FORUM FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY MATHEMATICS

Conferences

Forum began holding conferences right from the beginning. It started at the national level. The first conference was held in 1975 at ‘Calcutta University, Calcutta’. It was followed by the Second conference held at Rajasthan University, Jaipur in 1976.

With the General Secretary, Professor BhuDev Sharma taking-up a chair abroad, the holding of conferences at the national had a period of interruption. However the period of interruption and strong contacts outside India lead to preparations of holding conferences at the International level. It was decided to hold International Conference every year alternating between India and outside.

The process of holding International conferences began in 1996, and is continuing unabated. Forum’s past president of past two terms, Professor Satya Mishra of the University of South Alabama, USA, together with a group of dedicated acclaimed scholars, has been instrumental in Forum’s organization of its conference activities since 1996. Among its current flurries of conference activities that Forum has organized are:

  1. Third International at the University of Southern Maine, USA, July 1997
  2. Forth International at Banaras Hindu University, India, December 1997
  3. Fifth International at the University of Mysore, India, December 1998
  4. Sixth International at the University of South Alabama, USA, December 1999
  5. Seventh International at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India, December 2000
  6. Eighth International at the University of Wollongong, Australia, December 2001
  7. Ninth International at the University of Allahabad, December 2002
  8. Tenth international at the University of Southern Maine, USA, October 2003.
  9. Eleventh International at the Institute of Engineering & Technology, Lucknow, India, December 2004;
  10. Twelfth International at the Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA, December 2 - 4, 2005
  11. Thirteenth International at the Tomar Polytechnic Institute, Tomar, Portugal, September 1-4, 2006.
  12. Fourteenth International in India, IIT, Madras, Chennai, January 6-8, 2007
  13. Fifteenth International Conference, at University of Science & Technology of China, Shanghai, May 20-23, 2007
  14. Sixteenth International Conference, planned at Memphis University, USA - May 16-18, 2008
  15. Seventeenth International planned at Delhi University/GGSIPU, Delhi, India, December 2008.
  16. Eighteenth International planned at University of West Bohemia, Czech Republic, May 2009.

Other Conferences/Symposia Funded in India

  1. Conference on Combinatorics and Graph Theory, University of Madras, India, February 2001.
  2. Workshop by Indian Association on Productivity, Quality and Reliability, Kolkata, July , 2002
  3. Workshop on Applied Statistics (3 week-long) at Allahabad Agricultural Institute and Deemed University, Allahabad, June, 2005
  4. Workshop on Fundamentals of Fuzzy Set Theory, Stella Maris College & IIT-Madras, Chennai, August, 2005
  5. Conference on Multivariate Methods – Birth Centenary SN Roy, Kolkata, Dec 28-29, 2006
  6. National Conference on History of Mathematics, March 2006, Patna University
  7. 12th Annual Conference of Vijnana Parishad of India (HQ at Orai, UP) and National Symposium on applications of Special Functions between October 25-27, 2007 at JV University, Jodhpur.

Awards

Forum has instituted awards in two categories:

  • Honoring distinguished mathematicians
  • Best Paper award to Ph.D. students

Best Paper Award- Professor R. S. Varma Memorial Award

Starting with the Eighth International Conference at the University of Wollongong, Australia, the Forum has started organizing and funding a symposium solely for the purpose of encouraging and awarding young researchers consisting of new Ph.D. awardees and aspirants, also known as ‘Professor R.S. Varma Memorial Student Competition’ (RSVMSC). These awards are well structured, critiqued and judged by the leading scholars of various fields, and at the conclusion of which a certificate and cash award (presently Rs. 25,000.00) are provided to the winners. In a very short time, RSVMSC has become popular among young investigators in India as FIM has appreciably realized their participation at its conferences.