---
tags: prima2021, pims
---
# PRIMA 2021 Scientific Committee Meeting Diaries

## February 23, 2021

1. Review special session proposals (we have a couple of new ones, and more details from a couple that we asked for, including the AG and Probability Theory proposals):

You can see the form responses here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bK5CZo7_1ZirTu8UxvpYk8aWHgtKLmtOVK_Zg94QE8g/edit?usp=sharing

To discuss:

Polischuk (AG) (APPROVED)
Ray (Chen, ) (probability) (APPROVED...)
Viray (AG/NT) (APPROVED)
Zhao (Malinnikov/Wilson) (APPROVED, PENDING SPEAKER LIST ADDITIONS)
Manolescu (APPROVED)

2. Finalize meeting format/schedule a meeting with special session organizers where we outline expectations for sessions

One idea: I can give a presentation outlining the structure of the meeting (hybrid, online + potential in-person) to them, followed by questions/comments; followed by a second part for those who are interested in organizing summer schools. As SciCom members, you don't have to be present for this meeting but of course I would love your input.

### FORMAT IDEAS:

Hybrid: online + potential some in-person discussion sections.

3. Discuss potential coordination with Canadian Math Society Meeting.

4. Discuss potential grant support opportunities with National science/math foundations in your home countries/institutions.

## January 19, 2021

Approved the Rayan proposal, pending improvements in diversity, JSA will email

Would like more details for the Gourab Ray et al proposal, JSA will email

Tentative plan is to be online, we will think about how to organize this inspired by our examples

## information about SCA Displacements conference:

* Displacements.jhu.edu

* Distribute.utoronto.ca

* https://culanth.org/fieldsights/reimagining-the-annual-meeting-for-an-era-of-radical-climate-change

* https://culanth.org/about/about-the-society/announcements/reflections-on-displace18

* https://culanth.org/fieldsights/redesigning-the-annual-conference-contagion-carbon-access-equity

## Viewing and Q&A schedule for NUS conference:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t43MlCt8Xnfl_Komp1ynKK2r9sTRH_-q/view

The workshop consists of

- prerecorded lectures: These are accessible via the Library of the GT site and via the "Week2" tab in our LumiNUS page. Feel free to watch them at anytime. You may also follow the suggested viewing schedule that allows you to watch the lecture before the Q&A.

- Q&A with the speakers: These are live zoom sessions for each speaker, and will be moderated by a chosen chairperson. During these sessions, the speaker will answer your live questions as well as the questions that arise through the forum. The zoom link can be found in the "Week2" tab in our LumiNUS page and the Lecture hall in the GT site provides a direct zoom connection.

-A forum: This forum is hosted on LumiNUS, but is accessible through the GT site. Please use it to ask questions and feel free to provide answers as well. This is where we shall gather the questions for the speakers.

- Informal activities: There will be a tea before each Q&A session that is held in the GT site. On top of that, we have two organized two social events (see schedule). The GT site will be open at any time so please feel free to use the space to gather, talk, play games, watch small and long movies. Do not share the link to non-participants however, since some of the activities (movies) are copyrighted.

## December 15, 2020 meeting:

(1) Special Sessions: We have 10 special session proposals, which look extremely strong. We have to discuss the best way to communicate with organizers, and how to also discuss the potential summer schools (4 said yes to the possibility).

We approved the proposals for the following sessions:
* Geometric Group Theory
* Enumerative Algebraic Geometry
* Representation Theory and Applications
* Hyperbolic and parabolic dynamics
* Geometric analysis (one long + one short)
* Optimal transport and applications
* Algebraic Combinatorics

We agreed to ask the organizers of the following sessions for more details on potential speakers:
* algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry (Jayadev and Romyar will contact)

We agreed to ask the organizers of the following sessions for more (really, any) details:
* probability theory (Jayadev will contact)

We agreed to ask the organizers of the following session to consider geographic spread of participants
* Moduli spaces in algebraic geometry (Paul Norbury will contact)

We also agreed to request Ciprian Manolescu to submit a proposal for a session (Rafe Mazzeo will contact)

(2) Seonhee Lim brought up the issue of childcare during a virtual conference. A possible idea we discussed is a Zoom and/or YouTube channel with math activities focused on kids of different ages. Ruth and I also discussed a bit about this and think it is a very interesting idea.

We discussed potential content providers (MoMath, Numberphile, 3Blue1Brown, for example). We also dicussed the AIM model of providing stipends which participants can use to rent a hotel room for the time period of the conference, for example.

