Aalto University: Major international event in mathematics approaching in Helsinki
The foremost international meeting of mathematicians, ICM 2022, was supposed to be held in Saint Petersburg in July 2022, and Vladimir Putin was supposed to have opened it. Due to the war in Ukraine, the organisers decided to move the congress online and find another venue for the opening ceremony. The International Mathematical Union (IMU) received many offers of new venues. The Finnish community of mathematicians offered to organise the event in Helsinki on 5th-6th July 2022, and IMU accepted Finland’s invitation.
The opening ceremony for the ICM 2022 congress will be held in Helsinki on 5th July 2022, and at the ceremony, distinguished mathematicians will be awarded the Fields medals, the Carl Friedrich Gauss prize, the Chern medal, the Leelavati prize, and the Abacus prize for mathematical computing. These prizes are highly esteemed among mathematicians as proof of remarkable scientific achievements in the field of mathematics. Among the medals awarded by IMU, the Fields medal is best known outside the field of mathematics as a recognition comparable to the Nobel Prize.
The opening ceremony will be held at the Töölö hall of Aalto University, and some 600 attendees are expected along with members of the international press, since the award ceremony is traditionally also a media event. President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö will open the ceremony. The event will be hosted by Professor Camilla Hollanti from Aalto University.
On the following day, July 6th, the awardees will give scientific talks on the most current breakthrough research in mathematics at the Töölö auditorium of Aalto University. Both the award ceremony and the lectures of the awardees will be streamed live to the participants of the virtual ICM conference.
The organisers of the event in Finland are the national committee of mathematics, member of the Council of Finnish Academies, chaired by professor in mathematics at the University of Helsinki, Professor Antti Kupiainen, and the Finnish Mathematical Society, chaired by professor in mathematics at the University of Helsinki, Professor Tuomo Kuusi, as well as a large number of Finnish mathematicians from these two organisations.
Professor Antti Kupiainen and Professor Tuomo Kuusi consider it a great honour for Finland and Finnish mathematics to have the ceremony here. It has been held in Finland only once before, in 1978.