Subject: Re: Conference proposals From: Brooke Shipley Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2005 20:24:44 -0600 bshipley@math.uic.edu wrote: > Below is a letter encouraging you to submit a proposal for an > AMS-IMS-SIAM joint Summer Research Conference. Last year there > were very few proposals and they were almost all funded. This is an > excellent way to fund and run a conference with support from the AMS. > > Please spread the word to anyone you know who might want to organize > a conference for the summer of 2007. I'm a member of the selection > committee so if you have any questions please feel free to ask me. > > Deadline for letter of intent: Dec. 16, 2005 > Deadline for submission: Jan. 16, 2006 > > -Brooke > > > > The AMS-IMS-SIAM joint Summer Research Conferences (SRCs) have played > an important role in the development of American mathematics over the > last few decades. These conferences have been places where students, > junior and senior mathematicians mingled in an informal setting. > Discussions have been welcomed and questions have been answered in a > friendly manner. They have been the places where more established > mathematicians let the younger and aspiring ones into their group of > friends and freely shared their knowledge and exchanged ideas. > > People have wondered whether these conferences have a role now that > several NSF- funded institutes exist that also organize conferences, > some of them even held in the summers. We think they do. The > institutes are organized about mathematical themes; their programs and > conferences tend to be focused and top-heavy with established > mathematicians. Although the institutes do an excellent job in > bringing in junior researchers and students, the senior researchers > are not as easily approachable in that institutional setting. > Institutes tend to be places where people who already know each other > congregate. Even pedagogical lectures are somehow more formal. > > The AMS-IMS-SIAM joint Summer Research Conferences are a truly > democratic way of sharing mathematical ideas. They are the "town > halls" of the mathematical community where anyone can speak up > unafraid and ask questions. That they usually take place somewhere in > the countryside (lately at the beautiful Snowbird resort at in the > mountains in Utah) makes them more conducive to intermingling and more > likely to break up the traditional groups. This informal character > also makes them more valuable to the American mathematical community > and American mathematics. > > The AMS encourages all its members to think about organizing a Summer > Research Conference in their fields. Now is the time to do so because > the continuation of this important mathematical institution depends on > a large number of good proposals for a Summers Research Conference. > The final deadline for submission is January 16, 2006; a statement of > intent to submit is due on December 16, 2005. The web site for > additional information is http://www.ams.org/meetings/srccall.html. > > Sincerely, > > Bjorn Birnir Ellen J. Maycock > Professor of Mathematics Associate Executive Director > University of California, American Mathematical Society > Santa Barbara