B.B. (Before BIRS)


Initial Announcement about the Banff International Research Station

March 24, 2001

An announcement from:

David Eisenbud, Director, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (Berkeley), and Nassif Ghoussoub, Director, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.

This is to announce that the Board of trustees of MSRI and the Board of directors of PIMS have given a unanimous endorsement for the development of the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery and the go-ahead to seek funding as outlined below. The mathematical sciences community is warmly invited to provide its input, critique and support to help this initiative serve mathematical research, education and outreach as effectively as possible.

The International Research Station is a collaborative Canada-US venture that will provide an Oberwolfach-style infrastructure and ambience to attract leading researchers in the mathematical sciences from around the world to workshops and meetings for the exchange, dissemination, and creation of new ideas. Its purpose is to foster innovation and discovery through scientific interaction, problem solving, and post-graduate training in every aspect of the mathematical, computational and statistical sciences and their applications.

THE PARTNERSHIP: The US participation will be led by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (Berkeley, CA) while the Canadian effort will be coordinated by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) with the help, on-going support and participation of the Fields Institute for research in the mathematical sciences (Fields), the Centre de Recherches Mathematiques (CRM), and the Network of Centers of Excellence MITACS (Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems).

LOCALE: The plan is to establish the station in Corbett Hall at the Banff Centre in Alberta. The facility will accomodate up to 50 participants. The lecture rooms and computer labs with high speed internet connections will be located on the bottom floor of the adjacent Max Bell building. An independent dining facility will be located in the adjacent Don Cameron Hall.

OPERATION MODE: The station will initially operate for 40 weeks of the year. It will host workshops in the mathematical sciences and in cross-disciplines in which mathematics, computer science and statistics are used in deep and novel ways. Many workshops will be run in a format of 5 days with about 40 researchers (Oberwolfach/Luminy mode), but there will also be possibilities to have several groups in residence together for longer stays in the Summers (Aspen mode) and some with other formats. The Banff center has also good facilities for workshops up to several hundred people if needed.

Applications for workshops will be selected on a competitive international basis, using the criteria of excellence and relevance, by a scientific panel of experts drawn from across the entire breadth of the mathematical sciences.

INDUSTRIAL OUTREACH: Built around the industrial program of the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems NCE (MITACS) recently developed by the 3 Canadian Mathematics Institutes, the Station will provide the ideal setting for a myriad of industrial activities in the mathematical sciences.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING: The sustenance of science and technology depends on capturing the minds and enthusiasm of young people and offering them the training to become future researchers. Both PIMS and MSRI and their partner institutes take these responsibilities seriously. For this reason the International Research Station will make opportunities for programs devoted to education in the mathematical sciences.

SCIENTIFIC LEADERSHIP: The Banff International Research Station will have a Scientific Advisory Board, chaired by the Scientific Director of the station. The Board will oversee all the research and intellectual aspects of the Station's program. It is comprised of up to 26 members representing a broad and expert coverage of the Mathematical Sciences and will include the directors of PIMS, MSRI, CRM, Fields and MITACS.

The first Scientific Director is Professor Robert V. Moody from the University of Alberta.

FUNDING SOURCES: In addition to the substantial funds committed by the institutes, PIMS, Fields and CRM are applying for NSERC's support through the MFA program (Major Facility Access), while MSRI is applying to NSF for a supplement earmarked for the Banff station. PIMS is also counting on the support of the Alberta ministry of Innovation and Science. Additional Station accessible to all mathematical scientists, regardless of their geographic location, a special effort will be made to secure a travel budget to support visiting scientists.

"...as mathematicians beat reteat to Alberta"

August 30, 2001

The following article on the Banff International Research Station appeared in the August 30, 2001 edition of Nature Magazine:

...as mathematicians beat retreat to Alberta

by Erica Klarreich
Nature
Thursday, August 30, 2001

North American mathematicians will soon be able to immerse themselves in their thoughts at a purpose-built hideaway high in the Canadian Rockies.

When it opens in 2003, the Banff International Research Station will allow invitees to "live, eat and breathe mathematics", says Nassif Ghoussoub, director of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) in Vancouver.

