International Congress of Mathematicians 2022: Administration of Travel Grants for US Participants

The quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the preeminent international gathering of mathematicians in the world. Organized by the International Mathematical Union, an organization with some 87 adhering member nations including the United States, the ICM serves as a global forum for mathematicians to present and learn about new mathematical developments, directions of future research, applications, ideas for pedagogy, and methodologies for disseminating and archiving mathematical knowledge.

Since their inception in 1897 in Zurich, Switzerland, ICMs have been held in many different countries—most recently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2018), Seoul, South Korea (2014), and Hyderabad, India (2010)—and a number have had historical significance well beyond the mathematical community. In 2022, the ICM will be held on the days July 6 – 14 in St.

Petersburg, Russia, and an anticipated 5,000 individuals from around the world are expected to attend. To support participation in the Congress by individuals from the United States, the American Mathematical Society will utilize this grant to fund travel for approximately 140 US-based mathematicians, with an anticipated two-thirds of the awards going to early-career mathematicians.

In cooperation with the Simons Foundation and the ICM Local Organizing Committee, this grant will provide support for up to 100 additional early-career people. The participation of a robust and diverse contingent of US-based mathematicians in such an event helps to sustain the US’s world leadership position in mathematical research and more broadly in STEM fields.

Mathematical research contributes directly to the US’s knowledge infrastructure, national security, industry, and commerce. Especially in mathematics, research activity is reliant on in-person interactions, increasingly collaborative, and international in scope. Travel support for such gatherings as ICM is a cost-effective way to foster these basic interactions, promote the creation of new knowledge, and strengthen international cooperation.

In the large, these activities contribute significantly to the vitality of the US’s knowledge-based economy and to the country’s overall prosperity and health.

The 2022 ICM Structure Committee has set topical sections for the Congress, which include the following: Logic, Algebra, Number Theory, Algebraic and Complex Geometry, Geometry, Topology, Lie Theory and Generalizations, Analysis, Dynamics, Partial Differential Equations, Mathematical Physics, Probability, Combinatorics, Mathematics of Computer Science, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Control Theory and Optimization, Statistics and Data Analysis, Stochastic and Differential Modeling, Mathematical Education and Popularization of Mathematics, and History of Mathematics. Up to 170 invited lectures will be presented across these sections.

An additional twenty-one plenary invited lectures are scheduled, including fourteen by mathematicians from US universities or companies. Through the invited lectures, panels, and other activities, the opportunities for participants to exchange ideas will abound. The 2022 ICM will incorporate the Emmy Noether Lecture, which honors women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences.

The Congress is also the occasion for conferring the most prestigious awards in the mathematical sciences. The Fields Medal, the “Nobel Prize” of mathematics goes to a mathematician under the age of 40 for either past achievement or future promise; the Abacus Medal honors an individual with distinguished achievements in mathematical aspects of information science; the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize recognizes those whose mathematical research has had an impact outside of mathematics; the Chern Medal Award is given to an individual—regardless of age or vocation—whose contributions to mathematics warrants the highest level of recognition; the Leelavati Prize recognizes outstanding public outreach work for mathematics.

Those traveling from the US with support from this grants program will have rich opportunities to learn from and interact with lecturers, deepen their connections with their research, and share their discoveries and insights.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.