C18. Commission on Mathematical Physics

Report to the 1999 General Assembly for 1996-99

Officers 1996-1999:

Chairman: Ph. Blanchard Germany,
Vice-Chairman: I.T. Todorov, Bulgaria
Secretary: W.D. Heiss, South Africa

Members:

S.I. Anisimov, Russia
M.V. Berry, U.K
A. Degasperis, Italy
K. Gawedzki, France
S.T. Kuroda, Japan
E. Lieb, USA
P.A. Pearce, Australia
D.J. Rowe, Canada
Ph. Spindel, Belgium
S.R. Wadia, India

Associate Members 94-97:

J. Frohlich, Switzerland
H-Y. Guo, China
A. Jaffe, USA
J. Palis, Brazil

Activities

The various conferences that have enjoyed IUPAP support during the period under review are on record. The mutual influence and cross-fertilisation of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics continues unabated. The emphasis appears to be on Group Theory, Geometrical/Algebraic Methods and Nonlinear Problems.

As a theoretical physicist in South Africa I am happy to report that the "22nd International Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics" in July 1998 at Hobart, Tasmania, was attended by five scientist from South Africa, two of whom as speakers in plenary sessions.

In South Africa we have, usually on a two years basis, Advanced Courses in Theoretical Physics. Speakers are invited from overseas and South Africa.

In January 1999 the title will be "Self-organized Criticality, Random Systems and Random Walks: Analytic methods and simulation". The school will run over ten days near to Stellenbosch. It is being investigated as to whether these meetings could qualify for IUPAP support. The purpose of these schools is to familarise South African, and more recently African, scientists with scientific activities of topical interest.

As Secretary (C18) I was approached for an opinion about applications for IUPAP approval/support a number of times. I am pleased that the deserving cases received approval, in most cases some financial support. Less well planned applications could not get support; one hopes that the unsuccessful organisers heed the reasons for failure to increase their chances for success in a future attempt.

WD Heiss