Why attending NMC 2020 is good

The mathematical community in The Netherlands is very diverse; it ranges from very pure, concentrating on fundamental mathematical problems, to very applied, with applications leading, but with new mathematics as the driving force.
The Netherlands Mathematical Congress (NMC) aims at all mathematicians, from pure to applied, and from junior to senior (from PhD student to chief technology officer, from high-school teacher to full professor).


Developments in research, teaching and policy making

NMC is a once-in-a-year event to learn about other areas in mathematics, potentially leading to new ideas for your own research, or to new collaborations. NMC offers a much wider view of mathematics than normally encountered at conferences. This can be very rewarding.
Besides the technical content, NMC is also very useful to learn and discuss about general developments relevant to all of us; about acquisition of research funding, recruitment of mathematics talent, teaching, publishing, and more.

Recent years, Platform Wiskunde Nederland has been active in writing vision documents, which, with the help of many, resulted in the Sector Plan Beta, which has led to many new staff positions. The latter was needed given the strong increase in mathematics student numbers over the past years. Hopefully, many of us already experience a somewhat lower teaching workload and hence more time for research.
The realization of the Sector Plan Beta shows the power of strategically joining forces, another reason to attend NMC 2020.

Inspiring programme components

Here some of the planned programme components of NMC 2020:

  1. plenary lectures by four invited top mathematicians
  2. plenary lectures by three other top mathematicians: the Beeger lecturer and the winners of the Brouwer Medal and the Stieltjes Prize
  3. a discussion session of mathematics teachers and researchers in mathematics teaching
  4. eight parallel lecture sessions, organized by: the mathematics clusters DIAMANT, GQT, NDNS+ and STAR; the NWO Gravitation Programs Quantum Software and NETWORKS; the Applied Mathematics Institute of the 4TU Federation; and researchers on the history of mathematics
  5. the exciting PhD prize competition of the Koninklijk Wiskundig Genootschap
  6. Discussions on strategy with the “Wiskundetafel” and the European Women in Mathematics, The Netherlands
  7. a speed dating event with companies, for junior researchers
  8. an exciting evening program on the board game Go, featuring a starter course and simultaneous Go with a strong Go player
  9. a buffet dinner, good lunches, drinks, and more …

Looking forward to see you at NMC 2020!


Mark van Assem, Barry Koren, Marieke Kranenburg, Wil Schilders, Rob van der Vorst