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Program Organizing at the IMA
Organizing an Annual Program at the IMA
The primary mission of the IMA is to foster research of a truly interdisciplinary
nature, establishing links between mathematics of the highest caliber and important
scientific and technological problems from other disciplines and industry. The
largest activity carried out by the IMA each year to advance this mission is
its annual thematic program. The program runs from September through June and
is centered around an important area of application or investigation. Annual
programs involve on the order of 1,000 participants including around 10 key
senior visitors of three to ten months, six to eight postdocs, and around 45
other visitors of a month or more. They are typically divided into a small number
of periods of concentration in specific areas under the general theme, and include
between six and ten workshops and regular seminar series when workshops are
not in progress. Tutorial lectures are an important part of most annual programs,
and public lectures, panel discussions, computer demonstrations, and other activities
may be as well.
The IMA looks to organizers for guidance on the scientific content and participants
of a special year and its workshops. Organizers thus can have a significant
influence on the national research agenda and tap into the major resources of
the IMA to do so (the IMA devotes more than a million dollars to each annual
program). The IMA works hard to minimize the bureaucratic load on organizers,
handling all the invitations, financial arrangements, record-keeping, etc.
Organizers. An
annual program is developed by a committee of around six year organizers
who work with the IMA. One of the year organizers should be designated as chair.
In addition, each individual workshop is developed by a committee of about three
workshop organizers. One should be designated as lead organizer (this
is for IMA purposes only and not made public). The year organizers may be, and
often are, workshop organizers as well.
Duties of year organizers
Duties of workshop organizers
Support from the IMA
Workshop documents.
Most written information about an annual program is kept on the web.
There are two main webspaces, both maintained by and at the IMA. First, a planning
document is kept under password protection for use by the IMA and the organizers.
It begins with the proposal for the year. As information about workshops, people
to invite, potential speakers, etc., is developed, it is added to the planning
document. Second, an official webspace for the year is maintained for public
access, starting as soon as the program is approved by the Board of Governors.
It develops as the year develops and is kept as a permanent record. Workshop
speakers are asked to contribute materials from their talks to this web space.
The contents for annual programs in different stages of development can be seen
here.
Names in planning documents.
Whenever listing names of potential participants in planning documents,
starting with the preliminary proposal, please give full name and affiliation,
including department. Secretaries will eventually have to surf the web to get
email addresses from these names, and incomplete information can result in the
wrong person getting invited!
Program Organizing at the IMA
Last modified December 14, 2001 by Douglas
N. Arnold and Fadil Santosa
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