CMS NOTES de la SMC Volume 30 No. 6 October / octobre 1998 In this issue / Dans ce numero´ FROM THE discovery, learning and application of EXECUTIVE mathematics. The President also reported on the Editorial ......................... 2 DIRECTOR’S DESK “Planning for the future of the CMS” document that had been endorsed by ICM’98 - Prizes and Medals the Board and on the various task forces Awarded ........................ 3 that will help “review all aspects of CMS operations”. The scope of the Du bureau du directeur admin- Society’s operations has grown signifi- istratif .......................... 7 cantly over the past several years and with this growth has come a corre- sponding increase in both administra- Awards / Prix ................... 8 tive and financial operations. It is im- portant that all of our activities are ad- A Note of Thanks ............... 9 ministered effectively and efficiently and the mandate of one of the Task Une Note de Remerciement ... 10 Forces will be to review “Office Strate- Graham Wright gies”, for example, workload, staff as- Call for Nominations / Appel de signments, conference administration, Candidatures .................. 11 (voir la page 7 pour la version franc¸aise) streamlining and the requirements as- In the last issue of the Notes, the Pres- sociated with Camel. CMS 1998 Winter Meeting ident, Richard Kane, reported that the Change will certainly be a signifi- Reunion´ d’et´ e´ 1998 de la SMC 13 Board of Directors had approved an ex- cant part of future planning and change tension of my term as Executive Di- is certainly not new for the Executive Schedule / Horaire .............. 18 rector until June 30, 2002. I wish to Office in Ottawa, or for the Society’s thank all of those involved in the Soci- various editorial offices (St. John’s, Scheduled Speakers / ety’s activities for their invaluable sup- Halifax, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Burnaby Conferenciers´ prevus´ ......... 21 port and encouragement over the past and Vancouver). Indeed, the past six 19 years and I look forward to working months have already seen some signif- Joint Mathematics Meetings .. 24 with many of you over the next four icant changes at the Executive Office. years. Several positions have been modi- Positions Available / Offre Many diverse and interesting chal- fied to better reflect current needs and d’emploi ........................ 26 lenges lie ahead and together with the to more clearly identify the responsi- help and support of our many volun- bilities for each position. Monique Math Connection ............... 33 teers, both inside and outside the CMS, Bouchard, who has been with the CMS we will be able to maximize oppor- since 1980, is now the Operations Man- Calendar of events / Calendrier tunities and actively pursue the Soci- ager and the other full-time Executive des ev´ enements´ ................. 34 ety’s goal to promote and advance the (continued on page 6) OCTOBER/OCTOBRE CMS NOTES EDITORIAL Combinatorics) and the balance in var- ied fields (Aequationes Math, Algebra CMS NOTES Universalis, Designs Codes and Cryp- NOTES DE LA SMC tography, Theory and Applications of Categories, Utilitas Math). The CMS Notes is published by The dollar value of all this activity the Canadian Mathematical Society must be large, causing one to wonder if (CMS) eight times a year (February, a greater portion of it might be captured March, April, May, September, Oc- for the benefit of the mathematical sci- tober, November, and December). ences community. Readers with views on this, or with comments on the above Editors-in-Chief list, are invited to write to us. Peter Fillmore Au Canada, l’edition´ et la pub- S. Swaminathan lication dans le domaine des sci- ences mathematiques´ sont des secteurs Managing Editor etonnamment´ dynamiques et diver- Graham P. Wright Peter Fillmore sifies.´ On publie des collections de livres et de periodiques,´ en format Contributing Editors Editing and publishing in the mathe- electronique´ et papier. C’est ce que Education: Harvey Gerber matical sciences in Canada today is nous apprenait le document Mathemat- ´ ´ [email protected] impressively vigorous and extensive, ics in Canada, redige par Jim Timo- ´ Meetings: Monique Bouchard comprising book series and periodi- urian et le Comite des affaires inter- [email protected] cals, both print and electronic. This nationales de la SMC, en vue du pas- ´ ´ Research: Noriko Yui; was brought to light in the document sage du Canada l’echelon superieur de James D. Lewis ”Mathematics in Canada”, prepared l’UMI. [email protected] last year by Jim Timourian and the Du cotˆ e´ des livres, huit collections CMS International Affairs Commit- sont publiees´ au pays : deux par la Editorial Assistant tee in connection with the move of SMC et l’Institut Fields, et quatre par Canada’s IMU membership to the top le CRM. Comme la collection SMC- Caroline Baskerville category. Wiley est passee´ chez Springer-Verlag, The Editors welcome articles, letters To begin with books, there are 8 se- cinq de ces collections sont distribuees´ and announcements, which should ries in all - two each from the CMS par l’AMS et trois par Springer. Ajou- be sent to the CMS Notes at: and the Fields Institute, and no less tons a` cela des ouvrages occasionnels, Canadian Mathematical Society than four from the CRM. With the comme les livres publies´ par la SMC 577 King Edward CMS-Wiley series moving to Springer- a` l’occasion de son cinquantieme` an- P.O. Box 450, Station A Verlag, five of these are distributed by niversaire et de la 36e OIM. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5 the AMS and three by Springer. To Quelque onze periodiques´ sont Telephone: (613) 562-5702 these one might add occasional publi- publies´ par des associations profes- Facsimile: (613) 565-1539 cations such as the books issued by the sionnelles, notamment la SMC (5), E-mail: [email protected] CMS in 1995 to mark our 50th anniver- l’AMQ (2), la SCMAI (1), la SRC [email protected] sary and the 36th IMO. (1), la SCHPM (1) et la SSC(1). On Web site: www.cms.math.ca It appears that some 11 periodicals compte aussi huit revues specialis´ ees´ are published by professional organiza- (ou plus) edit´ ees´ dans les departements´ No responsibility for views ex- tions, including the CMS(5), AMQ(2), de mathematiques´ de diverses uni- pressed by authors is assumed by the CAIMS(1), RSC(1), CSHPM(1), and versites´ canadiennes, les universites´ Notes, the editors or the CMS. SSC(1). There are another 8 (or du Manitoba et de Waterloo en tte more?) speciality journals edited in avec trois chacune. De ces onze various Canadian university mathemat- periodiques,´ trois portent sur la combi- ISSN: 1193-9273 ics departments, led by the Universities natoire (Ars Combinatoria, J. Combi- of Manitoba and Waterloo with three natorial Theory–Series B, J. Algebraic c Canadian Mathematical Society 1998 each. Of these, three are in combi- Combinatorics), et les autres sur des su- natorics (Ars Combinatoria, J. Combi- jets varies´ (Aequationes Math, Algebra natorial Theory–Series B, J. Algebraic Universalis, Designs Codes and Cryp- 2 NOTES de la SMC OCTOBER/OCTOBRE tography, Theory and Applications of nous interroger sur la possibilitede´ le sujet ou a` nous faire part de leurs Categories, Utilitas Math). conserver une partie de ces profits, commentaires sur la liste ci-dessus. Les sommes que rapportent toute pour le ben´ efice´ de la communaute´ cette activite´ sont sans doute con- mathematique.´ Nous invitons les siderables,´ ce qui nous amene` a` lecteurs a` nous donner leur opinion sur P. Fillmore FOUR FIELDS MEDALS, NEVANLINNA PRIZE, PLAQUE AWARDED AT ICM’98 In physics or literature they have the award of $15,000. It is donated by the so-called ”monster-groups” and ellip- Nobel Prize, and in mathematics there University of Helsinki in memory of tic functions. These functions are is the Fields Medal. This highest sci- the Finnish mathematician Rolf Nevan- used in the construction of wire-frame entific award for mathematicians was linna, who was president of the Interna- structures in two-dimensions, and can presented on August 18 at the open- tional Mathematical Union 1959 - 1962 be helpful, for example, in chemistry ing ceremony of ICM’98 in Berlin to and organiser of the World Congress in for the description of molecular struc- Richard E. Borcherds, Maxim Kontse- Stockholm in 1962. One side of the tures. Monster groups, in contrast, only vich, W. Timothy Gowers and Curtis T. medal shows the bust of Nevanlinna, seemed to be of importance in pure McMullen. The International Mathe- and the other bears the seal of Helsinki mathematicians. Groups are mathe- matical Union also awarded the Nevan- University and a rectangle of noughts matical objects which can be used to linna Prize for outstanding work in the and ones, the word ”Helsinki” in coded describe the symmetry of structures. field of theoretical computer science to form. Expressed technically, they are a set the mathematician Peter Shor, and a of objects for which certain arithmetic special silver plaque to Andrew Wiles. RICHARD E. BORCHERDS rules apply (for example all whole The Fields Medal is the highest sci- numbers and their sums form a group). entific award for mathematicians. The An important theorem of algebra awards are presented every four years says that all groups, however large and at the International Congress of Math- complicated they may seem, all consist ematicians (ICM) together with a prize of the same components - in the same of $15,000 (Canadian). Up to four way as the material world is made up of medals are presented at each ceremony atomic particles. The ”monster group” to mathematicians who are not more is the largest ”sporadic, finite, simple” than forty years old.