The Fields Institute Announces 2013 Annual General Meeting Highlights

TORONTO, July 3, 2013 /CNW/ - The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences marked the completion of its Twentieth Anniversary Year at its Annual General Meeting on June 28, 2013. The AGM, attended by members of the corporation and representatives of the Institute's partner universities, was informed of the success of the year's activity, including two major Thematic Programs: Forcing and Its Applications, and Torsors, Nonassociative Algebras and Cohomological Invariants. A highlight of the year was the inaugural Fields Medal Symposium, which brought the honoured 2010 Medalist Ngô Bãu Châu to Toronto.

Four new Fields Institute Fellows were honoured at the AGM: Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Barbara Lee Keyfitz, Bruce Reed, and Patrick Speissegger. This distinction is awarded for outstanding contributions to the Fields Institute and to the Canadian mathematical community. Dan Rosen, CEO and co-founder of R² Financial Technologies Inc., delivered an afternoon talk, "It's All about Risk: Financial Engineering, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship".

The AGM elected its Board of Directors for the coming year, including three individuals who are new to the Board: Dan Rosen; Andrew Granville of the University of Montreal, and Moshe Milevsky of York University.

The Institute thanked Edward Bierstone, retiring Director of the Institute, for the imagination and leadership he displayed during his four-year term. Professor Bierstone created the Fields Medal Symposium, attracted international mathematics talent to the Institute, and built strong relationships with the many communities the Institute serves.

The appointment of Walter Craig as Director of the Fields Institute, effective July 1, 2013, was announced. Professor Craig is a prominent mathematical analyst whose interests include partial differential equations, Hamiltonian dynamical systems and their application to the physical sciences. He is a Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University, where he holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. He is a Fields Institute Fellow and has served on the Institute's Scientific Advisory Panel and Board of Directors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Mathematical Society.

The Fields Institute is an international centre for research and training in all areas of the mathematical sciences and their applications. Every year, its programs attract more than 4000 participants from around the world. The Institute is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Science Foundation (US), and a growing list of partner universities in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

SOURCE: The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences

Andrea MacLeod
Communications Officer, The Fields Institute
416-348-9710 ext. 3024
[email protected]