FoCM

Welcome to FoCM!  

The computer has profoundly changed the relationship between mathematics and computation.  Besides its invaluable role in numeric, symbolic, and experimental applications, computation is an important object of mathematical study in its own right and a fundamental theoretical tool. It is a source of new and exciting problems for mathematics.

Foundations of Computational Mathematics (FoCM) is an international nonprofit organization that supports and promotes research at the interface of mathematics and computation.  It fosters interaction among mathematics, computer science, and other areas of computational science through conferences, events and publications. FoCM traces its beginnings to the Park City AMS--SIAM seminar  in 1995 and its first conference has been held in Rio de Janeiro in 1997.

The FoCM journal, produced by Springer-Verlag, publishes highest-quality research articles treating various aspects of computational mathematics.

The FoCM conference, held every three years, covers the entire spectrum of mathematical computation. Specialized events are held from time to time, and focus on timely research topics. Membership in FoCM is free and available through this website.

 

FoCM 2026 conference: call for venue

We invite applications for hosting the conference Foundations of Computational Mathematics in 2026, or early 2027. Hosting the conference establishes the reputation of a university, or group of universities, as a center for Computational Mathematics with a broad spectrum.

Since 1995, this triennial conference has been held in North America (twice), South America (twice), Central Europe (5 times) and East Asia (once). This partly reflects the diversity of its participants and you can find additional details on past conferences there.

The conference runs with 3 periods of 3 days, with 2 plenary speakers each morning and several parallel workshops in the afternoons. The participation has been growing with up to 750 people registered. Hosting the conference thus requires an auditorium for 400 people and 7 seminar rooms for around 50 people, preferably close to one another.

The application should contain information about the possible dates, the facilities, a sketch of the budget, the possibilities of administrative and financial support; some local information like ease of transportation from an international airport, hotels and restaurants nearby, together with their price range, and maybe some cultural information. As we wish to encourage longer participation of all we would welcome the possibility of cheap accommodation like university residences.

An effective local organizing committee is crucial. With the experience of recent years, we call attention to the cancellation policies, for the facilities, the catering, and other financial commitments; they should be made explicit in the application.

To suggest a venue, or engage in discussions, please contact the FoCM executive committee or one of its members. Please do so by November 2023 for full consideration.



 

News

Conference in honor of Mike Shub

Mike Shub

The conference

From Dynamics to Complexity, and back again. In celebration of Michael Shub’s 80th Birthday

will be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, on January 31st - February 3rd, 2024.

Mike has made countless essential contributions in Dynamics and Complexity Theory. In addition he is one of the founders of both the FoCM society and its journal, JoFoCM, serving as the first chair of FoCM between 1995 and 1997, and the first Editor-in-Chief and managing editor of JoFoCM, until 2002.

Nicholas J. Higham (1961-2024)

Nicholas J. Higham

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Nick Higham on 20 January 2024. Nick was a leading figure in the field of Numerical Analysis, who was well known and highly respected for his contributions to Numerical Linear Algebra.

Nick was Royal Society Research Professor and Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Manchester, UK. He served as President of SIAM 2017–2018, as SIAM Vice President at Large 2010–2013, and he was a member of the SIAM Board of Trustees 2006–2009, and SIAM Council 1996–2001. He was an associate editor of a number of prestigious journals, including J. Foundations of Computational Mathematics, Forum of Mathematics, Pi, the IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis, and Acta Numerica, and he was editor of the Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics.

Nick is best known for his work on the accuracy and stability of numerical algorithms, and he wrote important and highly-cited papers on a range of topics, including rounding error analysis, systems of linear algebraic equations, least squares problems, matrix functions and nonlinear matrix equations, matrix-nearness problems, condition number estimation, and generalized eigenvalue problems. He contributed software to LAPACK and the NAG library, and he also contributed code included in the MATLAB distribution.

Nick Higham is the author of a number of important books, including Functions of Matrices: Theory and Computation (2008), Accuracy and Stability of Numerical Algorithms (2002), Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences (1993, 1998, 2020), MATLAB Guide (2000, 2005, 2017), co-authored with his brother Des Higham, and How to be creative—a practical guide for the mathematical sciences (2022), co-authored with Dennis Sherwood.

Nick received numerous distinctions: he was the recipient of the Alston Householder Award (1987), the Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis (1988), and the London Mathematical Society’s Junior Whitehead Prize (1999). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2007 and a SIAM Fellow in 2009. He received the London Mathematical Society’s Naylor Prize and Lectureship in 2019, and the Gold Medal of the IMA in 2020. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of ACM. In 2021 he received the George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition and a year later the Hans Schneider Prize in Linear Algebra. In 2022 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

We are deeply saddened by Nick's passing. He was an exceptional talent, a wonderful colleague and a world-leading specialist in the field of Numerical Linear Algebra. He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.

Shayan Oveis Gharan receives the 2023 Steven Smale prize

Shayan Oveis Gharan

The fifth Stephen Smale prize is awarded to Shayan Oveis Gharan, University of Washington, for his breakthrough results on the applications of algebraic and spectral methods to the design of algorithms and to combinatorial optimization.

More information on the prize can be found here.

The prize was awarded on June 13, 2023, at the conference FoCM'23 in Paris.

Matthew Colbrook receives the tenth Vasil A. Popov prize

Matthew Colbrook

The Tenth Vasil A. Popov Prize is awarded to Matthew Colbrook, University of Cambridge. He was recognized for his contributions on the approximation of spectral properties of operators in infinite-dimensional spaces and the approximation power and trainability of neural networks.

More information on the prize can be found here.

The prize was awarded on June 19 2023 at the conference FoCM'23 in Paris.