attractive to the widest possible audience.

Morning Speakers for 50th BMC The following names were suggested, from which about three were be selected in each subject category by the local organisers. The names are not ordered within each category, but the desirability of having a good number of younger speakers was emphasised: those believed to be under 35 are indicated by an asterisk.

Algebra
Dr A A Premet (Manchester), Dr D Testerman (Warwick), Dr M Nazarov (York), Dr J Saxl (Cambridge), Prof J S Wilson (Birmingham), *Dr M P F du Sautoy (Cambridge).

Analysis
*Dr M C White (Newcastle), Dr A Grigor'yan (Imperial), Prof T J Lyons (Imperial), Dr A V Sobolev (Sussex), Prof M van den Berg (Bristol), *Dr F Boca (Swansea), Dr F A Rogers (King's), Dr C J K Batty (Oxford).

Geometry/Topology
*Dr B H Bowditch (Southampton), *Dr A D King (Lancaster), Dr V V Goryunov (Liverpool), Dr W J Harvey (King's), Dr J C Wood (Leeds), Dr D Singerman (Southampton), Dr A J Baker (Glasgow), *Dr D Joyce (Oxford).

Number Theory
Prof R E Borcherds (Cambridge), Dr J Nekovar (Cambridge), Prof I B Fesenko (Nottingham), Prof C J Bushnell (King's), Dr R Heath-Brown (Oxford), *Dr J McKee (Edinburgh), *Dr B ni Fhlathuin (Bath).

Other
*Dr J Chapman (Oxford), Dr R M Roberts (Warwick), Prof N H Bingham (Birkbeck), Prof C St-J A Nash-Williams (Reading), Dr N S Manton (Cambridge).

Main Speakers for 51st BMC
The following were proposed as main speakers for the 1999 BMC at Southampton University: B Mazur (Harvard),J Birman (Columbia), V Arnol'd (Paris). Reserves: J Doyen (Brussels), A Shalev (Jerusalem), D Vogan (MIT).

Special Sessions for 51st BMC The topics of geometric group theory and stochastic analysis were proposed for the special sessions for the 1999 BMC.
Host institutions for future BMCs

To follow the programme already decided

1998: 50th BMC at Manchester University

1999: 51st BMC at Southampton University

2000: 52nd BMC at Leeds University

it was agreed that the 53rd BMC should be at Glasgow University in 2001.
For the 2002 venue, it was agreed that Warwick, Sussex and Swansea should be approached by the 50th BMC Secretary (G Walker).
Other business

There being no other business, Prof Plymen closed the meeting at 10.00 pm.

Minutes unsigned and undated.