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Scientific Committee Minutes for October 2022
British Mathematical Colloquium Scientific Committee Minutes for the meeting of Monday 10th October, 1100-1300, on zoom.
- Attendance and apologies :
Chair: Sarah Rees (Newcastle)
LMS reps: Karin Baur (Leeds), Richard Thomas (Imperial)
KCL 2022: David Burns
Bath 2023: Kirill Cherednichenko
Manchester 2024: Charles Eaton
Ex officio: Elizabeth Fisher (Programme Secretary LMS), Simon Edwards (Executive Secretary LMS).
Sophie Huczynska (St Andrews, EMS rep) sent apologies.
- Minutes of last Scientific Committee meeting by zoom on 7th June 2022 at the KCL BMC, were approved.
- Report on the 2022 KCL BMC :
David Burns gave a full report on the KCL BMC, which had been run at KCL June 6-9 2022.
He had not yet received the hotel bill, and so it was not yet possible to do a final financial assessment, but the finances appeared to be healthy.
There had been 255 registered participants, 57 of them women, 55 invited speakers, 21 of those women, 17 plenary and morning speakers, 9 of those women, and 70 research students, 10 of those women. So the shortfall in women was amongst the graduate students, and that could be put down to an unfortunate clash of the BMC with the 2022 Geometry and Number Theory Spring retreat for women.
The meeting had raised funding totalling 45K. The plenary lectures had cost 5K, the morning lectures 12K, the workshops 6K (a budget of 5K had been set, for 4 speakers per workshop, but in fact most workshops had included 6 speakers and one 7). KCL had met the shortfall in budget here.
Planning had been made difficult by the pandemic. It had been difficult to predict numbers, and difficult to set the registration fee; in fact that had been set at 80, and it seemed that this has been set high enough.
In retrospect, David wished he had closed registration earlier, which would have facilitated planning. There had not been as many local registered participants as he would have liked, and he wondered if locals had been put off by the size of the registration fee; he commented that he had observed a few (unregistered) gatecrashers. The clash with the women's postgraduate event was unfortunate.
Charles Eaton asked how many participants had attended from London. In response David said it seemed that few registered participants (as opposed to funded speakers) had travelled to London and paid for hotels; in fact 80 of the 255 registered participants had been from outside London. There had been special arrangements for staff and postgraduates from KCL, and all postgraduates had paid fees at 50%. Since lots of postgraduates had attended, the fees rebate had been expensive for the BMC, but KCL was paying the shortfall. David commented that when QMUL had run the BMC a few years previously, they had offered institutional tickets to other London colleges, which members of those colleges could share, enabling individuals to attend on some days but not others at a reduced rate.
Simon Edwards asked if KCL had collected feedback, and if so what they had learned. David responded that there had been no formal collection of feedback, but informal feedback had been very positive.
Charles Eaton asked about dinner. David responded that they had charged 60 pounds each for dinner. They had chosen to hold the dinner at KCL because of the difficulty of estimating numbers. They had subsidised wine (but underestimated how much mathematicians could drink).
- Info on the 2023 Bath BMC :
Kirill Cherednichenko presented a report. Registration had been open since 5th September, but only 5 or 6 had so far registered. During the current Early Bird period, registration was set at 75 pounds rather than 100.
There were to be six subject areas: algebra, analysis, geometry, probability, number theory and outreach (which includes mathematical edu- cation). Sessions connected with outreach would be held in the centre of Bath, but other sessions would be held in the Chancellors Building on Campus. The Public Lecture would be held on Monday 3rd April in the Guildhall (in the centre of Bath), and the Dinner on Tuesday 4th April at the Roman Baths and Pump Rooms.
Apart from the Public Lecture there would be 5 plenary lectures in 5 subject areas, 12 (= 2 x 6) morning speakers, 12 (= 2 x 6) workshop sessions in the 6 subject areas, each session containing 4 speakers.
Registration would run from 1130 to 1300 on Monday 3rd April, with the conference opening in the afternoon. The conference would close on Thursday, after the final plenary at 1300.
