kids encyclopedia robot

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Siam-logo.png
Formation 1951; 73 years ago (1951)
Type 501(c)(3)
Headquarters Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Location
  • University City, Philadelphia
Fields Applied Mathematics
Membership
14,500
President
Sven Leyffer
Revenue (2015)
$13,458,671

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific society devoted to applied mathematics, and roughly two-thirds of its membership resides within the United States. Founded in 1951, the organization began holding annual national meetings in 1954, and now hosts conferences, publishes books and scholarly journals, and engages in advocacy in issues of interest to its membership. Members include engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, both those employed in academia and those working in industry. The society supports educational institutions promoting applied mathematics.

SIAM is one of the four member organizations of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics.

Membership

Membership is open to both individuals and organizations. By the end of its first full year of operation, SIAM had 130 members; by 1968, it had 3,700.

Student members can join SIAM chapters affiliated and run by students and faculty at universities. Most universities with SIAM chapters are in the United States (including Harvard and MIT), but SIAM chapters also exist in other countries, for example at Oxford, at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and at Peking University. SIAM publishes the SIAM Undergraduate Research Online, a venue for undergraduate research in applied and computational mathematics. (SIAM also offers the SIAM Visiting Lecture Program, which helps arrange visits from industrial mathematicians to speak to student groups about applied mathematics and their own professional experiences.)

In 2009, SIAM instituted a Fellows program to recognize certain members who have made outstanding contributions to the fields that SIAM serves.

Activity groups

The society includes a number of activity groups (SIAGs) to allow for more focused group discussions and collaborations. Activity groups organize domain-specific conferences and minisymposia, and award prizes.

Unlike special interest groups in similar academic associations like ACM, activity groups are chartered for a fixed period of time, typically for two years, and require submitting a petition to the SIAM Council and Board for renewal. Charter approval is largely based on group size, as topics that were considered hot at one time may have fewer active researchers later.

Current Activity Groups:

  • Algebraic Geometry
  • Analysis of Partial Differential Equations
  • Applied and Computational Discrete Algorithms
  • Applied Mathematics Education
  • Computational Science and Engineering
  • Control and Systems Theory
  • Data Science
  • Discrete Mathematics
  • Dynamical Systems
  • Financial Mathematics and Engineering
  • Geometric Design
  • Geosciences
  • Imaging Science
  • Life Sciences
  • Linear Algebra
  • Mathematical Aspects of Materials Science
  • Mathematics of Planet Earth
  • Nonlinear Waves and Coherent Structures
  • Optimization
  • Orthogonal Polynomials and Special Functions
  • Supercomputing
  • Uncertainty Quantification

Prizes and recognition

SIAM recognizes applied mathematician and computational scientists for their contributions to the fields. Prizes include:

  • Germund Dahlquist Prize: Awarded to a young scientist (normally under 45) for original contributions to fields associated with Germund Dahlquist (numerical solution of differential equations and numerical methods for scientific computing).
  • Ralph E. Kleinman Prize: Awarded for "outstanding research, or other contributions, that bridge the gap between mathematics and applications...Each prize may be given either for a single notable achievement or for a collection of such achievements."
  • J.D. Crawford Prize: Awarded to "one individual for recent outstanding work on a topic in nonlinear science, as evidenced by a publication in English in a peer-reviewed journal within the four calendar years preceding the meeting at which the prize is awarded"
  • Jürgen Moser Lecture: Awarded to "a person who has made distinguished contributions to nonlinear science".
  • Richard C. DiPrima Prize: Awarded to "a young scientist who has done outstanding research in applied mathematics (defined as those topics covered by SIAM journals) and who has completed his/her doctoral dissertation and completed all other requirements for his/her doctorate during the period running from three years prior to the award date to one year prior to the award date".
  • George Pólya Prize: "is given every two years, alternately in two categories: (1) for a notable application of combinatorial theory; (2) for a notable contribution in another area of interest to George Pólya such as approximation theory, complex analysis, number theory, orthogonal polynomials, probability theory, or mathematical discovery and learning."
  • W. T. and Idalia Reid Prize: Awarded for research in and contributions to areas of differential equations and control theory.
  • Theodore von Kármán Prize: Awarded for "notable application of mathematics to mechanics and/or the engineering sciences made during the five to ten years preceding the award".
  • James H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing: Awarded for "research in, or other contributions to, numerical analysis and scientific computing during the six years preceding the award".

John von Neumann Lecture

The John von Neumann Lecture prize was established in 1959 with funds from IBM and other industry corporations, and is awarded for "outstanding and distinguished contributions to the field of applied mathematical sciences and for the effective communication of these ideas to the community". The recipient receives a monetary award and presents a survey lecture at the Annual Meeting.

MathWorks Math Modeling (M3) Challenge

The MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge is an applied mathematics modeling competition for high school students in the United States. Scholarship prizes totaled $60,000 in 2006, and have since been raised to $150,000. It is funded by Mathworks. Originally, the prize was sponsored by the financial services company Moody's and known as the Moody's Mega Math Challenge.

Leadership

The chief elected officer of SIAM is the president, elected for a single two-year term. SIAM employs an executive director and staff.

The following people have been presidents of the society:

  • William E. Bradley, Jr. (1952–1953)
  • Donald Houghton (1953–1954)
  • Harold W. Kuhn (1954–1955)
  • John Mauchly (1955–1956)
  • Thomas Southard (1956–1958)
  • Donald Thomsen, Jr. (1958–1959)
  • Brockway McMillan (1959–1960)
  • F. Joachim Weyl (1960–1961)
  • Robert Rinehart (1961–1962)
  • Joseph P. LaSalle (1962–1963)
  • Alston Householder (1963–1964)
  • J. Barkley Rosser (1964–1966)
  • Garrett Birkhoff (1966–1968)
  • J. Wallace Givens (1968–1970)
  • Burton Colvin (1970–1972)
  • C. C. Lin (1972–1974)
  • Herbert Keller (1974–1976)
  • Werner Rheinboldt (1976–1978)
  • Richard C. DiPrima (1979–1980)
  • Seymour Parter (1981–1982)
  • Hirsh Cohen (1983–1984)
  • Gene H. Golub (1985–1986)
  • C. William Gear (1987–1988)
  • Ivar Stakgold (1989–1990)
  • Robert E. O’Malley, Jr. (1991–1992)
  • Avner Friedman (1993–1994)
  • Margaret H. Wright (1995–1996)
  • John Guckenheimer (1997–1998)
  • Gilbert Strang (1999–2000)
  • Thomas A. Manteuffel (2001–2002)
  • James (Mac) Hyman (2003–2004)
  • Martin Golubitsky (2005–2006)
  • Cleve Moler (2007–2008)
  • Doug Arnold (2009–2010)
  • L. N. Trefethen (2011–2012)
  • Irene Fonseca (2013–2014)
  • Pamela Cook (2015–2016)
  • Nicholas J. Higham (2017–2018)
  • Lisa Fauci (2019–2020)
  • Susanne Brenner (2021–2022)
  • Sven Leyffer (2023–2024)

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Sociedad de Matemáticas Aplicadas e Industriales para niños

kids search engine
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.