(3) Another idea from Seonhee, which dovetails well with Rita's idea on roundtables/professional exchanges, is to take a survey and make a small report on the effect of COVID on the research agenda of PRIMA members, and in particular whether tenure clocks have been extended. It would be good to get some data on this, and use it help mathematicians advocate for necessary accommodations from their institutions.

After discussion, we formed a subcommittee to create a survey: Seonhee, Bobby, Jim, Jayadev
The survey will be a precursor to a focused roundtable at PRIMA 2021 on these issues.

## November 17, 2020 meeting:

3 special sessions proposed via form, a fourth (analysis) expected next week, and a fifth (dynamics) also expected

Submitted:

Geometric Group Theory (Bestvina)
Enumerative Algebraic Geometry (Wei-Ping Li)
Algebraic Number theory and Arithmetic Geometry (Sug Woo Shin)

Things that will hopefully be submitted this week (11/17):

Harmonic Analysis (Eugenia Malinnikova and Zihui Zhao + Bobby Wilson)
Combinatorics (recruited by Marni Mishna)
Dynamics (Cecilia Gonzalez-Tokman, Anthony Quas, Yitwah Cheung, Jana Rodriguez-Hertz)

Platform/Format brainstorming:

VFairs: https://player.vimeo.com/video/400196699

Midwest Dynamics: https://sites.google.com/view/mwds/home

(plenary talks were 35 minutes, shorter talks also, breakout rooms attached to each talk all simultaneously)

Marni: not too many long talks, some structure to Breakout rooms

Rafe: AIM workshop using Sococo- self-organization is easy, private offices...

PIMS Scientific Review Panel (SRP): Sococo persistence

Junwu: Zoom works well in China

Nooks (stanford undergrad)

Marni/Jim: Marni and PIMS community open broadcast system

Jim: Ian Allison- document cam projecting onto a green screen

Rita: National Congress in Mexico- Something that has worked pretty well online and we may want to consider for PRIMA given the main goals of the event is organizing round tables, panels or debates of some sort. The online setting has the advantage that a lot of people can participate and we can invite panelists from across the Pacific Rim.

Some rough ideas of topics to consider: research/exchange opportunities in the Pacific Rim for students and researchers; communication of mathematics and outreach programs in the Pacific Rim; teaching mathematics in the virtual era: resources, challenges and opportunities; representation in mathematical communities of the Pacific Rim,...

Jim: use Roundtables to help young researchers to see the fields "agenda", as envisioned by senior leaders in the field

Rafe: what does a round table entail?

Rita: moderator with a set of questions, folks answered those questions, discussions ensue, easier to follow as an attendee.

Ruth: VFairs- networking, built on top of Zoom, lot of chatting, interaction, Zoom in webinar

Jim: December meeting agenda- review Ruth's structured plan of milestones we need to meet.

Meetings with special session organizers?
Meetings with plenary speakers?

Jim comments: what kind of topics outside of plenary talks/special sessions could PRIMA discuss/address?

Marni: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion- how do we spread knowledge of how to build inclusivity, diversity, equity in a variety of contexts.

## September 1, 2020 Meeting

> Colliander taking some notes in real-time...
>

Jayadev reports that all invited lecturers have accepted with one exception (Ozawa). Koji will follow up. Ozawa is curious to know if there will be others working in C* algebras.

Progress on special sessions?

Jayadev reports that there have been some recruitment emails sent around for dynamics special sessions. There will likely lead to a proposal.

Probability: Japan, Taiwan, Canada team is envisioned.

Jayadev reached out to a colleague in Taiwan. That info has been shared.

What are other updates on special session recruitment?

Rita and Koji have an update.... Rita reports that Koji (missed other names) a session on

Ian Agol has not yet responded on a possible topology session.

Junwu and Paul on Algebraic Geometry? Junwu sent invitations to Alexander Polychuck from U. Oregon. Another researcher (missed the name) from HKUST is engaged in discussions.

Jayadev reports that we will be investigating NSF for possible funding support.

Romyar reports that there is good progress on algebraic number theory. We invited a session on analytic number theory but have not yet had a reply. Rita and I are also investigating Algebra. There may be a nice way to coordinate arithmetic geometry with connections to number theory with the algebraic geometry session. Bianca Viray is also involved in a possible session.

Marni? Combinatorics? I've done the brainstorming. When people are describing their special sessions, are we inviting other people to organize? Committee members are allowed to coorganize a session. It's a tricky time to ask people to take on new tasks. I reached out to Ann Schilling at UC Davis. There are others in South America, USA, and Australia. Jayadev: Federico Ardila? Marni: he has excellent connections and may be a good person to tap as a coorganizer.

