BMC Scientific Committee September 2024

British Mathematical Colloquium Scientific Committee
Minutes from the meeting of Thursday 26th September 2024,
1000-1130 BST on Zoom

Introductions and apologies
Present Jan Grabowski (Chair), Murak Akman (Essex), Charles Eaton
(Manchester), Simon Edwards (LMS), Nicola Goldie (LMS), Mark
Holland (Exeter), Sophie Huczynska (St Andrew's, EMS rep,
from 1100), Timothy Logvinenko (Cardiﬀ), Jesus Martinez-Garcia
(Essex, LMS rep), Chris Parker (Birmingham)
Apologies Simon Goodwin (Birmingham), Jason Lotay (Oxford, LMS
rep), David Marti-Pete (Liverpool; 2024 BMC participant rep)
Minutes of last Scientific Committee meeting held at the Manchester BMC on 19th June 2024 were approved.
Report on the 2024 BMC in Manchester.
The written report to the LMS was circulated to Committee members
with the meeting papers. Charles Eaton reported on significant aspects
including:
• The Public Lecture, which had to be postponed due to circum-
stances outside the BMC's control, has not yet been rescheduled
but it is hoped that it will take place in the near future.
• Strong attendance (and hence registration fee income) meant that
there was a significant underspend against the budget. Approx-
imately £3,500 will be returned to the LMS as a result. Such
underspends are diﬃcult to manage or avoid, given that organis-
ers are naturally cautious and, at a certain point, it is not feasible
to spend remaining funds. The Committee agreed that we should
not be overly disappointed when a BMC had strong attendance
and is financially sound.
• A number of aspects of the Manchester approach received pos-
itive comments, including the location, the number of shorter
talks (which boosted registration), the satellite meetings and the
buﬀet-style pizza dinner (in place of the more traditional sit-down
event). There were discussions on pros and cons of the various
choices that had been necessary or actively made by the Manch-
ester organisers, to be noted and considered by future organisers
in their contexts.
Very few aspects received negative comments from members or
participants; one—the decision not to provide name badges on
sustainability grounds—was acknowledged not to have succeeded
in its intent and it was suggested that when name badges are
sourced in future, sustainable options are prioritised.
• There was a lengthy discussion of EDI aspects, notably the gen-
der balance among graduate students. Some possible influencing
factors were mooted, along with a discussion of how Manchester
had tried to mitigate these. The Committee agreed to keep EDI
at the forefront of its mind and encouraged future organising com-
mittees to consider asking one of their members to have specific
EDI responsibility. However it was also noted that many of the
issues are beyond the scope of the BMC to resolve; we need to do
what we can, including ensuring the high visibility of role models.
Update on plans for Exeter B(A)MC to be held 23rd-26th June 2025.
Mark Holland gave a verbal report, reminding the Committee of the
dates of the B(A)MC and confirming that progress is well underway.
Publicity is imminent, with a web page and registration portal to
become available in the coming weeks. The registration fee will be
£155 (early bird), reduced to £80 for graduate students. While higher
than is typical for BMCs, this was agreed to be appropriate for the
joint event.
The workshops will be Geometry and Topology, Number Theory, Al-
gebra, Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory, Formal Methods in
Mathematical Proof and Mathematics for Climate Change. Plans are
being made in relation to the LMS meeting and dinner; the Commit-
tee's meeting and the AGM will be fixed accordingly.
Future BMCs

Cardiﬀ 2026 Timothy Logvinenko reported that the dates of the
2026 BMC will be 23rd–26th March 2026. An organising com-
mittee, including an EDI lead, has been established and outline
plans for the meeting are in place. The preference is to hold the
meeting in departmental space; no room charges will apply if this
is the case. Preliminary budget planning suggests an early bird
registration fee in the region of £90–£100. The Committee noted
the upward pressure on registration fees in recent years, reflect-
ing that this has largely been driven by inflationary increases to
catering costs.
Approaches to plenary speakers are imminent. As with other
recent BMCs, the organisers expect to recruit other colleagues to
organise the workshops, one of which will be in association with
the LMS network COW and other networks may have satellite
meetings.

Birmingham 2027 Chris Parker reported that he and Simon Good-
win will be co-chairs of the organising committee and a scientific
committee is being recruited by March 2025. No further concrete
decisions have been made at this point but it is hoped that ple-
nary speakers will be approached with provisional dates by June
2025.

Essex 2028 Murak Akman invited the Committee to consider a pro-
posal for Essex to host the BMC in 2028, highlighting significant
support from the university. This was warmly received and Mu-
rat was asked to continue to work with colleagues towards plans
for 2028, with full formal approval to follow.
Warwick 2030 The Chair informed the Committee that an approach
had been made by Warwick to his counterpart as Chair of the
BAMC, Chris Howls, at the Newcastle BAMC this year with
the suggestion of hosting the B(A)MC in 2030. Subsequently,
following no initial objections from this Committee, the Chair
met with Chris and Ed Brambley (Warwick) in May to have
initial discussions and agreed that Warwick would work on the
feasibility of a proposal to be put formally in the future.
The Chair noted that for reasons of geographical diversity, a north-
ern host for the 2029 BMC would be preferable. (There had been a
recent run of northern hosts—Durham in 2017, St Andrew's in 2018,
Lancaster in 2019, Glasgow in 2021 and Manchester in 2024—so that
the planned locations above were not inappropriate.)
Date of next committee meeting at Exeter BMC in June 2025, in
hybrid format; exact date to be confirmed.
Any other business —none.

Jan Grabowski
30th September 2024