50 Years Stichting Mathematisch Centrum

by Henk Nieland

Fifty years ago, on 11 February 1946, the Stichting Mathematisch Centrum (SMC) was founded in Amsterdam. The foundation's research institute, the Mathematical Centre, changed in 1983 into its present name, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI). On the occasion of this fiftieth anniversary, several activities are planned in the forthcoming year. Two of these are scientific conferences, one on mathematics, the other on computer science.

On 6-7 February 1996 a mathematical congress will be organized in Amsterdam. The topics cover the research carried out in the framework of SMC's National Activities in Mathematics. The programme includes invited talks by the following speakers (in brackets the corresponding SMC national research programme):

• A. Blass, Michigan (Logic and Foundations of Mathematics)
• J.Z. Buchwald, MIT (History and Social Function of Mathematics)
• G. Faltings, Bonn (Algebra and Geometry)
• R.L. Graham, AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill (Discrete Mathematics)
• A. Iserles, Cambridge, UK (Numerical Mathematics)
• L. Nirenberg, New York (Analysis) (not yet confirmed)
• J. Walrand, Berkeley (Operations Research)
• W.R. van Zwet, Leiden (Stochastics)

R. Milner (Cambridge, UK), G. Berry (Ecole des Mines de Paris, Sophia Antipolis), A. Razborov (Steklov Mathematical Institute, Moscow), M. Broy (Technical University Munich), I. Havel (Charles University Prague), G. Kahn (INRIA Sophia Antipolis), en D. Bjoerner (UNU/IIST, Macao).