Inspired by existing retreats for mathematicians in Oberwolfach, Germany, and Luminy, France, the research station will invite up to 40 mathematicians at a time to participate in intense, five-day workshops.

"We've seen from Oberwolfach and Luminy that this kind of setting is a fantastically successful way to advance a mathematics research agenda," says Philippe Tondeur, director of the mathematics division at the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

The station will cost about $1.5 million per year to run, and will be supported in roughly equal parts by the NSF, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Alberta Science and Research Authority and PIMS. The NSF and PIMS have already announced their support, and the other partners are expected to confirm their participation on 24 September.

As many as 1,600 mathematicians could pass through Banff each year. In addition to the five-day workshops, it will accommodate groups of 10-15 mathematicians to work for up to four weeks on specific research topics.

Canada & US to Launch Unique Research Facility in Banff, Alberta

September 19, 2001

The governments of Alberta, Canada and the United States are set to announce a new international mathematical research facility in Banff, Alberta that will annually host thousands of top international scientists and researchers. This joint venture is spearheaded in Canada by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences and in the US by the Berkeley based Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. The facility will also profit from the active participation of the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems Network of Centres of Excellence. This marks the first time Canada and the United States have jointly collaborated on such a research facility.

Media are invited to attend the launch ceremony and news conference:

WHERE:

The Banff Centre
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive, Banff, Alberta T0L 0C0

Margaret Greenham Theatre

WHEN:

Monday, September 24, 2001

1:00 p.m.(MDT) - Announcement ceremony
1:45 p.m. (MDT) - News conference

Please join senior officials of the spearheading organizations, as well as Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Dr. Joseph Bordogna, Deputy Director of the US National Science Foundation, Dr. Robert Church, Chair of Board, Alberta Science and Research Authority and other key federal and provincial government officials, for the Announcement Ceremony.

Schedule of announcement ceremony

September 24, 2001

10:00 am

Mini-symposium "Close Parallels: Good Neighbors and Mathematical Partners". TransCanada Pipelines Pavilion, room 201 (Chair: Robert V. Moody, U. Alberta)

10:00-10:30 Jim Zidek (UBC): Does Air Pollution Cause Ill-Health?
10:30-11:00 Richard Cleve (U of Calgary): Quantum Information Processing
11:00-11:30 Torsten Moeller (SFU): Volume Graphics Challenges
11:30-12:45 Lunch hosted by Mary Hofstetter, President and CEO of The Banff Centre. TransCanada Pipelines Pavilion foyer
1:00-2:00pm Official announcement (joint with NSF and linked with Washington, DC. Webcast to the entire community). Margaret Greenham Theatre

M.C. in Banff: Nassif Ghoussoub, Director, PIMS
M.C. in Washington: David Eisenbud, Director, MSRI

The list of speakers include:

Ms. Mary Hofstetter, President and CEO of The Banff Centre
Dr. Joseph Bordogna, Deputy Director, NSF
Dr. Tom Brzustowski, President, NSERC
Dr. Philippe Tondeur, Director of Division for the Mathematical Sciences, NSF
Dr. Robert Church, Chair of Board, Alberta Science and Research Authority
Mr. Raul E. Chavera, US Consul General in Calgary
2:00pm Press conference and Reception hosted by The Banff Centre. West lobby of the Eric Harvie Theatre.

ASRA/NSERC Press Release: Canada, Alberta and the U.S. Combine to Create Math Think Tank in Banff, Alberta

New $5 Million International Program First in North America

February 24, 2001

(Banff, Alberta) - The Governments of Canada and Alberta today joined the U.S. National Science Foundation to launch the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) for mathematical discovery and innovation. It will be housed in the Banff Centre and start operations in 2003.

BIRS will pursue a broad program covering pure and applied mathematics, which are the basis for new discovery and technologies in many sectors. It will provide the infrastructure for an environment that optimizes opportunities for creative interaction and exchange of ideas, knowledge and methods within the mathematical sciences and their related areas.

The initiative will receive $1.5 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), $1.7 million from the Alberta Science and Research Authority and $1.95 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation. It's the first time that the U.S. Foundation has made such an investment in Canada.

"We are delighted that top-flight university and industry researchers from around the world will be coming to Alberta. They will be sharing ideas and knowledge in a discipline that is absolutely fundamental to science, innovation and the economy," said the Honourable Brian Tobin, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC.

