Olech's closing address to the International Congress in Warsaw

The 1982 International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Warsaw in August 1983. The work on the Congress is recorded in Zbigniew Ciesielski and Czeslaw Olech (eds.), Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians August 16-24, 1983, Warsaw (Polish Scientific Publishers, Warsaw, 1984). We give a version of the report of the Closing ceremony of the Congress, in particular giving extracts from Czeslaw Olech's Closing address.

Olli Lehto, Secretary of the International Mathematical Union:

The positive feeling towards this Congress is also largely due to the excellent work done by our Polish colleagues. We have all seen how well everything is functioning, and we have sensed the warm and friendly atmosphere of the Congress. All this can only be achieved by the joint effort of a large number of people. Our thanks are due to all of them, the more so, as the work has been carried out under such difficult circumstances.

An exceptionally heavy load has been on the shoulders of one person, the chairman of the Organizing Committee and President of ICM-82, Professor Czeslaw Olech. His skill and strength have largely contributed to the success of this Congress.

Czeslaw Olech's Closing address:

Professor Olech thanked the speakers for their warm words of appreciation of the work of the organizers of the Warsaw Congress. He gave some statistical information about the Congress, thanked the Congress members for their contributions, particularly all the speakers and the chairmen of the various sessions. He passed on the words of thanks to all his Polish colleagues who participated in the arrangements and to the members of the Congress Bureau. He closed his address as follows:

In our work we have used much of the experience of the organizers of the previous Congress in Helsinki. In many cases we followed exactly the procedure they used. This greatly simplified our work and was a great help for us. I was in constant contact with Professor Olli Lehto, the President of the Helsinki Congress, and, in particular, his personal advice was of great value. I wish to thank him for all that very much and ask him to transmit our thanks to our Finnish colleagues. If we can pay this back by being of any use to the organizers of the next Congress in Berkeley, we shall be only too happy.

Let me thank you all for coming to the Congress in Warsaw. I hope you have enjoyed your stay both mathematically and socially. I wish all of you all the best for the years to come.

This way we came to what I personally consider a happy end and I declare the ICM-82 in Warsaw closed.

Last Updated January 2013