MPE2013-Net 7: February 2013 An Email Newsletter from Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 Editor: Christiane Rousseau, Centre de recherches mathématiques 1. ICSU endorses MPE2013 2. MPE Day at UNESCO on March 5 2013 3. Workshop on Mathematics of climate change, related hazards and risks 4. MPE Simons Public Lecture series 5. MPE Blogs 6. MPE2013 in Portugal 7. MPE2013 in India 8. MPE at the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) 9. MPE2013 partners 10. Posting events on the web and contributing to MPE newsletter 11. Subscribing to MPE2013-NET _____________________________ 1. ICSU ENDORSES MPE2013 The international Council of Science (ICSU) endorsed MPE2013. The International Council for Science (ICSU) is a non-governmental organisation with a global membership of national scientific bodies (120 Members, representing 140 countries) and International Scientific Unions (31 Members). ICSU’s mission is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society. It is deeply involved in supporting research on planetary issues. _____________________________ 2. MPE DAY AT UNESCO ON MARCH 5 2013 IMU together with UNESCO will host an MPE Day at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on March 5 2013 (www.mpe2013.org/mpe-day-at-UNESCO). MPE2013 has the patronage of UNESCO, and the MPE day will be opened by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. This MPE Day will coincide with the European launch of MPE2013 and with the launch of the International MPE Exhibition. The winners of the MPE competition will receive their prize on this occasion. The program also comprises a presentation of the film EXIT sponsored by the Cartier Foundation for art, a lecture by Edward Lungu (Botswana) on "Utilizing the environment to manage HIV/AIDS, a panel discussion "What can mathematics do for the planet?", and a public lecture ”Climate models: mathematical, physical and conceptual models” by Hervé Le Treut, Director of the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace. If you wish to get an invitation, then send a message to jj.ngome-abiaga@unesco.org The event will take place in the Fontenoy Builing of UNESCO, 7 place de Fontenoy, room XI, Paris 75007. ----------------------------- 3. WORKSHOP ON MATHEMATICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, RELATED NATURAL HAZARDS AND RISKS Applications are invited of a 5-day workshop that is organized as a satellite activity of the 2013 Mathematical Congress of the Americas at CIMAT in Guanajuato (Mexico) during July 29 -- August 2 2013. The workshop will bring together about 40 young researchers, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbean and a dozen distinguished scientists, each of which will give several lectures on a chosen topic. The workshop is part of the world initiative "Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013" which is endorsed by IMU (www.mpe2013.org). It is jointly organized by IMU together with the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM). It is sponsored by the International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM). It is supported by ICSU Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, by two interdisciplinary bodies of ICSU, namely IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk) and WCRP, by the US National Academy of Sciences, by the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias, and by CIMAT (Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas) in Mexico. Hopefully the workshop will be funded by ICSU. The members of the Scientific Committee are Susan Friedlander (IMU), Ilya Zaliapin (IUGG) and Paul F. Linden (IUTAM). More details and application form at: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=e9e9cebb45&e=41cab37af5 ----------------------------- 4. MPE2013-SIMONS PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES The Simons Foundation confirmed its support for a whole series of nine MPE2013-Simons Public Lectures to take place around the world. Each of the lecturers is a leading expert who will explain how the mathematical sciences play a significant role in understanding and solving some of Planet Earth’s important problems. Our community’s best expositors and champions will cover a diverse range of research topics at a level that is accessible to a mathematically sophisticated public audience. High quality videos of the lectures will be produced and placed on the website of the Simons Foundation. The first MPE2013-Simons Public Lecture was given by Simon Levin in Melbourne (Australia) on January 29 2013 as part of the Australian launch of MPE2013. The next MPE2013-Simons Public Lecture will be given by: - Emily Shuckburgh in San Francisco (USA) on March 4 2013 - Inez Fung in Cape Town (SouthAfrica) on March 26, 2013 - Ingrid Daubechies in Montreal (Canada) on April 10 2013 - Francesca Dominici in Raleigh (USA) on April 18 2013 - Rupert Klein in Berlin (Germany) on May 23 2013 - L. Mahadevan in Providence (USA) in September 2013 - Martin Nowak in Minneapolis (USA) on October 8 2013 - Emily Carter in Los Angeles (USA) on November 4 2013 ----------------------------- 5. MPE BLOGS There are now two almost daily blogs, one in English at wwww.mpe2013.org/blog/, and one in French at http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=6fd1c4ecb1&e=41cab37af5. They are running since January 1st on a variety of topics. Both blogs are looking for bloggers! Take a look and convince yourself that it is high time to submit a contribution! If you want to blog in English, send a message at blog@mpe2013.org, and if you want to blog in French, then send a message to 1jour1breve@mpt2013.fr. Australia also holds a regular blog: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=8163671c21&e=41cab37af5 ----------------------------- 6. MPE2013 IN PORTUGAL All partners of MPE2013 in Portugal work in collaboration and they maintain a national MPE website: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=324030541a&e=41cab37af5 There are six MPE2013 international partners in Portugal: International Centre of Mathematics (CIM), Portuguese Mathematics Society (SPM), Mathematics Teachers Association (APM), National Museum of Natural History and Science of Lisbon University (MNHNCUL), Science Museum of the Coimbra University (MCUC) and LUDUS Association. The Portuguese national opening of MPE2013 