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Scientific Committee Meeting Minutes for September 2013

10 September 2013
  1. Committee Membership:
    Chair: Charles Goldie (Sussex)
    Minutes: Elizabeth Fisher (LMS) (by invitation in place of Fiona Nixon)

    London Mathematical Society reps:
    John Hunton (Durham),
    Phil Rippon (Open University).
    Vacancy

    Edinburgh Maths Society reps:
    Tom Leinster (Edinburgh). – participated by telephone.
    Vacancy

    Elected at the 2012 AGM: Stuart White (Glasgow) – participated by telephone.

    2014 BMC Organisers (QMUL): Ivan I Tomašić, Peter Cameron (St. Andrews)
    2015 BMC Organisers (Cambridge) – Rachel Camina, Tom Fisher
    2016 BMC Organisers (Bristol) – Tim Dokchitser, Lynne Walling

    Representative from 2013 BMC: David Jordan (Sheffield)

    In attendance, ex officio: Fiona Nixon (LMS)

  2. Apologies
    Apologies were received from P. Cameron, R. Camina, J. Hunton, F. Nixon and P. Rippon.

  3. Minutes of Scientific Committee at Sheffield on 27 March 2013.
    The minutes of the last meeting were approved and would be sent to St. Andrews to archive online.

  4. Minutes of BMC AGM at Sheffield on 27 March 2013
    It was agreed to forward the minutes for approval at the next Annual General Meeting at the BMC 2014.

  5. Future BMCs:
    1. 2016, Bristol
      • The dates are still to be confirmed because the university needs to confirm the term dates for 2016.
      • Easter will fall on 27 March 2016.
      • The organisers will try to avoid a clash with the BTCSC conference. The date for the BTCSC will be confirmed in 2014.
    2. 2017, Scotland?
      • Tom Leinster has emailed the President of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, Mark Chaplain, but not yet received a response.
      • Tom Leinster will email Tony Carbery.
      • Stuart White would contact Aberdeen informally.
      • Agreed St. Andrews could also be approached.
    3. 2018 and beyond
      • It was noted that the following departments had never hosted a BMC: Brunel, City University, King's College London, LSE, Loughborough, Open University, Surrey and Stirling
      • It was agreed not to approach a university in London for the moment as QMUL will host the BMC in 2014.
      • It was noted the department at Stirling would be too small to host the BMC.
      • It was also noted Durham had not hosted the BMC since 1953 and that Durham had good conference organisation and experience from hosting the LMS-EPSRC Durham Symposia.
  6. Academic and financial report on the Sheffield BMC 2013 (David Jordan)
    The report was circulated. David Jordan highlighted a few things from his experience:

