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Scientific Committee Minutes for April 2021

British Mathematical Colloquium Scientific Committee Minutes for the meeting of Thursday 8th April 2021, 1700-1800, on zoom@Glasgow BMC.

  1. Attendance, and apologies

    Chair: Sarah Rees (Newcastle)
    LMS reps: Karin Baur (Leeds), Richard Thomas (Imperial) EMS rep: Sophie Huczynska (St Andrews)
    Glasgow 2021: Michael Wemyss
    KCL 2022: David Burns
    Ex officio: Elizabeth Fisher (LMS).
    Caroline Wallace (Executive Secretary of LMS) sent apologies.

  2. Minutes of last Scientific Committee meeting by zoom on 10th November 2020

    Approved.

  3. Immediate impressions of the 2021 BMC

    Michael Wemyss gave a brief report, and will give a fuller account at the September meeting.
    Approximately 950 were registered for this joint BMC/BAMC. The numbers of registered PhD students and Early Career Researchers were up a lot on previous years. 283 talks had been given, 70 posters presented. The big expense had been technical support, essentially for the Sococo platform, on which talks were mounted as zoom meetings and webinars, and the daily updating of material had been a significant amount of work.
    The conference had been underwritten by ICMS, which had done a lot of work this second time around without charge. It had been expected that the conference would break even at around 1000 participants, and so it was not expected to lose money.

    There was a clear feeling that the conference had been a big success, and that Michael and his team should be congratulated for running a spectacular meeting under extremely difficult circumstances.

  4. Update on plans for BMC at King's College London 2022

    David Burns reported on the plans for the 2022 BMC, to be held at KCL from the afternoon of Monday 6th June to the morning of Thursday 9th June 2022.

    Planning has been on the basis that the event will be held in person, and so far no 'online backup plan' has been considered.
    Plenary lectures will be held in Bush House, a very attractive venue with magnificient views and a cafetaria, but some lectures will be held in KCL itself. Dinner might be scheduled in the Great Hall at Kings, which holds 400.

    Workshops have been selected to reflect London strengths. Speakers are currently being invited. Not surprisingly some major speakers are a little hesitant at the moment to make firm commitments.

    Plans have not yet been made for accommodation. It was commented that QMUL had recently run a successful BMC at which participants booked their own accommodation in London hotels. But it was also noticed that in fact KCL had some good accommodation nearby that might be used.

    David had a query about funding applications, and Elizabeth clarified that the KCL team would need to get their application to LMS by the beginning of June.

  5. Future BMCs

    A very brief discussion of potential hosts beyond 2022. We have already agreed on Bath 2023 (Roger Moser), Manchester 2024 (Charles Eaton), and (tentatively) Exeter 2025 (amending pre-Covid agreements). We expect the next joint BMC/BAMC to be in five years time, in 2026.

  6. Date of next meeting

    This will be arranged over email for September, and will be held over zoom.

  7. Any other business

    There was no further business.
Sarah Rees 10th May 2021