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Organizing an Annual Program
at the IMA
Duties of Year Organizers
An annual program begins with a preliminary proposal of a few pages sent to
the IMA four to five years in advance of the proposed program start date. In
conjunction with the IMA directors, it is developed for presentation to the
Board of Governors fours year in advance. For more information see the program
solicitation web page. Once the program is approved by the Board the key
tasks are:
To be completed two years before the start of the program (much of this
can be taken from the proposal):
- Provide a description and scientific justification for the year.
This will be the basis of the public web page for the year.
- Determine the division of the year into quarters (occasionally other
formats are used).
- Designate, in broad terms, 6 to 10 workshops, with approximate timing.
Workshops typically last 5 days. For each workshop designate about 3 organizers,
one as lead, and obtain their commitments.
- Choose broad topics and organizers for two or three tutorials. Tutorials
should be a gateway for graduate students, postdocs, and others into parts
of the forthcoming program.
- Suggest one or two speakers for public lectures. Public lectures
should have at least a loose connection with special year. They should be
given by exceptional speakers who are able to communicate to a large diverse,
non-mathematical audience.
- Create a list of VIV invitees. VIVs--senior scientists who spend
an entire quarter or longer in residence. They are essential to IMA annual
programs for the scientific leadership and continuity they supply. The IMA
arranges that VIVs receive salary at their usual level together with airfare
and living expenses. We want to have 3 VIVs in residence at any time. Since
the acceptance rate tends to be very low, we need names of about 50 VIVs,
each with an indication of appropriate quarter or quarters to invite them
for. About half should be designated for first round invitations. Year organizer
typically assemble this list from input from the individual workshop organizers
and others. The IMA is committed to actively seeking diversity among its participants
in both gender and ethnicity. It is expected that the list of participants
reflects these priorities.
Other responsibilities:
- Serve on the postdoc and general membership selection committee:
score applications, convene by email and phone to come up with final selection.
This occurs around January of the academic year preceding the program.
- Cooperate with IMA in generation of support, publicity, etc.
- Provide a brief non-technical report at the end of the year about
what was accomplished.
- Year organizers are expected to spend at least a complete workshop
in residence. It is highly preferable that most come as one month visitors
or VIVs.
Support from the IMA
Organizing an Annual Program at the IMA
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