"This funding partnership recognizes the station's potential to become an international centre of mathematical research excellence. We are proud to support an initiative that will attract some of the best international researchers and graduate students to Alberta,"stated Victor Doerksen, Minister of Alberta Innovation and Science responsible for ASRA.

"The Banff Station is a step forward for the Canadian mathematical community and Canadian research," said NSERC President Tom Brzustowski. NSERC's contribution will be made through a grant program that gives Canadian researchers access to national and international facilities.

The Banff proposal was spearheaded in Canada by the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), a Canadian mathematics research consortium supported in part through an NSERC Institute grant and by the British Columbia Ministry of Competition, Science and Enterprise. BIRS will also be supported by MITACS, one of the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence. PIMS was commended for seizing the opportunity to bring the facility here and for securing wide support for it. NSERC received almost 400 letters of support from researchers in Canada, the U.S., and around the world.

The Banff Station will be modeled on two similar European facilities that have proven highly successful in advancing research and developing the careers of young researchers.

BIRS, which begins operation in early 2003, will offer intensive five-day workshops, as well as host longer problem-solving sessions for periods of up to four weeks.

Funding Announcement for BIRS

New $5M Research Facility First of its Kind in North America

February 24, 2001

On September 24, the governments of Alberta, Canada and the United States announced the establishment of a new international mathematical research facility in Banff, Alberta. The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) will annually host thousands of top international scientists and researchers for intense workshops, collaborative research efforts, and training sessions across the entire spectrum of pure and applied mathematical sciences.

The joint venture is spearheaded in Canada by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) and in the US by the Berkeley based Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI). The facility will also profit from the active participation of the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems Network of Centres of Excellence (MITACS).

At a ceremony held simultaneously in Washington DC and Banff, the National Science Foundation of the United States committed $1.95M, the Alberta Science Research Authority $1.7M and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada $1.5M towards the operation of BIRS from 2002 to 2005. The station will also be supported by the British Columbia Ministry of Competition, Science and Enterprise through its sponsorship of PIMS.

The facility will be housed at the well-known Banff Centre, which has already won acclaim for its programs in music, mountain culture, writing and publishing, visual arts, and its centre for management. "The bringing together of imaginative minds through BIRS is directly in line with The Banff Centre's mandate," says Mary Hofstetter, president and CEO, The Banff Centre. "This mandate is to support creative excellence, foster innovative research opportunities, and encourage cross-disciplinary exploration and discovery." BIRS is the first of its kind in North America. Modelled on two similar European facilities, BIRS is expected to enhance research capacity and help develop the careers of young researchers both in North America and around the world. This is the first time that Canada and the US have collaborated on this type of facility.

"BIRS will become a focal point for leading mathematical research in Canada and the world," says Dr. Nassif Ghoussoub, Director of PIMS. "This facility offers a scope for graduate training that is second to none and we will endeavour to bring as many students as possible to BIRS" says Dr. Robert V. Moody, Scientific Director of BIRS.

The main mode of operation will be five-day workshops involving approximately 40 researchers chosen by a distinguished scientific panel on the basis of international competition. "A facility like BIRS is something that we've been talking about in North America for many years now. MSRI feels fortunate to be one of the architects of a facility that is destined to become a jewel for North American mathematical research," notes Dr. David Eisenbud, Director of MSRI.

Dr. Arvind Gupta the Director of MITACS added, "BIRS will bring together academics, students, and industrial scientists in an environment that will foster innovation, stimulate new ideas, and create lasting research partnerships. This is truly a remarkable venture between Canada and the United States."

Remarks by Tom Brzustowski, President of NSERC

September 24, 2001

Joint Press Conference for the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery, Banff, Alberta

Ladies and Gentlemen:

If I may begin, Rita, with a personal request to you. I would ask you on behalf of the entire staff of NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, to convey to our colleagues at the NSF, to the American mathematics community, and to the people of the United States our heartfelt regret and our profound outrage at the event of September 11.

I am very glad, as Nassif has already indicated that he is, that the event today was not postponed or cancelled, because to have postponed it or cancelled it would have given a victory to the terrorists. They might never have known of it, but we would have known.

