11/03/2022

IMU announces the change of ICM 2022 to a virtual format.

By decision of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM 2022) , which was to be held from July 6 to 14 in St. Petersburg, Russia, will take place virtually with free access for participants. The announcement was made by the IMU executive committee last week, in light of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The statement published on the website also informs that the 19th IMU General Assembly, which was to take place between July 3rd and 4th, 2022 in the same city, will remain in person, but will be moved to Helsinki, Finland. Neither the General Assembly nor the ICM will have their dates changed. The awards ceremony, including the Fields Medal, the Gauss Prize, the Chern Medal, the Leelavati Prize, and the Emmy Noether Lecture, will be held on July 5th at the same venue as the General Assembly.

The IMU highlighted the work of the Russian team in successfully holding ICM 2022, but stated that the situation has changed drastically in recent weeks and Russia's actions have made it impossible to hold an in-person event in the country at this time. The organization strongly condemned the country's actions and expressed solidarity with its colleagues and the Ukrainian population. The statement also says that postponing or canceling both events was considered, but these options were ruled out.

The choice of St. Petersburg as the venue for both events was made during the IMU General Assembly held in São Paulo in 2018. At the time, Rio de Janeiro was hosting the last edition of the ICM, during the Mathematics Biennium in Brazil.

Among the participants of ICM 2022 is the deputy director of IMPA and general coordinator of OBMEP, Claudio Landim , as a speaker on the panel “Innovation and New Forms of Popularizing Mathematics,” which is part of the section “Mathematics Education and Popularization of Mathematics.” In addition, the French researcher Hubert Lacoin, from IMPA, will also represent the institute at the event as a guest speaker in the “Probability” section.

The official statement from the IMU executive committee is available at this link . Updates regarding the two events will be published on the official IMU website .