25th Anniversary of the EMSSpending the first semester of 1994 at MSRI allowedme to distance myself and to reflect on what I could proposeas a course of action for my mandate as Presidentof the EMS, taking a global perspective. I had already putforward the idea of forming a team with Peter Michor,who would be running for the EMS Secretary position, asI knew about and appreciated very much his engagementfor developing internet tools for the service of mathematicians.That such an effort should be made in the contextof the EMS looked to me as most appropriate. This ishow the EMIS (the European Mathematical InformationService) came to life as the EMS portal, a typicalexample of how the EMS could provide new services tothe mathematical community.In the same vein, during my mandate, after several attemptshad shown that the American Mathematical Societywas not ready to share the responsibility of a trulyuniversal database, I made sure that the EMS became apartner of the bibliographical database Zentralblatt fürMathematik (ZbM) alongside the Heidelberg Academy ofSciences. This was made possible thanks to the open mindsof people running the German agency in charge of the database,the FachInformation Zentrum Karlsruhe, and ofthe mathematical editors of Springer, who were in chargeof commercialisation. It was an important step to improvethe service provided to the mathematical community, anda number of mathematicians have contributed to this effort.This was, and still is, a formidable asset for Europe.I must add here that the precious help and involvementof Bernd Wegner, then Editor-in-Chief of ZbM, were alsocritical in that and in the birth of the EMIS.At the time I took office, one of the issues that preoccupieda number of mathematicians was the new emphasisput in a number of countries on applied mathematicsand the consequences for the mathematical community.I did not see this as a problem but as a fantastic opportunity.For me, it was completely clear that the EMS hadto make substantial efforts to attract a sufficiently largeproportion of applied mathematicians. This required, ofcourse, the organisation of appropriate activities and thisattention to the diversity of profiles of the events supportedby the EMS was on the minds of the members ofthe Executive Committee all the time. I was very pleasedthat Rolf Jeltsch, a well recognised applied mathematician,agreed to run for president and became my successorin 1999.Showing the interest of the EMS for interfaces, oneaspect of the previous line of thought was one of the motivationsfor the creation of the “Diderot MathematicalForums” as an activity of the EMS. Their format – threecoordinated conferences in three European cities sharingsome sessions by telecommunication – was meant tohighlight the richness and diversity of mathematics inEurope. The first four were: “Mathematics and Finance”in London, Moscow and Zurich, “Mathematics and Environmentwith Focus on Water” in Amsterdam, Madridand Venice, “Mathematics as a Force in the Evolution ofCulture” in Berlin, Florence and Krakow, and “Mathematicsand Music” in Lisbon, Paris and Vienna. Severalothers continued the chain. It is worth pointing out thatthe one on “Mathematics and Music” led to the creationof a mathematics group at IRCAM, the research instituteon music created by Pierre Boulez that is located nextto the Centre Pompidou in downtown Paris. This groupcontinues to thrive and its international visibility was recentlycelebrated in a conference in Singapore.The Second European Congress of Mathematics washeld in Budapest in 19<strong>96</strong>. It was really the first ECM forwhich the EMS was directly involved in the conception,as the Paris Congress had grown fundamentally out of alocal initiative. It had a number of specific features, somethat continued, such as the EMS Prizes (funded by theMairie de Paris in 1992, they were financed in 19<strong>96</strong> by thelocal branch of Motorola, thanks to the efforts of Hungariancolleagues), and some that were more specific, suchas a special session to celebrate Paul Erdös at l’InstitutFrançais or the Junior ECM held in Miskolc a few daysafter ECM2, a remarkable achievement of very engagedcolleagues that brought together enthusiastic young studentsfrom several countries. I cherish the memory ofthese two events as they gave me, in particular, the opportunityto witness the extraordinary ability of this exceptionalmathematician in interacting with young people(unfortunately, he passed away shortly afterwards).As my interest in seeing the EMS have individualmembers was known from Day 1 of the society (actually,the membership got close to 2000 at the end of my mandate,showing that the perspective of winning the participationof a significant number of colleagues was a realone), I made sure that national or regional societies feltwelcome and properly involved in the development of theEMS. This was the reason for suggesting that each societyshould have a correspondent, to be sure that a channel ofcommunication was open to as many of them as possible.Making sure that mathematicians were potentialpartners for a number of European institutions was animportant task that required better knowledge of thefunctioning of these institutions and, conversely, makingpeople in charge of them aware of how the mathematicalcommunity operates and how mathematicianscould contribute. Luc Lemaire, as EMS Officer in chargeof these contacts, played a critical role in achieving that.This meant a number of contacts with people in charge ofresearch at the European Commission but also the needto obtain some room for mathematics in the programmesof the European Science Foundation. Keeping in mindthe key vision that scientists are the ones who make thedifference, this led me to join 12 other scientists callingfor the creation of Euroscience, a grass roots organisationof scientists that was finally established in 1997 at ameeting in Strasbourg and which developed into a keyplayer on the European scene.Thanks to the competent support of Mireille Chaleyat-Maurel,who helped the Executive Committee asCommunication Officer, an active policy was established,aiming at making the EMS more visible. These effortstook many forms. One of them was the introduction of anew logo for the society, with an interesting mix of mathematicalcontent, the Fibonacci sequence, and an aestheticshow of diversity, reflecting the reality of Europe.16 EMS Newsletter June <strong>2015</strong>
