Central Academic Building, PIMS-UA Site Office Mathematical Sciences Building, PIMS-UC Site Office PIMS Central & UBC Site Office East Academic Annex, PIMS-SFU Site Office Clearihue Building, UVic Site Office University of Washington Campus, PIMS-UW Site Office Max Bell Building & Corbett Hall, Banff Centre, home of BIRS Institute Report 2002/03 The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Our Mission Our Community The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) PIMS is a partnership between the following organizations was created in1996 by the community of mathematical sci- and people: entists in Alberta and British Columbia and in 2000, they were joined in their endeavour by their colleagues in the • The six participating universities (Simon Fraser Univer- State of Washington. PIMS is dedicated to: sity, University of Alberta, University of British Colum- bia, University of Calgary, University of Victoria, Univer- • Promoting innovation and excellence in research in all sity of Washington) and affiliated Institutions (University areas encompassed by the mathematical sciences; of Lethbridge and University of Northern British Colum- bia). • Initiating collaborations and strengthening ties between the mathematical scientists in the academic community and • The Government of British Columbia through the Min- those in the industrial, business and government sectors; istry of Competition, Science and Enterprise, The Gov- ernment of Alberta through the Alberta Ministry of Inno- • Training highly qualified personnel for academic and vation and Science, and The Government of Canada industrial employment and creating new opportunities for through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research developing scientists; Council of Canada. • Developing new technologies to support research, com- • Over 350 scientists in its member universities who are munication and training in the mathematical sciences. actively working towards the Institute's mandate. Their disciplines include pure and applied mathematics, statis- Building on the strength and vitality of its programmes, tics, computer science, physical, chemical and life sci- PIMS is able to serve the mathematical sciences commu- ences, medical science, finance, management, and several nity as a catalyst in other areas of great importance: engineering fields. • The communication and dissemination of mathematical • Scientists, practitioners and government researchers us- ideas; public outreach, mathematical education and train- ing mathematical ideas in dozens of companies across ing at all school levels; Canada and the U.S. • The creation of strong mathematical partnerships and • A large and rapidly growing group of high school and links within Canada and organizations in other countries, elementary school teachers and educators in Alberta, Brit- with a focus on the nations of the Pacific Rim. ish Columbia and Washington State. i From the Chair of the Board Hugh Morris, FRSC The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) continues to be one of the most innovative and promising research institutes in the math- ematical sciences. I am still as fascinated by the energy, the vitality and the pace that the mathematical scientists of PIMS are putting into their tasks as I was when I became Chair of the PIMS Board of Directors back in 1998. This year saw the opening of the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) at the end of February. BIRS is destined to provide a tremendous boost for research in the mathematical sciences all over the world. This annual report represents a compendium of the various activities and programmes organized and supported by PIMS during 2002–03. PIMS not only strives to be a world-class research institute in the mathematical sci- ences, but also to be prominent in the application of mathematics to industry and in mathematics education at all levels. Through its Industrial Problem Solving Programme and its Industrial Math Training Programme, PIMS has played a key role in bringing mathematical scientists in academia together with their counterparts in the private sector. This year's Industrial Problem Solving Workshop and Graduate Industrial Mathematics Modelling Camp were highly successful once again. PIMS continued its involvement in mathematics education. Two issues of Pi in the Sky magazine, as well as a poster promoting Pi in the Sky, were distributed to schools in Alberta, BC and Washington State. This is just one example of how PIMS is contributing to showing students of all levels how much fun mathematics can be. This year saw the initiation of the PIMS Collaborative Research Groups programme. These multi-university groups of mathematical scientists will be Hugh Morris, Chair of the a pivotal component of the future development of PIMS. I look forward to PIMS Board of Directors seeing what these groups achieve. My warmest congratulations to the director, Dr. Nassif Ghoussoub and to all mathematical scientists