Let me now move on to the most important thing that I have to do here. I have to read the magic words which make it official, and here they are. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is contributing $1.5 million towards the operation of BIRS from the year 2003 to the year 2006.

Now, we are here to celebrate a hugely important event. It is hugely important not just for the participating organizations, but for our nations, and for mathematics in the world.

Let me begin by congratulating PIMS, MSRI, and MITACS. (I'll stick with the acronyms, as life is too short to spell them all out.) Let me congratulate these three organizations for their intellectual involvement and their promise to deliver the fruits of this superb international collaboration.

Let me also congratulate the funding partners. Let me congratulate the National Science Foundation of the United States. You heard in the remarks of Dr. Colwell the extensive understanding of the importance of mathematics which has driven their decision. And let me congratulate the Province of Alberta where BIRS is located. This is a province which, in my opinion, really does have its act together when it comes to science and engineering research, and BIRS is yet another illustration of that.

The hallmark of a good idea is that so many people find it obvious once it has been mentioned - obviously! Why not?! You know that Oberwolfach has succeeded for many years. Why not, by way of developing a partnership in research in mathematics in North America, set up something that would be at least as good, and maybe far better? And so it was done - on a fast track and with quick decisions. Something was done that would not have happened, could not have happened, without the vision, the energy, the tenacity, and the leadership of one person, and that of course is Nassif Ghoussoub.

When I think of the many contributions Nassif has made in mathematics, I know they include some quite decent papers on partial differential equations. (I do look at Nature Nassif. I've seen your stuff). Quite apart from that, his contributions as a leader in organizing mathematical activity in Canada has been extraordinarily important. And now we see the leadership stretching to international collaboration, and we welcome that.

Now I should mention, perhaps for the benefit of our American colleagues rather more than the Canadian colleagues who are already convinced of this, just why this is such an important event. It is the next step in the emergence of Canadian mathematics into the prominence that it deserves. Canadian mathematicians have been good for a very long time. They have been very good, and we have many outstanding individuals, but Canadian mathematics in the corporate sense has been achieving the deserved prominence only very recently. The three institutes now active, CRM, Fields and PIMS, the Network of Centres of Excellence MITACS, are all contributing to that prominence. And today the international partnership that produced BIRS adds to it as well.

But BIRS is also important in another way. It puts the seal of recognition by the funding agencies on the way that mathematicians do research: the face to face contact, the debate of ideas, the closing of dead ends - perhaps in the presence of those who might have contributed to paving them in the first instance, the opportunity for people to change their minds, and the excitement of recognizing a really new development and the ability then to go off with colleagues and immediately talk about it some more. All these aspects of working together in a setting like BIRS are hugely important. Mathematicians assembled in an environment conducive to intellectual creativity will produce a great deal.

Let me finally come to something that I have been saying for quite a little while, and frequently - maybe even weekly. It is more of a matter for generalists thinking about mathematics than it is for mathematicians. I really do believe that mathematics has been the language of high technology. And I also believe that mathematics is becoming the eyes of science, helping scientists in all fields drink from a firehose of data. But for mathematics to function in this way, as the language and as the eyes, and as the many other things that mathematics is yet to become, there is need for continued effort to expand and strengthen the foundations of mathematics - the work of basic research in mathematics.

With that, let me conclude by congratulating one more person, as the focus now shifts from Nassif to Bob Moody. Let me congratulate Bob Moody on becoming the research director of BIRS. I think BIRS is very lucky to have Bob Moody; I think Bob Moody is very lucky to have BIRS. This is a hugely important international effort which will be important for Canadian mathematics, for mathematics in the United States, and ultimately for mathematics in the world. I congratulate all who participated in creating it. I thank our funding partners and I wish everybody success in the years to come.

Thank you very much

Remarks by Rita Colwell, Director of the NSF

September 24, 2001

Joint Press Conference for the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery, Arlington, Virginia

Good afternoon, everyone. I am Rita Colwell, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation, and it is a great pleasure to take part in this ceremony -- really a "virtual ribbon-cutting" -- today.

Our event connects two nations, the United States and Canada, exemplary neighbors who have always cherished peace between each other. In that tradition, today we inaugurate an enterprise that represents the best of the human spirit.

