History of the EMS

You, Prof. Atiyah, have been very much involved in the establishment of the European Mathematical Society around 1990. Are you satisfied with its development since then?

ATIYAH: Let me just comment a little on my involvement. It started an awful long time ago, probably about 30 years ago. When I started trying to get people interested in forming a European Mathematical Society in the same spirit as the European Physical Society, I thought it would be easy. I got mathematicians from different countries together and it was like a mini-UN: the French and the Germans wouldn't agree; we spent years arguing about differences, and - unlike in the real UN - where eventually at the end of the day you are dealing with real problems of the world and you have to come to an agreement sometime - in mathematics, it was not absolutely essential. We went on for probably 15 years, before we founded the EMS.

On the one hand, mathematicians have more much more in common than politicians, we are international in our mathematical life, it is easy to talk to colleagues from other countries; on the other hand, mathematicians are much more argumentative. When it comes to the fine details of a constitution, then they are terrible; they are worse than lawyers. But eventually - in principle - the good will was there for collaboration.

Fortunately, the timing was right. In the meantime, Europe had solved some of its other problems: the Berlin Wall had come down - so suddenly there was a new Europe to be involved in the EMS. This very fact made it possible to get a lot more people interested in it. It gave an opportunity for a broader base of the EMS with more opportunities and also relations to the European Commission and so on.

Having been involved with the set-up, I withdrew and left it to others to carry on. I have not followed in detail what has been happening except that it seems to be active. I get my Newsletter, and I see what is going on.

Roughly at the same time as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, mathematicians in general - both in Europe and in the USA - began to be more aware of their need to be socially involved and that mathematics had an important role to play in society. Instead of being shut up in their universities doing just their mathematics, they felt that there was some pressure to get out and get involved in education etc. The EMS took on this role at a European level, and the EMS congresses - I was involved in the one in Barcelona - definitely made an attempt to interact with the public. I think that these are additional opportunities over and above the old-fashioned role of learned societies. There are a lot of opportunities both in terms of the geography of Europe and in terms of the broader reach.

Europe is getting ever larger: when we started we had discussions about where were the borders of Europe. We met people from Georgia, who told us very clearly, that the boundary of Europe is this river on the other side of Georgia; they were very keen to make sure that Georgia is part of Europe. Now, the politicians have to decide where the borders of Europe are.

It is good that the EMS exists; but you should think rather broadly about how it is evolving as Europe evolves, as the world evolves, as mathematics evolves. What should its function be? How should it relate to national societies? How should it relate to the AMS? How should it relate to the governmental bodies? It is an opportunity! It has a role to play!

Next: Apart from mathematics…

HomeNews ArchiveCalendar      Editor: Anne Marie Astad  The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters  E-mail: dnva@online.no