Format?

Gather.town
spatial.chat
sococo.com
Jitsi meet is another platform
Of course, Zoom.
on24.com

Jayadev suggests we need LaTeX in the chat.

Ruth offers to investigate the virtual meeting platforms. Jim suggests that the PIMS DCC could potentially provide exploration and insights as well.

PRIMA proceedings? Proceedings of special sessions?

Or

Paul: maybe postpone the proceedings idea and wait to see if the organizers want a proceedings.

Junwu: Are the special sessions organizers required to build a summer school? Jayadev: No, this is optional or could be nominated.

Junwu: YP Li suggests that the email invitation on the special sessions is not so clear. Who makes the invitations, etc.? Discussion....special session organizers will send the invitations.

Discussion of the session selection process. We have a form that we've sent selectively to some people. The form includes some suggested speakers but no speakers have been invited yet.

Send out an invitation to propose special sessions by, say, September 15.

## August 4, 2020 Meeting

### Public Lectures

We decided to invite Minhyong Kim and Kate Stange

### Plenary Lectures

We decided to invite Hubard, Mann, Manolescu, Navas, Ozawa, Serfaty, and Toro.

### Special Sessions

We will create a Google form, with the option of having a "short" (4 hour) or "long" (8 hour) special session

### Next meeting

Our next meeting will be September 1st.

## July 6, 2020 meeting:

next meeting: August 4, 2020

Paul: reminder to JSA to follow-up with potential SciCom member (done!)

Looking forward to seeing you all today!

I'd like to keep today's meeting relatively short, and it will also be somewhat speculative: I think we need to think hard about how we are going to host a hybrid or even online-only event. As a reminder, with our current tentative schedule we have a public lecture, 8 plenary lectures, and 20 special sessions (split into two groups of 10). Each special session will have 8 hours (so 8 45 minute talks, or 16 20 minute talks).

Agenda:

1) Discuss potential hybrid/online formats (see, for example, https://distribute.utoronto.ca/, http://wagon.wagsymposium.org/
https://www.daniellitt.com/blog/2020/4/20/wagon-lessons-learned)

Rafe: Simons collaboration grant conference, MWF, two synchronous talks/day, asynchronous activities, time set aside for people to talk

Synchronous: lectures happen in real time

Asynchronous: prerecorded

Core group of 25 people, who knew each other already

Paul: advantage of asynchronous: time zones, more people can speak

Jim C: moving target! we will continue to learn more as we experience different models

Set expectations for our special session organizers: that there will be some hybrid component (+ pre-school?)

Implicit hierarchies: how do we make access to speakers, etc., more democratic (this is an issue in in-person talks, can we do better with our virtual)

2) Finalize initial invite list for public lecture/first round of plenary lectures. With regard to this, I have created polls based on our nominations:

Public Lecture Poll: https://forms.gle/5FBEnzdJZdTT9HRL6

Plenary Lecture Poll: https://forms.gle/b8ZxWbPvZgBfBS2w5

Rita: do we want overlap? For now, no?

3) Special sessions and formats: is it reasonable for each scientific committee member to recruit two special sessions (so 4-6 organizers?).

Analysis (Jim, Rafe, Bobby)

Algebra/Representation Theory (Romyar, Rita)

Algebraic Geometry (Paul Norbury, JunWu Tu (pending approach), Jayadev)

Geometry (Koji Fujiwara, Rita Jimenez Rolland, Rafe)

Dynamics/Differential Equations (Jayadev, Seonhee)

Probability (Jim, Jayadev)

Combinatorics (Marni Mishna, volunteer?)

Topology (Rita, Koji)

Mathematical Physics (Rafe, Jim, Paul)

Number Theory (Romyar, Seonhee)

Applied Mathematics (Jim, Bobby, Seonhee, Jayadev)

Guidelines: diversity of national origin, among other concerns

Two special sessions in each topic? 4-6 organizers

## May 26th, 2020 meeting:

### Key takeaways/Homework:

- Plenary speaker/public lecturer ideas. Current suggestions are in the Markdown document: https://hackmd.io/@RusNPRYeTOq6H8p5SJgI4w/BkIANv3oU/edit
I'd like us to make a decision by June 15 on the public lecture invitees. If you can put your suggestions up, I'll create a Google Form poll by June 10.

- Format of parallel online/live events- importance of session chairs if managing online questions/chats. Some brainstorming here: https://hackmd.io/@RusNPRYeTOq6H8p5SJgI4w/rkvANKno8/edit

- When asking organizers, mention the idea of online winter schools in November associated to special sessions.

