FoCM 2020

June 15 - June 24, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver BC

About

Foundations of Computational Mathematics (FoCM) 2020 will be held at the Downtown Vancouver campus of Simon Fraser University from June 15 - June 24, 2020. The conference will follow a format similar to that of previous FoCM meetings: two plenary invited lectures each day, coupled with theme-centred workshops. Most workshop talks will also be by invitation.

Each workshop will extend over three days, with the conference consisting of a total of three periods. Although some participants choose to attend just one or two periods, participants are encouraged to attend the conference for its entire duration. In addition to the plenaries and workshops, there will be a poster session during each of the three periods.

For any inquiries, please email us at focm2020@sfu.ca.

SmaleFest will be a day-long satellite event on June 21, 2020.

Starting in January 2021, FoCM will host an online seminar series consisting of two lectures each month by plenary speakers of the FoCM 2020 conference: Further information and program

Update July 12, 2020: After discussion with the FoCM executive board, it has been decided that the next FoCM conference will be held in 2023. This decision has been made due to the unpredictability of the pandemic, and the desire to maintain the usual 3-year cycle for the FoCM conference series.

Over the coming months the local organizing committee and FoCM executive board will be working to determine a time and venue for the 2023 event. Further information will follow when available.

Update March 18, 2020: The FoCM 2020 local organizing committee and the FoCM executive board have been carefully monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. After much consideration and discussion, we regret to announce that FoCM 2020 has been cancelled. The satellite event SmaleFest has also been cancelled.

We are making this decision now to avoid uncertainty and anxiety for our participants and to minimize any financial loss for both them and the host institution. All registration fees will be automatically refunded. Registered participants will receive further information about this by email.

Over the coming weeks and months, the local organizing committee and FoCM executive board will be investigating options for rescheduling the conference, potentially in 2021. Further information will follow when these have been explored. At this time we do not plan to host a virtual conference.

This is of course a huge disappointment for everyone involved, but we feel this is the only responsible course of action at this time. We would like to take this moment to thank our many colleagues across the world who have worked hard to put FoCM 2020 together, as well as the generous support of our sponsors.

Plenary Speakers

Period I. June 15, 16, 17 (2020)

Period II. June 18, 19, 20 (2020)

Period III. June 22, 23, 24 (2020)

Registration, Travel Support, and Contributed Posters

Registration is now open. Please click here to register. Registration deadlines are April 1 (early bird) and June 1 (regular).

Limited funds are available to support researchers for travel to the conference and/or local expenses. These funds are intended for students, postdocs, junior faculty or faculty without other support. Please click here to apply. If you do not have one already, you will need to create a google account.

For full consideration, please apply by March 15. Requests made later may still be considered, depending on availability of funds. We anticipate making the first funding decisions in early April.

The call for contributed poster presentations is now open. Poster sessions related to each thematic workshop will take place during each of the three conference periods. You may apply here with an abstract of your poster. Posters must be prepared in portrait layout, and should be no more than 48 inches x 36 inches (height x width). For full consideration, please apply by March 15. We anticipate making decisions in early April.

Organization

FoCM 2020 is organized by the Foundations of Computational Mathematics (FoCM) Society. Its executive committee consists of Agnes Szanto, Michael Singer, and Javier Peña.

The local organizing committee for FoCM 2020 consists of Ben Adcock, Cedric Chauve, Nathan Ilten, Randall LeVeque, Marni Mishna, Nilima Nigam, Yaniv Plan, Ozgur Yilmaz, and Pam Borghardt (conference manager).

The workshop committee for FoCM 2020 consists of Peter Buergisser, Annalisa Buffa, Wolfgang Dahmen, Alan Edelman, Kerstin Jordaan, Nilima Nigam, Klaus Ritter, Martin Sombra, as well as Michael Singer and Agnes Szanto (ex officio).

The plenary speakers committee for FoCM 2020 consists of Ben Adcock, Evelyne Hubert, Hans Munthe-Kaas, Teresa Krick, Frances Kuo, Mike Shub, Endre Suli, as well as Michael Singer and Agnes Szanto (ex officio).

The funding committee for FoCM 2020 consists of Ben Adcock, Teresa Krick, Randall LeVeque, Nilima Nigam, and Agnes Szanto.

Prizes

Smale Prize

Professor Afonso Bandeira, ETH Zurich, has been awarded the fourth Stephen Smale Prize for his pioneering work on the foundations of computational mathematics. Bandeira is an incredibly productive and versatile researcher who has successfully applied and combined concepts and tools from optimization theory, probability theory, information theory, statistics, theoretical computer science, harmonic analysis, and number theory to the design and analysis of algorithms for solving real life data science problems.

Professor Bandeira received his Ph.D in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University in 2015. After positions at MIT and the Courant Institute, he joined ETH Zurich in 2019 where he is a Full Professor in the Department of Mathematics.

The Society for the Foundations of Computational Mathematics (FoCM) awards the Smale Prize every three years to a researcher who has received their doctoral degree in the last 10 years. It recognizes major achievements in furthering the understanding of the connections between mathematics and computation.

The insignia for the Smale prize is an individual Gömböc. A map of all individual Göböc is here. For further information, see http://focm-society.org/smale_prize.php.

Popov Prize

The Vasil A. Popov Prize was established in memory of the late Professor Vasil A. Popov of Bulgaria in recognition of his outstanding contributions to mathematics. The Prize was created in 1995 and has been maintained solely by contributions from his colleagues, friends, and those who support the existence of such a prize. The Prize recognizes distinguished research accomplishments in Approximation Theory and related areas of mathematics. Eligibility for the Prize is restricted to young mathematicians removed less than 6 years from their doctoral degree. The next Vasil A. Popov prize will be awarded in 2020 at the FoCM conference. For more information, see here.

Partners

Organized in partnership with:

Sponsors

We gratefully acknowledge support from: