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Scientific Committee Minutes for April 2019

British Mathematical Colloquium Scientific Committee Minutes for the meeting of 10 April 2019 University of Lancaster, George Fox LT2, 1.00pm
  1. Welcome, confirmation of membership

    The Committee welcomed Carl-Fredrik Nyberg Brodda as a representive of the BMC 2019 com- munity.
    The membership was confirmed as
    Chair:
    Phil Rippon (Open) until 31 May 2020.
    LMS representatives:
    Sarah Rees (Newcastle) until 31 May 2019. Maud Devisscher (City) until 31 May 2020. Constanze Roitzheim (Kent) until 31 May 2020.
    EdMS representatives:
    Sophie Huczynska (St Andrews) until 31 May 2020. Michael Wemyss (Glasgow) until 31 May 2020.
    Lancaster (2019):
    Jan Grabowski, Tony Nixon.
    Glasgow (2020):
    Michael Wemyss, ???.
    Representative of the 2019 BMC:
    Carl-Fredrik Nyberg Brodda (UEA) until September 2019.
    Ex officio:
    Fiona Nixon (Executive Secretary of the LMS), Elizabeth Fisher or Anthony Byrne (LMS).

  2. Apologies for absence

    Maud Devischer, Constanze Roitzheim, Sophie Huczynska, Fiona Nixon

  3. Minutes of Scientific Committee meeting at De Morgan House on 10th September 2018

    The minutes were confirmed with no matters arising.

  4. Immediate impressions on the 2019 BMC in Lancaster

    A full report will be on the agenda for the Autumn meeting. The Committee agreed that the meeting was going very well, with excellent plenary and morning speakers, and a venue that lent itself to a natural lighter atmosphere. The BMC representative confirmed that they were absolutely delighted with the BMC, their first.

    The final number attending the BMC was not yet known but was thought to be around 130. The gender balance of speakers: overall 32 male speakers, 22 female speakers, and for the main lectures: 8 male speakers, 8 female speakers.

    This excellent balance was achieved by inviting more speakers from outside the UK than usual.

    The Public Lecture by Vicky Neale and the wine reception afterwards had been very successful; all 120 tickets had been requested and 75 poeple attended.

    Funding had been received from the LMS, the Heilbronn Institute and the Clay Mathematics Institute.

    The arrangements for the displays by publishers (sometimes a problem in previous years) was very satisfactory.

  5. Update on Plans for BMC/BAMC in Glasgow, 6 - 9 April 2020

    The plan to hold the BMC/BAMC in Glasgow's new Learning and Teaching Hub was changed as the construction had been delayed, and the location has been moved to Bute Hall and Hunter Halls. The conference fee will be £100 for PhD students and £150 for others.
    The conference dinner will be in the Kelvingrove Museum and the public lecture in Bute Hall. Catering will be provided on the first day, but otherwise attendees will be encouraged to use local facitites as advertised by the Glasgow tourism office, who have been very helpful.
    A bid for further funding from the LMS is being negotiated, and a bid to the Clay Mathematics Institute has been made (to cover expenses of international plenary speakers, PhD students and ECRs).
    The website is complete and registration will open on 14 April 2019.
    Plenary lectures will be given by
    Ciprian Manolescu (UCLA), Catharina Stroppel (Bonn), Bernd Sturmfels (Berkeley), Sarah Waters (Oxford).
    There will be a public lecture by Moon Duchin (Tufts).
    BMC morning speakers will be
    Mark Gross (Cambridge), Heather Harrington (Oxford), Lotte Hollands (Heriot-Watt), Ailsa Keating (Cambridge), Jon Keating (Bristol), Minhyong Kim (Oxford), Xin Li (QMUL), Nathalie Wahl (Copenhagen).
    The nine workshops in pure mathematics will be
    Algebra and Representation Theory, Mathematical Physics, Number Theory, Topology, Operator Algebras, Algebraic Geometry, Combinatorics, Group Theory, Analysis.

  6. BMC in King's College London, 2021

    The Committee welcomed the plans to have the BMC in King's College London in 2021, with organiser David Burns.

  7. Future BMCs

    There was a short discussion of potential locations for BMC 2022 and the chair will approach one possible location before the Autumn meeting.

  8. Other meetings

    YRM (Young Researchers in Mathematics) 2019 was not held, and for 2020 the proposed location is Bristol. BCTCS (British Colloquium in Theoretical Computer Science) 2019 will be 15th – 17th April 2019.

  9. Date of next meeting (at De Morgan House, Autumn 2019)

  10. Any other business

    Phil Rippon 30 August 2019