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Scientific Committee Meeting Minutes for September 2016

Minutes of the meeting of 5 September 2016 Burnside Room, De Morgan House 2pm
  1. Welcome, confirmation of membership
    Chair:
    David Jordan (Sheffield) until 31 May 2017. Secretary: Chair acting as Secretary.
    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, one position vacant (note added later: to be filled by Michael Wemyss (Glasgow)).
    Bristol (2016):
    Tim Dokchitser or Lynne Walling.
    Durham (2017):
    Andrew Lobb, Alexander Stasinski.
    St Andrews (2018):
    Colva Roney-Dougal, Mike Todd.
    Lancaster (2019):
    Jan Grabowski, Tony Nixon.
    Representative of the 2015 BMC:
    Richard Sharp (Warwick), until 30 September 2016.
    Ex officio:
    Elizabeth Fisher. per Fiona Nixon (Executive Secretary of the LMS).

  2. Apologies for absence
    Tim Dokchitser, Jan Grabowski, Sophie Huczynska, John Hunton, Colva Roney-Dougal, Alexander Stasinski.

  3. Minutes of Scientific Committee meeting at Bristol on 23rd March 2016
    The minutes were confirmed with no matters arising.

  4. Minutes of AGM at Bristol on 22nd March 2016
    The minutes were confirmed with one incorrect date to be amended and with no matters arising.

  5. Academic and Financial Report on the BMC at Bristol, 21-24 March 2016
    A copy of the report on the BMC to the LMS was received, including an academic report. The Committee agreed with the conclusion that BMC 2016 had been a very successful meeting with a high standard of plenary and morning talks. There was positive comment on the vitality of the meeting and on the innovation of speed talk sessions. Some details were given of expenditure of non-LMS income not covered in the LMS report and it was agreed that the Bristol organisers would produce a version of the report including this information, the academic section from the LMS report and detailed information on registration numbers. This was implemented post meeting.

  6. Update on Plans for BMC in Durham 3-6 April 2017
    Details of plenary speakers and workshops are as in the previous minutes. There was some discussion of possible workshops involving LMS Scheme 3 groups, with encouragement to consider satellite meetings of such groups if they have local members and are in the area of a planned workshop. Morning speakers have now been finalised as Alessandra Bernardi, Gérard Besson, Tara Brendle, Jan Bruinier, Olivia Caramello, Andrew Granville, Alexander Grigor'yan, Fanny Kassel, Ari Laptev, Diane Maclagan, Oscar Randal-Williams, James Robinson. Funding applications to Foundation Compositio Mathematica and one possible local source are pending. The colloquium dinner is to be at Durham Castle. A webpage has been set up with a temporary url (note added later: now at www.maths.dur.ac.uk/bmc2017/). A speed talk session was not planned but this might be revisited following the positive feedback from the Bristol session.

  7. Plans for BMC in St Andrews 11-14 June 2018
    Mike Todd reported that Laura De Marco (Northwestern), Irit Dinur (Weizmann), Martin Hairer (Warwick), Nalini Joshi (Sydney), Paul Seymour (Princeton) and Marcelo Viana (IMPA) had accepted invitations to give plenary lectures and that the provisional list of workshop areas is : Algebra, Analysis and Probability, Dynamics, Combinatorics and Number Theory, Geometry and Topology, History. LMS Scheme 3 groups with potential involvement are the North British Semigroups and Applications Network, the North British Geometric Group Theory Seminar and Ergodic Theory.

  8. Early Plans for BMC in Lancaster 8-11 April 2019
    Action so far has been on lecture rooms and accommodation. The organisers' queries had been answered during discussion of the previous items. Andrew Lobb encouraged future organisers to contact him for advice on contact with publishers.

  9. Future BMCs
    Chair reported on ongoing discussions with BAMC regarding the possibility of a joint BMC/BAMC meeting in 2020. A document giving details of past joint meetings is in preparation. There was some discussion of possible venues and formats. Discussion will continue by email.

  10. Next Chair of BMC Scientific Committee
    It was reported that the Search Team had recommended that Phil Rippon (Open University) should be nominated as Chair of BMC Scientific Committee with effect from 1 June 2017. The Committee was happy to take this nomination forward to the AGM at Durham.

  11. Other meetings
    It was reported (post meeting) that the YRM (Young Researchers in Mathematics) 2017 meeting would be held at the University of Kent and that YRM 2018 would be held at the University of Southampton. The BCTCS (British Colloquium in Theoretical Computer Science) 2017 meeting will be held at the University of St Andrews and BCTCS 2018 meeting will be held at Royal Holloway, University of London. Dates are not yet known but the YRM and BCTCS organisers are aware of the BMC dates.

  12. Any other business
    The Chair thanked the retiring members of the Committee (Tim Dokchitser, Richard Sharp, Lynne Walling, Stuart White) for their contributions.

  13. Date of next meeting (at Durham BMC)
    A provisional date is 6 April 2017, with the AGM on 4 April 2017.
David Jordan 30 October 2016