# The Croatian Mathematical Society

### Founded in 1990

The Croatian Mathematical Society was founded in 1990. However the Society has a much longer history than that date would suggest since it was on 18 April 1990 that the Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists made the decision to split into two separate societies, namely the Croatian Mathematical Society and the Croatian Physics Society. The Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists had been founded in 1949 but long before that there had been a mathematics section of the Croatian Natural History Society, itself founded in 1885, which was the beginnings of the Mathematical Society.

The Croatian Natural History Society was founded in 1885 in Zagreb with a view to developing and popularising the natural sciences. Over time, almost all Croatian scientific societies have had their genesis in the Croatian Natural History Society. Pedagogical and professional works on mathematics were published in the "Teacher's Note" issued by the Croatian Natural History Society, which appeared from 1892 until 1944. From 1886 to 1938, the Society also published Glasnik Hrvatskog naravoslovnog društva, in which research papers on mathematics appeared. The Croatian Natural History Society founded the Mathematical-Physical Section in 1945 and a year later, the Department of Mathematics and Physics in the University of Zagreb was established, which started organising workshops for teachers and popular lectures on mathematics and physics. The Mathematical-Physical Section and the Astronomical-Geophysical Section of the Croatian Natural History Society launched the scientific journal "Mathematical-Physical and Astronomical Lectures" which appeared under that name from 1946 until 1965.

The Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists was founded in 1949 and existed until 1990. We will discuss the splitting of the Society below. When the Society was founded in 1949 Croatia was a federal unit in Yugoslavia so the Croatian Society became a member of the Alliance of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Yugoslavia. The Croatian Society had a Teaching Section which was active right from the foundation of the Society. The work of the Teaching Section was particularly important in the 1950s because during these years it organised professional-pedagogic evenings which had much success in enabling teaching to keep up to date. It produced a publication "Mathematical Physical List" aimed at secondary schools with a starting edition of 5000 copies. The Society also encouraged the publication of "Small Libraries for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry", and later the "Matter and Number" and "Modern Mathematics" libraries. In 1953, summer courses in mathematics and physics for high school teachers began to be organised, which later developed into the present 'Seminars for Elementary and High School Teachers'. The main activities of the Society in dealing with more advanced mathematical topics and with talented young mathematicians were various events such as 'Republican Encounters', 'Federation Competitions', 'Balkan Mathematics', 'International Mathematical Olympiad', 'Summer School for Young Mathematicians' and 'Seminars for Young Mathematicians'.

The main contribution to the development of research in the mathematical sciences in Croatia was the colloquium organised by the Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists, which for many years was the main scientific forum for mathematics. Meetings were held every Wednesday, in the hall on Marko Marulić Square in Zagreb which was almost always completely full. Every last Wednesday of the month there were so called "Individuals Themes". There were no announcements of the topics to be presented and, in a ten-minute slot, individuals reported their latest findings or reported on major events in the world of mathematics. The journal Glasnik matematički began publication in 1966 and has continued following the split and the foundation of the Croatian Mathematical Society. It publishes mathematical papers from all fields of mathematics and is the main journal for the publication of mathematical research papers in Croatia. The journal was exchanged with over 300 journals from around the world, which became the basis of the "Central Mathematical Library" giving Croatian mathematicians access to a wide range of publications.

Now before looking at the events of 1990, we should note that the Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists was most active in Zagreb. However the Rijeka Society of Mathematicians and Physicists was founded in 1951 as a branch of the Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists. Rijeka is the main sea port of Croatia and the third largest city, after Zagreb an Split.

The Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists held their annual general meeting at 6 p.m. on 18 April 1990 in the Mathematical Lecture Theatre in the Faculty of Science on Marko Maruli Square in Zagreb. The agenda was as follows:
1. Opening of the Assembly. President's address.

2. Selection of the president and secretary for the meeting.

3. Report of the President of the Society on the work of the previous year.

4. Report of the Management Committee.

5. Discussion on the reports.

6. Approval of the Society's final accounts.

7. Discussion on the proposal for the separation of the Society into the Croatian Mathematical Society and the Croatian Physics Society.

8. The division of the charter on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Society.

9. Miscellaneous.
The meeting was opened by Luka Neralič, President of the Society, who then gave the lecture "Analysis of bounded data". There followed an interesting discussion on Item 7, the splitting of the Society into two separate societies. You can read a version of the minutes [2] taken at that discussion at THIS LINK.

