Joint International Meeting of the AMS and the Korean Mathematical Society

The first Joint International Meeting of the AMS and the Korean Mathematical Society was held at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea December 16-20, 2009. The meeting drew over 1000 registered participants from 37 different countries including the presidents of 10 Asian mathematical societies.

The scientific program, organized by representatives of both societies, included plenary speakers from each society. The invited speakers were:

Young Ju Choi, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Modular forms, invariants and codes
Bumsig Kim, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Stable quasi-maps to GIT quotients
Minhyong Kim, University College London, Diophantine geometry and Galois theory
Ki-ahm Lee, Seoul National University, Nonlinear elliptic and parabolic equations: Analysis and applications
James T McKernan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Finite generation of the canonical ring
Frank Morgan, Williams College, (public lecture) From soap bubbles to the Poincaré Conjecture
Hee Oh, Brown University, Counting circles and ergodic theory of Kleinian groups
Terence Tao, University of California Los Angeles, The proof of the Poincaré conjecture
Van Vu, Rutgers University, From the Littlewood-Offord problem to the Circular Law conjecture

There were 28 special sessions on the program, poster sessions, and a reception.

"AMS Vice President Frank Morgan presented an excellent, engaging public lecture on soap bubbles to an audience of around 450, mostly high school students. In addition to these talks, there were two panel discussions, "The Grant Policies and Strategies of NSF and NRF", and "Challenges and Difficulties for Mathematicians in Asia." The Korean Women in Mathematical Sciences and the Association for Women in Mathematics sponsored a joint mentoring-networking activity for about 80-90 undergraduate and graduate women. The activity consisted of a panel discussion with panelists Ruth Charney (Brandeis University), Jane Hawkins (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill), Heisook Lee (Ewha Womans University) and Hee Oh (Brown University) followed by a dinner provided by the KWMS. The Korean Mathematical Society is to be commended on its outstanding job of organizing the conference. The KMS generously provided free lunches and a wonderful banquet one evening to all participants. The facilities and hospitality of Ewha Womans University were marvelous." --- Georgia Benkart, AMS Associate Secretary for the meeting.

International meetings are a valuable addition to the Society's programs that foster contacts and collaborations: Including the AMS's first joint international meeting with the London Mathematical Society in 1992, the AMS has co-sponsored 26 meetings with sister societies in their host countries and the U.S. Upcoming in 2010 are the Eighth Joint International Meeting of the AMS and the Sociedad Matemática Mexicana, June 2-5, in Berkeley, California, and the First Joint International Meeting of the AMS and the Sociedad de Matematica de Chile, December 15-18, in Pucon, Chile.

--- Annette Emerson, AMS Public Awareness Officer