    1. Pairing of Morning Speakers
      One set of pairing for morning speakers had been uneven.
    2. Session Attendance
      This can be affected by tourism when delegates decide to see the city.
      It was also noted the weather had been unexpectedly very wintry.
    3. Finances
      The BMC 2013 broke even. The organisers needed to buy in administrative support and this was covered by the registration fees.
      The reception was covered by the publishers and the room hire had been covered by income. The organisers had been promised that the room hire would be provided by the Faculty but there had been some issues.
    4. Satellite Meetings
      Research groups, supported by LMS Scheme 3 grants, hosted one of their joint meetings during these sessions
  7. Plans for BMC 2014, 7-10 April, QMUL
    1. Organisers
      • Peter Cameron had moved to St. Andrews so it was likely that Ivan I Tomašić would now take the lead and would be supported by Behrang Noohi.
    2. Funding
      • Awarded £12,000 from LMS Programme Committee.
      • Awarded £6,000 from CMI for four named speakers from the USA.
      • The additional funding from the CMI frees up money from the LMS grant and Ivan I Tomašić is currently in negotiation with the LMS about how to use the grant. Possible ideas include; more generous funding for morning speakers, funding for workshops (except Scheme 3 group meetings) e.g. covering workshop speakers' registration fees and conference dinner costs. If the LMS agrees to the re-shuffle, this could be £200 per speaker.
      • Request for £3,000 from CMI for enhanced hospitality was refused.
      • Awarded £5,000 from Google for PhD students. This is to be used to offer 20 bursaries for PhD to cover costs to attend the conference, except travel. The organisers will contact the YRM for advice on how best to disseminate the bursaries.
      • Registration fees will be £70 to include two lunches and this will be the default option.
      • The conference dinner will be £50.
    3. Programme
      • The programme is now available online via the QMUL website
      • The number of plenary speakers has increased so there are fewer morning speakers than in past years. The organisers are waiting for two more morning speakers to confirm so there will be 10 morning speakers.
      • The speakers will cover the five topics of the workshops; Combinatorics, Ergodic Theory/Dynamical Systems, Geometry, Group Theory and Number Theory.
      • There was an informal scientific advisory committee who gave advice by suggesting speakers and how to approach them.
  8. Plans for BMC-BAMC 2015, 30 March - 2 April, Cambridge
    1. Scientific organising committee
      • Nigel Peake (Chair), Rachel Camina, Tom Fisher and Julius Ross.
    2. Speakers
      • Invitations have been sent out to T. Tao, S. Safarti, J. Dumais
      • There will be three plenary speakers on the BMC side of the programme
      • Tim Gowers has been invited to give the public lecture.
      • The organisers could also ask this committee for suggestions of speakers in specific areas and specific areas.
      • Traditionally, the morning speakers have been UK-based but this could be broadened out and the organisers should bear in mind people based at the INI.
      • There is a list of speakers from previous BMCs until 2012.
      • The organisers could also think of mathematicians who are prize-winners and approach them to give a talk.
    3. Preliminary Programme
      • The workshops need to be confirmed but it is planned that there will be a maximum of six workshops.
      • There will be a reception on Monday 30 March, the public lecture on Tuesday 31 March and the conference dinner on Wednesday 1 April.
      • There will be a panel discussion, which will be preceded by the BMC AGM.
    4. LMS 150th Anniversary
      • The organisers have been approached by the LMS to include an LMS Day to celebrate the Society's 150th anniversary.
      • A full day is not possible as the conference will run from Monday lunchtime to Thursday lunchtime.
      • The organisers have offered a big name speaker for a lecture.
      • There could also be a lecture on the history of the LMS.
    5. Funding
      • Awarded £18,000 from the LMS; £15,000 towards the conference and £3,000 towards the Society Meeting and "LMS Enhanced Day".
      • Could approach the CMI.
      • There is no room hire cost at the CMS and INI.
      • The registration fee will include lunch.
      • Catering and accommodation will be provided by Robinson college.
      • The conference dinner will take place at Churchill College.
  9. Other meetings

    BMC-YRM collaboration
    1. Dates: 2014; 7-10 April for BMC, early July for YRM

    2. Registration Fees subsidy
      The BMC organisers are already in contact with the YRM organisers and they are aware of the LMS joint funding to subsidise registration fees of PhD students who attend both the BMC and the YRM.

    3. 2015
      There is a provisional plan for the YRM to be held in Oxford.
    BCTCS
    1. Dates: 2014; 7-11 April so it overlaps with the BMC.

    2. 2015
      There is a provisional plan to host an event at Bletchley Park in connection with the LMS 150th Anniversary as part of the LMS Computer Science Day. Elizabeth will email Duncan Turton about the dates for the BMC-BAMC 2015 to ensure there isn't a clash of dates.
  10. Chair of the BMC Scientific Committee
    David Jordan left the room. It was agreed to recommend at the AGM that David Jordan take over from Charles Goldie as the Chair of the BMC Scientific Committee. This would need to be approved at the AGM and David Jordan would take over from 31 May 2014.

  11. Any Other Business
    The Chair recorded thanks to Peter Giblin and Radha Kessar for their service on the committee.

  12. Date of next meeting
    The next meeting will be at the BMC 2014 but the date will be confirmed as either 8 or 9 April 2014 as the BMC Scientific Committee meeting will take place after the AGM of the BMC. [Post-meeting Note: the date for the AGM of the British Mathematics Colloquium will be 9 April 2014 at 11.30]
The meeting ended at 13.00.