On July 6, in St. Petersburg, the grand opening ceremony of the new art object “Pythagorean Theorem” will take place, and the series of events “A Year to the Congress – Countdown” will be launched. The event will be the opening one in a number of celebrations leading up to the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which will take place in St. Petersburg next year.
On the very same date one year later — July 6, 2022 — the official opening of ICM2022 will take place in St. Petersburg. This is the largest event for mathematicians around the world, which occurs every four years under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The ICM Opening Ceremony announces the names of the IMU Prize Winners, including the Fields Medal, which is comparable to the Nobel Prize in the mathematical world. Traditionally, a year before the ICM begins a series of events “A Year to Congress — Countdown”, aimed to increase the popularity of mathematics.
The first in a series of events will be the opening ceremony of “The Pythagorean Theorem” art object. The gala event will take place on the 6th of July in St. Petersburg at the Building of the Twelve Collegia (SPb State University). Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, Rector of Saint Petersburg State University Nikolai Kropachev, Rector of Saint Petersburg Mining University Vladimir Litvinenko, and other honored guests will participate. The countdown will be launched at 12:00 Moscow time.
“The ICM is an amazing event with a great long tradition. It is the flagship activity of the IMU
because of its crucial role in advancing the IMU’s main objectives of promoting international cooperation in mathematics and encouraging and supporting international activities in all aspects of the mathematical sciences: pure, applied, or educational. The current version of the IMU was created in 1950 based on the principle of unrestricted internationalism enshrined as “mathematics without borders”, a motto that we continue to cherish. The ICM reflects and drives this principle by bringing together mathematicians from all over the world to learn about the most important recent advances in mathematics and its applications from the people who made them”, addressed the participants of the upcoming Congress Carlos Kenig, President of the IMU.
To mark the significant date — a year before the opening — the ICM2022 organizing committee launched a special Internet project dedicated to mathematics and its manifestations in different areas of life: on the website you can find out what modern mathematics is today, watch a selection of movies about mathematics and mathematicians, listen to music written by scientists or podcasts about mathematics, take the “Which mathematician are you” test, and more.
“We will try to make the Congress a useful and memorable event – like the one in 1966, which had an incredibly positive impact on the development of Russian science. The role of mathematics in today’s life can hardly be overestimated — almost all the achievements of science and engineering are based on the application of mathematics. Through popular events around the Congress, we hope to highlight this role and familiarize the general public with the importance and achievements of mathematics,” said Stanislav Smirnov, Fields Medal winner (2010), Vice Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the preparation and conduct of ICM2022.
In the entire history of ICM Russia will host the Congress for the second time, and the first time was in 1966 in Moscow. The Moscow Congress set a new high score for the number of participants at that time — 4280. The decision to hold ICM2022 in St. Petersburg was made in 2018 at the Congress in Brazil. The application was submitted by Russia (St. Petersburg) and France (Paris). St. Petersburg won with an advantage of 83:63 votes.
“In my opinion, our bid was objectively stronger. But also, I think, the desire of the IMU member countries to strengthen the ties of the international mathematical community with Russian mathematics played an important role in the victory. The Russian school has made and, I hope, will continue to make a significant contribution to the development of world mathematics. I would like to appeal to all our foreign colleagues and to all those involved in mathematics in Russia with a call to make the most of a personal meeting in St. Petersburg next year. Much has been said about the effect of the 1966 Congress, and about the impact of the congresses on the development of mathematics in the host country in general. Of course, we set ourselves the task of achieving a similar — or even greater — effect from ICM 2022,” emphasized Andrey Okounkov, the winner of the Fields Prize (2006), member of the organizing committee for the preparation and conduct of ICM2022.
ICM2022 will be held from 6 to 14 July 2022 at the EXPOFORUM Exhibition Center. In addition to the main part of the Congress, starting from April next year, satellite conferences will be held in 15 cities of Russia, as well as in Poland, Finland, India and the Republic of Belarus.
Note
The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) will be held on July 6-14, 2022 in St. Petersburg (Russia) by the decision of the International Mathematical Union. It is included in the national project “Science and Universities”. Holding the Congress in Russia is intended to enhance the integration of international mathematical centers into the world scientific community, to help attract new Russian and foreign partners to cooperation. This is the most significant meeting in the field of fundamental and applied mathematics around the world and one of the oldest scientific congresses. The first ICM was held in 1897 in Zurich (Switzerland). The aim of ICM is to present the widest possible spectrum of modern mathematics, including all scientific directions and mathematical schools from different geographic regions, and, thus, to determine the future directions of the development of mathematics. Guest speakers at ICM are mathematicians of the highest level, capable of presenting current research trends to a wide audience. The ICM program includes a very wide range of activities, including plenary and invited lectures, panel discussions, public lectures, educational events for a wide audience, short messages, poster presentations and more.
ICM website — https://icm2022.org
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