Following the tragic attacks on the United States two weeks ago, this event today lifts our spirits as it symbolizes our joint endeavor to push back the frontiers of knowledge. We have called today's event "Close Parallels"--a mathematical metaphor evoking the steadfast closeness of our nations.

The National Science Foundation supports cutting-edge science and engineering across the range of disciplines. We always strive to integrate research and education, really two faces of the same coin. We invest in the very best of the future, the fundamental research whose ultimate outcome no one can foresee. Mathematical research is an ideal example of such fertile ground for far-reaching investment.

Today NSF is very pleased to announce an award to the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute--MSRI. The award of $1.27 million over four years will support United States' participation at the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery. The research station in the Canadian Rockies in Banff will provide a spectacular setting for intensive mathematical research, when it opens in 2003. The station is a project of both our nations, led by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences in Vancouver, British Columbia, and MSRI, which I've already mentioned, located in Berkeley, California.

I cannot resist quoting the director of the Pacific Institute, Nassif Ghoussoub; he said that the Banff center will enable visitors to "live, eat and breathe mathematics.'' (I have to say that sounds like a very nourishing diet--talk about "brain food!'')

Our NSF contribution joins Canadian support that will be described by our Canadian partners today. The NSF award will help support the travel and living expenses of participants in the research station's programs, especially those from the U.S. I should emphasize that our Canadian colleagues and funding agencies have taken the lead in bringing the Banff center into being. This activity underscores how international cooperation adds up to more than what any nation could accomplish alone.

Every important question of science and engineering is under study by researchers in nations around the world. The mathematical and statistical communities of the United States are at the forefront in engaging their counterparts abroad.

International connections in mathematics are important throughout a career in science. In June of this year, NSF helped to support the International Mathematical Olympiad, a competition that brought talented young people from more than eighty countries to Washington, D.C. for the annual event that was first held in Romania in 1959. It was a rare privilege for us to host the Olympiad in the U.S. However, every year, NSF hosts the U.S. Olympiad team in Washington to honour their achievements.

Our investment in the Banff Center is tangible proof of the vital and growing role of the mathematical sciences in all of science and engineering. I would like to show a few slides now, to illustrate this fundamental importance of mathematics.

E.O. Wilson writes that "...mathematics seems to point arrowlike toward the ultimate goal of objective truth.'' Indeed, mathematics is the ultimate cross-cutting discipline, the springboard for advances across the board. Mathematics is both a powerful tool for insight and a common language for science. A good example, pictured here, is the fractal, a famous illustration of how inner principles of mathematics enable us to model many natural structures. Cosmologists are beginning to draw an awesome portrait of the structure of the universe--using mathematics as the medium. On the other end of the scale, particle physicists sketch quantum phenomena, again with mathematics as their brush and palette. In the realm of climate, our ability to predict El Nino--the irregular shifts in ocean and atmospheric conditions--is a superb example of where mathematics and computing have brought us. The meeting of mathematics and medicine augurs well for discovery on many fronts. Mathematics and complexity theory, for instance, give insight into the human heart. The top pictures are computer simulations of the electrical activity in a normal heart. Below are abnormal patterns, or fibrillation. Mathematicians are investigating why some patterns of electrical stimulus are better at eliminating fibrillation. Mathematics and biology transform each other. The information science of life edges ever closer to electronic information science. Advances in understanding life may lead to new modes of computing, notably biological computing.

To strengthen the mathematical foundations of science and society, the National Science Foundation has proposed a new priority area. We seek to advance frontiers in three interlinked areas: fundamental mathematical and statistical sciences, interdisciplinary research involving the mathematical sciences, and mathematical sciences education.

I show this final slide as a mathematical metaphor. Fractal sets like we see here can be used to build computer models of clouds, plants, the surface of the sea, even networks of blood vessels. Yet, mathematics also transports us beyond the practical, into the realm of the imagination and art. A coming together of brilliant imaginations for a higher purpose will be a hallmark of the Banff Centre.

We look forward to an inspiring and long-lasting engagement among our mathematical scientists, our Canadian colleagues, and others from around the world, in a superb environment for communication and collaboration.