WMY 2000 in Canada

In the Spring of 1997, the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) created a Committee for WMY 2000, with a mandate to develop proposals for events during the year 2000 to make mathematics more visible in Canada. It was suggested that these events should be noticeably different from standard CMS activities, should recognize the diversity of mathematics and mathematical interests in Canada and should be imaginative, while recognizing the three aims of the IMU in its Declaration of Rio de Janeiro. Chaired by Bernard R. Hodgson, Université', Laval (current Secretary of ICMI), this Committee met at several physical locations as well as electronically, gathered suggestions from across Canada, and submitted its report in September 1998.  The CMS has now committed $50,000 to these WMY 2000 proposals. In addition to the CMS initiative, other Canadian mathematical societies and institutes have proposed activities to celebrate WMY 2000. This report presents highlights of these exciting events now being planned in Canada for WMY 2000.

In celebration of the World Mathematical Year, the CMS and CAIMS (Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society) have agreed to meet together for the first time, in a joint annual meeting, June 10-14, 2000 in Hamilton, Ontario. These two societies will be joined by the Canadian Operations Research Society, the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics, the Canadian Symposium on Fluid Dynamics and the Canadian Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. This Year 2000 joint societies meeting is expected to bring together the largest number of Canadian mathematical scientists, from across Canada, ever assembled in one place. It is itself an historic event for Canada. Mathematicians from around the world are welcome to join this celebration; program information will be available soon at the web-site  http://www.math.ca/ .

Closely coordinated with this joint societies meeting in June 2000, the Fields Institute will host a Symposium on the Legacy of John Charles Fields, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, June 7-9, 2000. This Symposium is supported also by the CMS, CAIMS, Centre de recherches mathématiques and the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences. It will help to inform all Canadians of our unsung hero in the mathematical sciences, the visionary John Charles Fields and his exceptional legacy to the world of mathematics. He established the world's highest award for achievement in mathematics, now known internationally as the Fields Medal (and often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Mathematics"). It is struck by the Canadian Mint, of Canadian gold, and shows the head of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes on the face. A scientific highlight of the Symposium will be presentations by Fields Medal winners of their medal- winning work and its impact on modern mathematics. Sir Michael Atiyah will deliver the Banquet Address on Friday evening.  Professor Tom Archibald of Acadia University will give a plenary lecture on the life and times of John Charles Fields. As well as raising awareness of mathematics in Canada, this Symposium will be a significant retrospective contribution to World Mathematical Year 2000. Negotiations are underway to produce a documentary video and book, as a lasting record of this unique event.

In Montreal, Operation Métro-2000 is being organized under the leadership of Christiane Rousseau, with support from CRM and CMS and other sources. This initiative will place posters in the Montreal subway system, designed to raise the awareness of the general public and particularly students of the importance and omnipresence of mathematics in the sciences and technology. It is part of a world-wide strategy of WMY-2000 to bring mathematics to the people, through posters in public places, such as subways. The Montreal posters will be strategically located in subway cars and those stations most frequented by students. The possibility is being explored of extending this effort to Toronto and other cities.

In Western Canada, the WMY-2000 Museum of Mathematics Project will bring the highly acclaimed travelling public exhibition of mathematics, or Mathematiksmuseum to visit the Winnipeg Children's Museum, May 1 to 13, 2000, and the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina, May 15 to 27, 2000.  The Mathematiksmuseum was developed in Germany by Professor Albrecht Beutelspacher of Justus-Liebig Universität, Giessen, and was shown during the International Congress of Mathematics in Berlin in 1998.

The Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) will substantially increase its activities to promote mathematics awareness, by holding public lectures, presentations, and hands-on workshops. A number of different events to be held in British Columbia and Alberta elementary schools focussing on presenting "fun" methods for doing math and computer science with children and their parents. Activity examples include soap bubbles, geometry and paper, probability experiments using pennies, and building geometric models from straw and paper. A Conference on Changing the Culture for the Next Millennium is designed to forge closer ties between the mathematics community, mathematics teachers, and industry. Featured talks and small group discussions focus on erasing barriers between these various communities. In a Mathematics is Everywhere campaign, like the Operation Métro-2000 in Montreal, PIMS will place posters on all components of public transportation systems in BC and Alberta, designed to raise the awareness of the general public and particularly students of the importance and omnipresence of mathematics in the sciences and technology. In response to the Video Lottery Terminal debate in the Province of Alberta, PIMS representatives met with officials from the Edmonton Science Center to set up an interactive exhibit on chance and probability.  The inauguration will happen in year 2000.

The activities described here are only a part of the local, national and international activities planned in celebration of World Mathematical Year 2000. The Canadian Mathematical Society for example will sponsor, in addition to the activities described in this proposal, Math Camps, a Virtual Canadian Math Trail, a Women in Math Poster and Mathematics Museum Exhibits. Across Canada, there will be additional public exhibitions and celebrations of mathematics, complementary to those described here, under the auspices of the CMS, CRM, l'Association mathématique du Québec (AMQ), the Ontario Association for Mathematics Education (OAME) and other sponsors.