Mexico: A full partner in the Banff Research Station

[Internal Webmaster]

Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 21:32:24 -0800 (PST)
From: BIRS Director <birs-director at pims.math.ca>
To: general at pims.math.ca
Subject: Mexico: A full partner in the Banff Research Station
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.60.0501162127200.9890 at cantor>
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It is a great pleasure to announce that CONACYT (National Council for 
Science and Technology of Mexico) is joining Canada's NSERC, the US 
National Science Foundation, and the Alberta Science Research Authority in 
sponsoring and funding the Banff International Research Station (BIRS) 
making it a truly North American collaborative project. In addition, the 
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) has committed substantial 
funds to support Mexican participants in BIRS activities, and will be 
sending its Vice-Rector for Research to help us make the case for the 
renewal of BIRS in the upcoming joint review by NSERC, NSF, ASRA and 
CONACYT.

We welcome Dr. Jose Antonio de la Pena (Director of the Instituto de 
Matem\'aticas at UNAM and  President of the Mexican Academy of 
Science) to the scientific leadership of BIRS.  His role in arranging, 
coordinating, and participating in, the visit of Ivar Ekeland 
(PIMS Director), Arvind Gupta (MITACS Scientific Director) and myself  as 
BIRS Scientific Director, with Mexican scientific leadership, UNAM 
senior officials and the Director General of CONACYT, was crucial to the 
success of this groundbreaking initiative. Needless to say, we are 
thrilled  by this development as we believe it to be a first step towards 
a major new era for collaborative research in the mathematical sciences in 
North America.

On another note, and following the call by the directors of PIMS, MSRI and 
MITACS, we have so far received over 550 letters of support for BIRS, 
including many compelling testimonials by BIRS participants on the impact 
of the station on their research. To all those who already wrote, we are 
extremely appreciative for your input. To those who havn't yet but still 
want to be heard, we urge you to send us your comments before the end of 
January.

********************************************************
Nassif Ghoussoub, FRSC
Scientific Director, Banff International Research Station
Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, Canada


-
General at pims.math.ca
Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
http://www.pims.math.ca