- JSA will invite Mariel Vazquez to join our committee

- JunWu Tu a possible committee member from China (suggested by PN) http://ims.shanghaitech.edu.cn/2018/1110/c4741a35982/page.htm

- Next meeting June 30, 2020

### Pre-discussion:
- Discuss conference models (see https://distribute.utoronto.ca/, http://wagon.wagsymposium.org/, https://www.daniellitt.com/blog/2020/4/20/wagon-lessons-learned)

- Sylvia Serfati (PDE)
- Peter Scholze (arithmetic geometry)
- Semyon Dyatlov (analysis)
- Minghyon Kim (arithmetic geometry)

* R. Sharifi suggestions:
- Xinwen Zhu (Caltech, won a New Horizons prize, hit and miss as a speaker)
- Chandrashekhar Khare (UCLA, Cole Prize for proving Serre’s conjecture long ago, has been doing extremely good work with Thorne and others)
- Jack Thorne (Cambridge)
- Bhargav Bhatt (algebraic/arithmetic geometry, in particular, if Scholze not available)
- Jacob Tsimerman (Toronto, analytic number theory)
- Ana Caraiani (Imperial)
- Ciprian Manolescu (Stanford, geometry/topology, was mentioned in the Fields Medal conversation last go around)
- Tim Austin (UCLA, analysis, won a New Horizons prize).
- Terry Tao as a public lecturer

* R. Jimenez-Rolland suggestions for members of Scientific Committee:
*
- Mariel Vázquez form UC Davis. She works in math biology and was a plenary speaker in the last PRIMA 2017. (https://www.math.ucdavis.edu/research/profiles/?fac_id=mariel)

- Cecilia González Tokman from The University of Queensland. She works in applied, theoretical and numerical aspects of dynamical systems and ergodic theory. I had a good experience co-organizing with her a couple of meetings before with her (meetings to bring together the Mexican mathematical community around the world). https://people.smp.uq.edu.au/CeciliaTokman/

- Bernardo Uribe from Universidad del Norte. He works in algebraic topology and has been very active in organzing Latin American meetings like CLAM 2016. https://sites.google.com/site/bernardouribejongbloed/

Suggestions for plenary speakers:

- Andrés Navas (U Santiago de Chile) geometric group theory, groups and dynamics
- Isabel Hubard (UNAM) Discrete geometry
- Mauricio Velasco (U Andes) applied algebraic geometry
- Kathryn Mann (Cornell) geometric topology, geometric group theory
- Jordan Ellenberg (Wisconsin) arithmetic algebraic geometry (also for public lecture)
- Tatiana Toro (U Washington) geometric measure theory, PDEs

JA ideas of public lectures:

- Holly Krieger (Cambridge)

-----
Potential panel (instead of public speaker): topic?
-----

Idea: plenary + public

# PRIMA 2021 Brainstorming (summary of April 28, 2020 meeting)

- What does a successful Congress look like?

High quality and diverse group of plenary/public lecturers, opportunities for interaction and collaboration, and participation across the Pacific Rim, even (especially?) from virtual participants. Our centralized conference center (one hotel) will be a positive for this.

- What are the preliminary scientific requirements of the event?

- A list of potential plenary and public speakers, to start invitation processes.
- Ideas for special sessions, especially those that can facilitate interactions/collaborations.
- Ideas for the minicourses prior to the conference (linked to plenary lectures?)
- Homework: plenary speaker ideas + public lecturers to discuss at May 26 meeting. Current suggestions include

- Sylvia Serfati (PDE)
- Peter Scholze (arithmetic geometry)
- Semyon Dyatlov (analysis)
- Minghyon Kim (arithmetic geometry)

- What challenges and opportunities can we glean from the current crisis?

Using what we know about distance learning/seminars to facilitate virtual participation, reduce travel costs and carbon footprint. Highlight the role of the mathematical sciences in modeling, science, and public health.

- What is a feasible timeline for tasks (website, speakers, program etc.)?

- Immediate: Ruth needs profile pictures for all scientific committees

- Working backward from the starting date of the conference (December 6, 2021):

- September 2021: a finalized scientific program

- January 2021: Finalized list of public lectures/plenary speakers/organizers of special sessions

JSA + JC + RS are liaison between local organizing and scientific committee

- What makes this uniquely a Pacific Rim conference?

An opportunity to break down barriers/create channels for scientitic diplomacy- create a community of scholars across the Pacific Rim. We need to publicize widely and makes sure mathematicians across the Pacific Rim are aware of PRIMA. For example, Prof. Fujiwara pointed out that the conference is not widely known in Japan.

