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Showing posts from March, 2020

Postponement of Combinatorics 2020

With great regret I announce that, due to the Coronavirus  emergency, the organizers have decided that the Conference  "Combinatorics 2020" will NOT take place 1-5 June 2020. The event is rescheduled for 31 May - 4 June 2021,  so exactly one year ahead, turning the Conference  into a "Combinatorics 2021" at Mantua (Italy). https://combinatorics2020.unibs.it/

In Memoriam Vera Pless

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Vera Pless, noted coding theorist, passed away peacefully in her home March 2, 2020. Vera Stepen was born on March 5, 1931 on Chicago's west side to a Russian Jewish immigrant family. As a teenager, she was more interested in playing the cello than in mathematics, but she left high school two years early to go to the University of Chicago, and finished her studies there in three years. Inspired by Irving Kaplansky to study abstract algebra, she stayed at the university for a master's degree, which she earned in 1952 not long after marrying her husband, a high-energy experimental physicist. She began working in physics at the University of Chicago, but soon won a fellowship to study at Northwestern University. Her husband became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Pless moved with him to Massachusetts, where she completed her doctorate from Northwestern in 1957 under the supervision of Kaplansky's student Alex F. T. W. Rosenberg,  with the Dis

2020 Annual General Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order March 11, 2020 at 11:03am during the designated session of the SouthEastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Dalibor and Sarah performed feats of ventriloquism never to be seen again using only their wits and some prepared slides. (1) Report from the President (Dalibor on behalf of Doug) ICA Executive (2019-2020) _ The ICA was established in 1990 by Ralph Stanton for the purpose of promoting the development of combinatorics and of encouraging publications and conferences in combinatorics and its applications. _ The three most important functions of the ICA are: _ publishing the Bulletin of the ICA _ supporting conferences, and _ awarding medals and honorary fellowships. _ All three of these functions have been addressed and improved in recent years, thanks to the efforts of many people (details on later slides).   Doug Stinson President 2019-2022 Dalibor Fro

2020 Annual General Meeting agenda

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Dalibor and Sarah will be acting on behalf of the remainder of the Exec.  At this time, nobody is known to be sick, but are self-quarantining as a preventative measure. (1) Report from the President (Dalibor on behalf of Doug) ICA Executive and Council (2018-2019) ICA Office Dues schedule ICA medals and honorary fellows Conference support Bulletin of the ICA ICA web pages ICA logos Ongoing and future initiatives and challenges (2) Financial and Membership Reports (Spyros) (3) Election of New Council Members and Executive (Sarah) (4) Questions and Discussion (Dalibor)