and staff of PIMS for their wonderful accomplish- ments. As we look forward to next year, there will some key changes. Dr. Nassif Ghoussoub is stepping down from the position of director, and will be suc- ceeded by Dr. Ivar Ekeland. The institute has been extremely fortunate to have been led by Nassif through its early years to its present level of achievement and acclaim, and we are delighted to have Ivar join us to lead PIMS to its future goals. We wish both of these fine colleagues every success. Dr. Michael Boorman will become Chair of the Board, and I would like to thank him and all the other members of the board for their support, wisdom and enthusiasm over the past five years. ii Director’s Notes Nassif Ghoussoub, FRSC What words can be sweeter to the ears of a departing director “giving back”, yet daunted by the steep hill to climb. Good than those recently received from a distinguished mathemati- things can be done in Canada! cian at Tuebingen, Germany: “I am getting the PIMS news regularly and I read them with great enthusiasm. It is abso- The unforgettable role of our universities: Over the years I lutely great what Canadians do for Mathematics, absolutely have often thanked all the scientists who made PIMS a reality. and even more so if measured against population size.” They deserve all the credit. In my last annual report, I would This is my last annual report as a new PIMS director takes also like to single out the absolutely key role that the PIMS over on September 1, 2003. There is lots to say about the first universities played in the success stories that PIMS, MITACS 7 years of the institute, but how can one briefly summarize so and BIRS represent on the regional, national and international much progress and excitement in these founding years. This level. The universities have been tremendous in their support self explanatory table—with the undignified look of a chart and I am deeply grateful for their concerted effort to push the from a lowly “mutual fund company”—should do the job. On vision forward. Never mind their annual contributions to the the surface, it only shows variations in cash amounts, but to enterprise, just look at what they came up with in support, us in the academic world, these numbers represent the evolu- when major incremental steps were in order: tion of new scholarly opportunities, the multiplication of • When the MITACS network moved to Simon Fraser Uni- postdoctoral support, the increase in training capacity, and versity, the administration there quickly provided the adminis- our ability as a country to attract scientific talent and to be a trative support and research facility for both PIMS and focal point for the global R&D effort. This chart—which does MITACS, and when the latter needed a deputy scientific di- not include the industrial contributions—is about our sup- rector to assist Arvind Gupta, SFU created a new faculty po- porting organizations and the steady rise in their level of con- sition, and judiciously appointed the dynamic and talented fidence—and investment—in the institute. It should also be John Stockie. an inspiration to all of us who may have their own dreams of • When the BIRS infrastructure required an additional $200,000 for a state-of-the-art computing network, both the University of Alberta and the Uni- PIMS Budget Growth: Income by Year versity of Calgary stepped forward and con- tributed what was needed. • When the BIRS initiative required a $4,000,000 Robert V. Moody for its scientific leader- $3,500,000 ship, the University of Alberta did not hesi- $3,000,000 tate to release him from his regular duties $2,500,000 (and supported him) to lead the task. $2,000,000 • When the time came for new leadership at $1,500,000 PIMS, the University of British Columbia assertively created two new senior faculty $1,000,000 positions for a new director of PIMS and $500,000 for a deputy, positions that have been filled $0 FY 96/97 FY 97/98 FY 98/99 FY 99/00 FY 00/01 FY 01/02 FY 02/03 FY 03/04 in an outstanding brain gain for Canada. • Last but not least, UBC has recently agreed to double the space it had initially provided iii to the PIMS central office, and major renovations are to begin director by the PIMS Board of directors, is a terrific coup for very soon. The PIMS research infrastructure can now match the Canadian Mathematical community and for PIMS. In a those of other world-class institutes. context where scientific and able leadership is often hard to For these key contributions to the development of the vi- find (and harder to afford), the importance of getting some- sion, the names of Dick Peter, Gary Kachanovski, Mike one like Ivar to Canada, cannot be overstated. We say it again: Boorman, Michael Stevenson, John Waterhouse, Martin Tay- Ekeland is an outstanding mathematical scientist, an interna- lor and Barry McBride, should and will always have the grati- tionally renowned quantitative economist, a dedicated educa- tude of the Canadian mathematical community.