The Croatian Mathematical Society has four sections, namely a Teaching Section, a Scientific Section, an Engineering Section (technology and economics), and a Professional Section. It also runs the Croatian Mathematical Youth Society whose membership is around 1200 primary and secondary school students and university students. The Croatian Mathematical Society promotes mathematical science, teaching mathematics at all levels, applying mathematics in other disciplines as well as improving the social position of mathematicians as a whole. It achieves these aims by undertaking the following activities:
(i) organizing scientific and professional meetings;

(ii) organizing scientific and professional lectures;

(iii) organizing seminars and consultations;

(iv) publishing;

(v) organizing and conducting mathematics competitions for elementary and high school students;

(vi) cooperating with related domestic associations and institutions;

(vii) international cooperation;

(viii) being a member of International Mathematical Associations, etc.
Croatian Mathematical Congress

The Society organises the Croatian Mathematical Congress every four years. The scientific program features plenary and invited talks by distinguished senior scientists, the Croatian Mathematical Society Award Lecture, as well as contributed section talks and poster presentations. A primary aim of the congress is to present the broadest possible overview of the activities of the mathematical community as well as to host panel discussions on topics of current interest to the mathematical community.

The First Croatian Mathematical Congress was held 18-20 July 1996 at the University of Zagreb. It was attended by 187 participants and had 24 invited addresses. There were also sessions for short communications with 72 speakers. The Croatian Mathematical Society Prize was awarded to Ivan Slapni
ar for his work on the theory of relative perturbations for eigenvalue problems. This Prize is awarded every four years to a young Croatian mathematician under the age of 35 for outstanding contributions. Here is a list of the Congresses:
1996: First Croatian Mathematical Congress, 18-20 July, University of Zagreb.

2000: Second Croatian Mathematical Congress, 15-17 June, University of Zagreb.

2004: Third Croatian Mathematical Congress, 16-18 June, University of Split.

2008: Fourth Croatian Mathematical Congress, 17-20 June, University of Osijek.

2012: Fifth Croatian Mathematical Congress, 18-21 June, University of Rijeka.

2016: Sixth Croatian Mathematical Congress, 14-17 June, University of Zagreb.
Young mathematicians award

As stated above, the Croatian Mathematical Society awards every four years the Award of the Croatian Mathematical Society to a young mathematician (under 35 years of age) for outstanding research contributions to mathematics. Here is a list of the winners of the Award:
1996: Ivan Slapničar. The prize was awarded for his original and important contributions to relative perturbation theory for eigenvalues and singular values of matrices and the corresponding invariant spaces, and numerical analysis of highly accurate algorithms.

2000: Andrej Dujella. The prize was awarded for his original and important contributions in finding new sets of Diophantine type, with applications to elliptic curves and number theory.

2004: Goran Muić. The prize was awarded for his original and important contributions to the representation theory of $p$-adic groups, the theory of local $L$-functions and generic representations, and the theta correspondence with applications to the Langlands programme, automorphic forms, and number theory.

2008: Ozren Peraše. The prize was awarded for his original and important contributions to representation theory of vertex algebras and infinite dimensional Lie algebras, with applications to tensor category theory and mathematical physics.

2012: Igor Velčić. The prize was awarded for his original and important contributions to the theory of plate models in elasticity obtained by simultaneous homogenisation and dimensional reduction.

2016: Ante Mimica. The prize was awarded for his original and important contributions to Probability Theory. Sadly Ante Mimica died from a brain tumour on 9 June 2016, at the age of 35, so his work was described in the Award Lecture by Hrvoje Šikić.
Glasnik matematički

The Croatian Mathematical Society, in collaboration with the University of Zagreb, publishes Glasnik matematički. There is one volume consisting of two issues (June and December) each year. This journal was taken over by the Croatian Mathematical Society when the Croatian Society of Mathematicians and Physicists split in two in 1990. It has been published since 1966.

Visit the society website.

### References (show)

1. Croatian Mathematical Society website. http://www.matematika.hr
2. S Martinović, XXXIX Annual General Assembly of the Society of Mathematicians and Physicists of Croatia, Glasnik matematički (3) 25 (45) (1990), 430-431.

Last Updated February 2018