Next week, our lab (CEREMADE) is celebrating the 80th birthday of our friend and colleague Ivar Ekeland with two days of talks and chats. (Registration is free.) Ivar is a leading figure in nonlinear functional analysis, calculus of variations, and mathematical economics. But also a moral beacon for many of us! He was the chairman of CEREMADE, the president of Paris Dauphine, a research chair at UBC, and the head of the Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences (managing Banff International Research Station). He wrote (and will write further) highly popular books on mathematics and is heading the sustainable development training at Dauphine.
Archive for Banff International Research Station
celebrating Ivar Ekeland⁸⁰ (24-25 Sept)
Posted in Books, pictures, University life with tags 80th birthday, Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine, Banff, Banff International Research Station, climate change, convex analysis, Hamiltonian mechanics, Ivar Ekeland, mathematical analysis, Pacific Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Paris, partial differential equations, UBC, Université Paris Dauphine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, vulgarisation on September 14, 2024 by xi'anthe year(s) with no conferences
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures, Travel, University life with tags ABC in Grenoble, Banff, Banff International Research Station, BIRS, Brussels, Denver, Mount Rundle on March 21, 2020 by xi'an
This week, Nature has an article on “A year without conferences? How the coronavirus pandemic could change research”, where the journalist predicts a potential halt to scientific conferences. Taking as example the cancelled American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting, to quote
“many of them rapidly set up platforms to hold virtual sessions for the meeting, inviting their speakers to present by webcam or to upload their presentations to online repositories. Researchers who hadn’t been in a position to fly to Denver found themselves able to participate from afar in what became the Virtual APS March Meeting.”
On this same day I should have been traveling from Brussels to Grenoble for the ABC meeting there. Instead, I had a four day virtual panel meeting from home and there is no virtual version of the ABC in Gre[e]noble workshop. As no one seemed particularly eager to animate a few local talks with no guarantee of spectators. As things deteriorated to home confinement, it was actually better not to spend more efforts on the project. Since this confinement is bound to last much longer, it would however become more obvious that the community and the academic societies need plan virtual conference and invent different channels to gather members and disseminate innovation.
a la casa matemática de Oaxaca [reminiscence]
Posted in Mountains, Running, Travel, University life with tags Banff, Banff International Research Station, Casa Matemática Oaxaca, Highlands, Hotel los Laureles, Mexico, Oaxaca, Oaxaca gastronomia, San Sebastian de Tutla, stray dogs, Unesco World Heritage List on December 2, 2018 by xi'an
As this was my very first trip to the CMO part of CMO-BIRS, as opposed to many visits to BIRS, Banff, here are my impressions about this other mathematical haven, aka resort, aka retreat… First definitely a very loooong trip from Paris (especially when sitting next to three drunk women speaking loudly the whole trip, thankfully incomprehensibly in Russian!), with few connections between Mexico City [airport] and Oaxaca, adding [for me] a five and a half hour stay over in the airport, where I experimented for the first time a coffin-like “sleep pod” hostel and some welcome rest. But presumably an easier access compared with Calgary for mathematicians from the South and East of the USA. And obviously for those Central and from South Americas.
Then, contrary to Banff, the place for the Casa Matemàtica Oaxaca is for the time being essentially a permanently booked hotel, rather than a dedicated conference centre. Facilities are thus less attuned to visiting mathematicians, like missing real desks in bedrooms or working rooms. Still a nice with a very peaceful inner yard (and too small a pool to consider swimming). Actually facilitating interactions when compared with Banff: blackboards in the patios, tables outside, general quiet atmosphere (except for the endlessly barking dogs in the neighbourhood). Of course the huge difference in the weathers between both places does matter. Paradoxically (given the size of Oaxaca City), CMO is more isolated than BIRS, where downtown is a mere five minute walks, even in the middle of winter. Except for the occasional blizzard. But Oaxaca offers a fabulous food scene worth the longer trip!
As for outdoors, there is also a swimming pool (Cina). And back streets to run on, even though the presence of stray dogs in about every road making running broken and haphazard (never run by a dog!, which is my rule since a tiny but angry dog bit my ankle in Caracas!). Running splits up hill a few times every morning was great training! There is furthermore the possibility of sport climbing in nearby San Sebastian de Tutla, as I experienced with Aventours, a local guiding company. And bouldering in an even closer gym.
Rundlestone Session
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Travel, Wines with tags ale, alpine climbing, Banff, Banff International Research Station, beer, BIRS, Canadian Rockies, Mount Rundle, Rundlestone, The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company on May 20, 2017 by xi'an
Ellesmere Island [jatp]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags Arctic, Banff, Banff International Research Station, BIRS, Canada, Ellesmere Island, ice, jatp, Nunavut, Queen Elizabeth Islands, Umingmak Nuna on February 21, 2017 by xi'an