The LMS meeting would start at midday on Tuesday 4th, with 20 minutes at the beginning for the actual meeting, followed by the plenary LMS lecture by Tim Browning.
The BMC AGM followed by the meeting of the BMC Scientific Committee (which might be run as a hybrid event) was scheduled for 1700– 1730. The conference dinner would start at 2000, preceded by a reception in the same venue.
There would be a poster session on the Wednesday at 1830, at which prizes totalling 500 pounds would be awarded in the form of Springer book vouchers (it was not yet decided how many prizes would be awarded).
The conference was operating a a budget of 63K with a 10% contingency. This budget excludes the cost of workshops, for which organisation of funding and programme has been delegated to research groups in Bath. Some of the Bath mathematicians hold large research grants, which have been underused during the pandemic, and so are available here. Others have found outside sources such as the Heilbronn institute (but LMS funds are not being used to fund the workshops). Each research group therefore had a budget of 5–8K for its workshop. The overall budget, including the workshops, is therefore 115-120K.
The dinner is very expensive, costing a total of 19–20K. Some of this is covered by registration fees, together with 75 pounds charged to each registered participant specifically for the dinner.
Charles Eaton asked for more detail on the workshops. There will be 8 (2 x 4) speakers in each workshop. The subject areas of the workshops are represented equally in the non-workshop talks, and then dispersed through the conference to encourage mingling.
Charles Eaton asked how each workshop was using 5–8K. Kirill replied that speakers cost a lot, and the workshop was covering their registration fees.
The Institute for Mathematical Innovation was giving some administrative support, for which it was not charging.
David Burns queried the £75 per person charge for the dinner. Kirill responded that the dinner was expensive. The conference was obliged to pay for a minimum of 40 people at the dinner, but this cost was being met by sponsors.
The current mailing list for the conferences contains about 70 people. Students are being supported by the conference. More than 20 can be supported by a 50% contribution to accommodation and travel and a full fees waiver.
- Organisation of BMC and its committee :
The committee discussed a document on the BMC and its organisation, which Sarah had inherited from her predecessor and was in the process of modifying. She asked for comments. The document (further modified to accommodate comments at the meeting) is attached to these minutes, and further comments would be welcomed.
It was suggested that the document should give an indication of what is expected of host institutions, that there should be some recognition of the prestige attached to hosting a British Mathematical Colloquium, that a host institution needs to appoint an Organising Committee, give proper administrative support. It would be appropriate to provide rooms free of charge, but if there are to be room charges, they cannot be paid from the LMS grant.
The document should indicate the level of support available from the LMS (currently 15K) . Other funding sources need also to be explored. The LMS cannot provide additional support for workshops.
BMC Organisers should be asked to pass on details of sponsors they have identified, and email lists, to future organisers.
The revised document can be accessed at THIS LINK.
- Future BMCs :
Host institutions have now been agreed up to 2025. Newcastle had expressed interest for 2026, but had not confirmed, and so it was agreed that other institutions should also be approached. Belfast was suggested, together with the possibility that Belfast might run a joint event with the Irish Mathematical Society (this had been done the previous time that the BMC had been hosted by Belfast), and so was UEA. Richard Thomas pointed out that hosting the BMC was an opportunity for a mathematics department to showcase itself. Sarah would investigate.
- Date of next meeting :
The next meeting would be at the Bath BMC, on the evening of Tuesday 4th April. Remote attendance would be possible for those on the Committeee unable to attend in person.
- Any other business :
Charles Eaton asked about the BMC public lecture (referring in particular to that lecture at the Manchester BMC). Might this be aimed at schools, and hence during the day? The Manchester BMC was scheduled for 17–20th June, and hence was at a good time to access school students.
Charles also asked about the conference dinner (again with reference to Manchester). He was thinking of a more low key event, with a less grand menu, to attract higher participation. There was no objection. Elizabeth Fisher pointed out the merits of a buffet meal.