25th Anniversary of the EMSApparently, the choice was not so bad as this logo is stillthe one the EMS is using. An attempt was even madeto create a mathematical press agency, with the generalpublic as final target. Unfortunately, in spite of great efforts,the EMPRESSA project could not deliver whatwas hoped and waned away.During my mandate, the preparation of the launch ofJEMS, the Journal of the European Mathematical Society,continued with the identification of the first Editor-in-Chief and the signing of a contract with Springer Verlag.However, a more ambitious goal – coming up with aneconomically viable solution for the creation of a EuropeanMathematical Publishing House – could not be finalisedbefore I left office.The EMS Executive Committee also made considerableefforts to respond to the call made by Jacques-LouisLions, then President of the International MathematicalUnion, to participate in the World Mathematical Year2000 he had convinced UNESCO to establish. It also developedcontacts with the Chinese Mathematical Societyand the African Mathematical Union, whose existenceactually preceded that of the EMS.At this early stage of existence of the EMS, priority hadto be given to developing new activities. Some of them,such as summer schools, were successful, developed furtherand now belong to the natural environment of Europeanmathematicians. All this could only be achieved thanks tothe hard work and the contributions of a number of colleagues:first of all, of course, the members of the EMS ExecutiveCommittee but also the chairs of the various EMScommittees, whose activities played a significant role inthe rapid recognition gained by the EMS. The exceptionalquality of support given by Tuulikki Mäkeläinen, in chargeof the EMS Secretariat in Helsinki, must also be acknowledgedwith gratitude. All in all, this was a very exciting timeand a special moment in my professional life.Jean-Pierre Bourguignon is a differentialgeometer. He spent his whole career as afellow of the Centre National de la RechercheScientifique (CNRS) and he held a positionas professor at the École polytechniquefrom 1986 to 2012. He received thePrix Paul Langevin in 1987 and the Prixdu Rayonnement Français in MathematicalSciences and Physics from the Académie des Sciencesde Paris in 1997. He is a foreign member of the RoyalSpanish Academy of Sciences. In 2005, he was electedhonorary member of the London Mathematical Societyand has been the Secretary of the Mathematics Section ofthe Academia Europaea. In 2008, he was made DoctorHonoris Causa of Keio University, Japan, and, in 2011,Doctor Honoris Causa of Nankai University, China.He was the Director of the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques(IHÉS) from 1994 till 2013.From 1990 to 1992, he was President of the Société Mathématiquede France and he was President of the EuropeanMathematical Society from 1995 to 1998. He is a formermember of the Board of the EuroScience organisation(2002–20<strong>06</strong>) and has served on EuroScience Open Forum(ESOF) committees from 2004 to 2013. Since January2014, he is the President of the European ResearchCouncil.Cameras Among Mathematicians!Video – From Live to the ArchivesThe First European Congress of Mathematics, Paris – La Sorbonne, July 1992François Tisseyre (Director “EcoutezVoir” Studio)The year 1992 was for us (members of EcoutezVoir, asmall associative audio-visual workshop working especiallyfor the popularisation of science and in particularmathematics) strongly marked by the first EuropeanSymposium of Mathematics. The Sorbonne, in the heartof the Latin Quarter, was filled with hundreds of mathematiciansfrom Europe and elsewhere. This was history!It was, as often, thanks to Jean-Pierre Bourguignon andThierry Paturle (École Polytechnique) that we were gatheredand then thanks were due to Adrien Douady, whoaccompanied and guided us in what turned out to be anexciting experience for the non-mathematicians that wewere and that we remained.This memorable episode began several weeks beforethe symposium and ended a whole year later. Two activitieswere involved: the dissemination of films on mathematicsand the production of a documentary and set ofinterviews.“Cinemath”: a mini film festivalAmong the many activities scheduled, a small workinggroup was constituted in order to create a mini film festivalabout mathematics within the symposium: Cinemath.It was with pleasure that I joined this committee, whichincluded Jean Brette, tireless populariser at the Palaisde la Découverte, Thierry Paturle and Colette Loustalet,who had just published, within the association Imagiciel,a remarkable catalogue of 121 films for the teaching ofmathematics. This catalogue was our irreplaceable andinvaluable source of information. For several weeks, weEMS Newsletter June <strong>2015</strong> 17
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