It would be good to have a steering committee member from China, as well as an applied mathematician, and it would also be good to improve the gender balance of the committee.

This is also an opportunity to regularize the structure of PRIMA and clarify governance issues.

- How can we enable broad participation from those who cannot be physically present?

Virtual sessions, recording of talks, opportunities to interact online- perhaps each session could have a *virtual moderator* who is keeping track of interactions? Use PIMS MathTube infrastructure for streaming and hosting? Crowdcast/UnHangouts may also be good platforms. Important to have plenary talks at times accessible across the Pacific Rim.

- How can we ensure an intellectually and personally diverse conference?

It is important to reflect on what kind of diversity (career stage, race, gender, country of origin, country of work, subject area) we are thinking about. We will want to communicate this clearly to special session organizers (and think about this in our recruitment/selection of organizers).

# 28th April 2020 Steering Committee Meeting Live Notes:

Jim: conference focused on the Pacific Rim- effective Scientific Diplomacy (community of scholars who can break down barriers)

other congresses: MCA, European Congress, ICM, Joint Meeting of the AMS.

could we use our public lectures/special sessions to showcase Fields Medal candidates?

Rafe: size can be a disadvantage - how do we make it an effective and intimate meeting

We don't have a prize that we are awarding (Paul points out- a new prize is not neccessarily an attractor)- how do we attract people?

Paul: original mission- second conference to ICM (bigger than European congress)- big attraction is that it is a very high quality conference. Relevance to the Pacific Rim comes in sessions.

Seonhee: Shanghai had parallel sessions that were far away (even in close subject areas). Diversity ought to be a main goal. Various fields in Pacific Rim (which are underrepresented in other congresses)

Rita: attended PRIMA (Oaxaca), MCA (Montreal), and ICM around the same time- everything was too spread out, it was difficult to attend multiple sessions, and difficult to interact. Public lectures + plenary was very high quality.

Ruth: our setup is in one hotel! 12-16 rooms, easy to walk from one to the other (multiple floors)

Koji: many Japanese mathematicians are unaware of PRIMA- why? How do we publicize this in Japan? What is the role of the Japanese Math Society? And other national societies?

Jim: PRIMA is a loose organization, managed by PIMS- is is an email list, without the kind of funding that ICM has or the kind of oversight that MCA has. Can the congress be an opportunity to give more structure to PRIMA and clarify some of these governance issues?

Romyar: winter school has a fixed topic- but a huge thing is the quality of the lecturers (not just the fame/reputation of them as scholars)- evening sessions (opportunities to collaborate)

Bobby: making sure we have an accessible conference- how do we get folks to interact if they're *not* in Vancouver- are we going to stream? Record? Have opportunities to interact remotely? Stable website.

Rafe: online/in person/hybrid/?

Jim: air travel?

Special sessions should have organizers/participants from multiple countries

Plenary speakers/public lecture ideas:

Bobby: Sylvia Serfati

Romyar: information about past meetings would be very useful, do speakers need to be from Pacific Rim?

Paul: Peter Scholze (it would be a big draw)

Rafe: Semyon Dyatlov

Seonhee: Minghyon Kim (Oxford) (arithmetic geometry/anabelian geometry)

Rita: representation from Latin America

Koji: Narutaka Ozawa

Jim/Ruth: investigate CMS plenary speakers, to avoid overlapping requests.

## PRIMA 2017 information:

https://primamath.org/congress/prima-2017

## PRIMA 2021 Scientific Committee

+ [Jayadev Athreya ](https://http://faculty.washington.edu/jathreya/)(UW, Geometry and Dynamical Systems, Scientific Director)
+ [James Colliander](https://https://colliand.com/) (UBC/PIMS, PIMS Director)
+ [Koji Fujiwara](https://www.math.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~kfujiwara/) (Kyoto, Group Theory)
+ [Seonhee Lim](http://www.math.snu.ac.kr/~lim/research.html) (Seoul, Geometry)
+ [Rafe Mazzeo](https://web.stanford.edu/~rmazzeo/cgi-bin/) (Stanford, Geometry)
+ [Paul Norbury](https://researchers.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~norbury@unimelb/) (Melbourne, Algebraic Geometry)
+ [Rita Jimenez Rolland ](https://www.matem.unam.mx/~rita/mainEng.html)(Oaxaca, Topology)
+ [Romyar Sharifi](https://www.math.ucla.edu/~sharifi/) (UCLA, Number Theory)
+ [Bobby Wilson](https://sites.math.washington.edu/~blwilson/) (UW, Analysis)