11 AUTUMN 2018 Newsletter of IMPAN 70 YEARS GRANTS SCIENTIFIC BANACH OF IMPAN EVENTS CENTER 2 NEWSLETTER OF IMPAN | AUTUMN 2018 70 YEARS OF IMPAN – AN OVERVIEW 3 Director of IMPAN Therefore I consider the work of the new Board of Directors as both a mission and a challenge. It is with The Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy great pleasure that I present my young deputies: of Sciences has just reached its 70th anniversary. It is Tomasz Cieślak, responsible for the Będlewo Center, a distinction for me, but also a responsibility, to take publication matters, the Mathematical Center of Sci- the position of director starting from June 1st 2018. ence and Technology, and mobility (travels); The Institute is highly recognized all over the world. Piotr Nowak, responsible for hiring scientific staff We have been granted Polish top category A+. Our and for scientific policy; researchers have received a number of national and in- Adam Skalski, responsible for Banach Center activi- ternational grants (including 2 ERC Starting Grants). ties and also for scientific policy; The Institute has been awarded a 5-year research and and Renata Podgórska-Zając, responsible for admin- training program by the Simons Foundation. The In- istration in wide sense and daily governing problems. ternational Stefan Banach Center, part of the Insti- tute, has been organizing mathematical workshops I encourage you to read this Newsletter, which be- and conferences for the last 46 years. We also have sides the presentation of the new Board of Directors the Central Mathematical Library and the Publications recalls the history of IMPAN, describes the upcoming Department, responsible for publishing 8 journals and scientific events, and lists new grant recipients.ntific 3 book series. events at IMPAN, as well as new grants recipients. The Institute is also the proprietor of real estate: the main facility in Warsaw, the Mathematical Research and Conference Center at Będlewo, buildings in our branches in Sopot and Wrocław and an apartment in Cracow. 70 years of IMPAN – an overview ADAM SKALSKI Mathematical Institute, on the 20th November 1948. It was established by the act of the government, signed jointly by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Edu- cation. Four years later, in 1952, it was incorporated into the newly created Polish Academy of Sciences and was given the current name, usually abbreviated as IMPAN (Instytut Matematyczny Polskiej Akademii Nauk). The first director of the institute, and a person The Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy instrumental in its creation, was Kazimierz Kuratowski, of Sciences was called into existence, as the State who would hold this position for the next twenty years. 4 NEWSLETTER OF IMPAN | AUTUMN 2018 Thus the formal existence of the Institute dates back Equations, Analytic Functions, Differential Geom- to 1948. Its origins however can be traced to a much etry, and Mathematical Physics, and the Applied Sec- earlier time. In 1918, the year in which Poland regained tion, comprising the groups of General Applications, independence after 123 years of its territory being di- Technical Group, Actuarial Group, the Mathematical vided between the neighbouring countries, a magazine Apparata, the Graphical Methods and the Statistical called `Nauka Polska’ (i.e. `Polish Science’) published Control of the Production Quality. The division into a famous article of a Warsaw topologist Zygmunt Sections was abolished already in 1950, but the insti- Janiszewski, entitled `On the needs of mathematics tute maintained a strong applied arm, led to a high in Poland’. Janiszewski’s article is striking in its rel- extent by Hugon Steinhaus. evance even now: he argues that a newly re-emerging The new institute had branches in several cities, but state should actively support research, and mathemat- its headquarters was located where it remains today, ics in particular (motivating it partly by the fact that at Śniadeckich street, in the very centre of Warsaw. this is a branch of science which can be developed and The building at Śniadeckich (then known as Kaliksta promoted at a relatively low cost) and explains several street) was constructed as a private school (the `Ron- forms which such a support should take. Among the taler school’) in 1902. Before the Second World War key of those Janiszewski lists: it changed hands several times. It was briefly hosting the prestigious Rey Gymnasium, run by the Lutheran • providing income to the most talented individuals community in Warsaw, and then on 1911 became the so that they can focus solely on their scientific train- headquarters of the Warsaw Scientific Society. Here ing and research the society maintained a neurobiological laboratory led • creating a `laboratory of mathematical research’ by Edward Flatau, the founding father of Polish mod- • establishing a publication house, which would pub- ern neurology, and a radiological laboratory directed lish both (specialized!) mathematical journals and by Ludwik Wertenstein, a student of Marie Curie- mathematical monographs Skłodowska, who herself was an honorary head of the • establishing and maintaining a central mathemati- latter research group. One of the physicists working cal library at Śniadeckich 8 at the guidance of Wertenstein was • promoting collaborative activities and col- Józef Rotblat, a later leader of the Pugwash movement, legiate atmosphere among mathematicians. advocating the abolishment of the nuclear weapons, and a 1995 Peace Nobel Prize winner. The name of the Many ideas of Janiszewski hugely influenced the de- street itself has scientific connotations: brothers Jan velopment of mathematics in Poland in the period and Jędrzej Śniadeccy were Polish scientists, living in 1918-1939; in particular the Polish Mathematical Vilnius at the turn of 18th and 19th century, interested Society was created in 1919 in Kraków and `Funda- in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry and menta Mathematicae’ was established in 1920 as the philosophy. first specialized mathematical journal in the world. In The building itself was badly damaged during the 1936 Kuratowski, at the behest of the Committee for war, but re-opened in 1950, already as headquarters Mathematics, an advisory body to the government, of IMPAN. Two years later the Central Mathemati- prepared a memorandum `On the state and needs cal Library, formally created in 1947, was moved to of mathematics in Poland’, explicitly recommending Śniadeckich, where it remains until now. Originally creating a state mathematical institute (in fact two formed by the surviving part of the collection of the such institutions were envisaged: a pure mathemat- Warsaw Scientific Society and a private collection of ics one in Warsaw, and an applied mathematics one Samuel Dickstein, since its establishment it has served in Lwów). The Second World War interrupted these as a primary mathematical library for the Polish math- plans, depriving Poland of approximately 50% of its ematical community. It is currently holding approxi- active mathematicians, who either lost their lifes or mately 88 000 books and 90 000 journal volumes and emigrated from the country. However already in early opens its doors to all visitors. These can freely peruse days of May 1945 Kuratowski together with Karol Bor- the material collection and access the electronic re- suk and Bronisław Knaster prepared a new project for sources, including practically all significant mathemat- the `State Mathematical Institute’; this was to become ical journals currently published in the world. Since reality in late 1948. 1998 the collection formally is a part of the National The original institute was divided into two Sec- Library Resources. tions: the Theoretical Section, comprising the groups Another part of the mission outlined by Janiszewski of Foundations of Mathematics, Topology, Function- is realized via the IMPAN’s Publishing House. The In- al Analysis, Theory of Real Functions, Differential stitute has participated in the editing and publishing 70 YEARS OF IMPAN – AN OVERVIEW 5 mathematical journals since its early days. Originally researchers based in the East and in the West. New this was done in collaboration with the Polish Math- forms of activity have been continually added over the ematical Society or the Polish Scientific Publishers, years, including condensed workshops and symposia, but in 1991 IMPAN established its own publishing conferences, research groups, and longer concentrated house, which is currently responsible for 9 journals: programmes, such as thematic semesters. Special em- Acta Arithmetica (number theory, published since phasis is put on the interaction of different fields of 1935), Annales Polonici Mathematici (generalist, mathematics and interdisciplinary meetings. based in Kraków, since 1955), Applicationes Math- In the first twenty years most of the Banach Center ematicae (applied mathematics, since 1953), Ba- activities took place in a small 19th century palace lo- nach Center Publications (Banach Center conference cated in Warsaw, at Mokotowska street, not far from proceedings, since 1976), Bulletin Polish Acad. Sci. the IMPAN’s headquarters. In the 1990s the former Math. (short articles, since 1953, IMPAN series since proprietors of the palace at Mokotowska began legal 2004), Colloquium Mathematicum (generalist, based steps aiming to regain the ownership of the building. in Wrocław, since 1947), Dissertationes Mathematicae When it became clear that IMPAN would not be able (longer research