will take place on March 5, at Pavilion of Knowledge, Lisbon. Scientific program - CIM is organizing two conferences: MECC 2013 - International Conference and Advanced School Planet Earth, Mathematics of Energy and Climate Change, (18-28 March 2013) and DGS 2013 - International Conference and Advanced School Planet Earth, Dynamics, Games and Science, (26 August - 7 September 2013) (http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=e8d3fffd67&e=41cab37af5). SPM is organizing the SPM Summer School, to take place at the MNHNCUL in September 2013. Activities for the general public - the six partners are preparing several activities for the general public, with the purpose of raising the public awareness for mathematics of planet Earth: Exhibitions – IMAGINARY – Mathematics and Nature (MCUC), Forms and Formulas (MNHNCUL) and 360o - CIÊNCIA DESCOBERTA (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), an exhibition on Portuguese and Spanish Science during the 15th and 16th centuries. Furthermore, the MCUC and MNHNCUL will host and display modules of the MPE2013 virtual exhibition competition. Competitions - There are several national competitions publicizing MPE2013. Special days – The partners will celebrate International Earth's Day (April 22), the 94th anniversary of the observation of the total eclipse in Principe Island, which validated Einstein's Theory of Relativity (May 29), the Summer Solstice (21 of June) and the Solar Eclipse visible from Principe Island (November 3). Interdisciplinary activities - In order to involve scientists and specialists from other areas of expertise to MPE2013 activities, several national projects were created in order to promote interdisciplinary science communication to non specialist audiences. ----------------------------- 7. MPE2013 IN INDIA The main MPE2013 partner in India is The International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR). The MPE2013 activities in India began with the Srinivas Ramanujan Lectures by Andrew Majda of Courant Institute and an associated week-long discussion meeting on "Mathematical Perspectives on Clouds, Climate, and Tropical Meteorology'' during 22-26 January 2013 at the ICTS, Bangalore (www.icts.res.in/lecture/details/1631/). An upcoming MPE2013 ICTS program is on "Advanced dynamical core modeling for atmospheric and oceanic circulations'' during 18-23 February 2013 at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki, Andhra Pradesh, India. Two more such events are under planning. ICTS and TIFR Centre for Applicable Mathematics (CAM) have partnered to announce "Explore \& Exhibit: an Intercollegiate All-India Exhibition Competition'' for MPE2013 exhibition modules, along the lines of the international MPE competition. It is hoped that students, individuals, faculty, and researchers from different institutes within the country will be excited to learn about and to express in an engaging manner some of the mathematics underlying the various processes on the Planet Earth, and submit an entry to this competition. The best ideas will be shortlisted by an eminent panel of judges and selected to be awarded and showcased in an exhibition of physical and virtual modules. Such an exhibition will be hosted by ICTS towards the end of the year. ICTS and CAM are also conducting many related activities such as workshops for college students, camps for school students, public lectures to spread the awareness amongst the general public. ----------------------------- 8. MPE AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS) There will be two MPE sessions at the AAAS meeting in Boston, Feb 15-18 2013 (http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=d4d10b0346&e=41cab37af5): Mathematics of Tipping Points: Framework, Applications, and Prediction, Friday Feb 15, 1-2:30 PM and Understanding and Communicating Uncertainty in Climate Change Science, Feb 15, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM. There will be several other sessions on Planet Earth themes at the meeting, too. 9. MPE2013 PARTNERS The number of partners of MPE2013 is over 130 and continues to increase. Several of the new partners are academic partners, and decide to organize local activities in their region. Partners commit to organize scientific and outreach activities on the theme of Mathematics of Planet Earth. It is not too late to become a partner and join MPE2013: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=711600f357&e=41cab37af5 Many countries have held national launches of MPE2013 (Canada, Malaysia, UK, USA, Australia). Some countries are planning to organize their national launch on March 5 2013 at the same time as the MPE Day at UNESCO and the European launch of MPE2013. Holding a national MPE launch raises a lot of enthusiasm in the country: it alerts many members of the community including the public and the schools, who did not know about it. It is also an occasion for the researchers to learn some of the beautiful mathematical problems behind the planetary issues. ----------------------------- 10. POSTING EVENTS ON THE WEB AND CONTRIBUTING TO MPE NEWSLETTER Partners are invited to post their events on the MPE website and to build their own MPE2013 webpage. Groups of partners and countries are also invited to communicate to us information on the MPE activities they are planning, and that could be presented in one of the next newsletters. You can follow the example of Portugal. We invite you to visit regularly the Newsroom: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=bd5cd76e23&e=41cab37af5. ----------------------------- 11. SUBSCRIBING TO MPE2013-NET Click on http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=caff9940ae&e=41cab37af5 with a Web browser and go to the Newsroom and see Newsletters item to find the "Subscribe" button. You will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription, so that misuse will be minimized. MPE2013 will not use the list of MPE2013 emails for any purpose other than sending MPE2013, and will not make it available to others. Previous issues can be seen at: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=32af3e3192&e=41cab37af5 MPE2013-Net is the electronic newsletter of Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013: http://mpe2013.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f59ce33759e67baa06b045721&id=0122b4771d&e=41cab37af5