ICM2002 Beijing

At the 10^th General Assembly of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) held in California in 1986, the Chinese Mathematical Society, in combination with Mathematical Society Located in Taipei, China, became successfully an IMU member. At present Zhiming MA (the ex-president of CMS) serves as a member of IMU Executive Committee.

The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is held every four years and is under the auspices of the International Union (IMU). The Chinese Mathematical Society, with the support of Chinese government, succeeded in bidding and successfully hosted the Beijing 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM2002). ICM2002 was the first time that an ICM was held in a developing country and the first ICM in 21^st century. The ICM2002 was the largest ICM ever held with more than 4000 registered participants from 104 countries and regions, giving the fact once again that Chinese mathematicians are strong enough to truly prepare themselves to perform actively in the international mathematical stage.

The opening ceremony of ICM2002 was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 20, 2002. The president of China JIANG Zemin and some other top governmental officials were present the ceremony. The ceremony was presided over by MA Zhiming, the chairman of the organizing committee, who was the president of CMS. The president of IMU, J. Palis delivered the opening speech. Invited by J. Palis, JIANG Zemin presented the Fields Medals to Laurent Lafforgue and Vladimir Voevodsky.

In ICM2002, there were 20 plenary one-hour talks, 174 forty-five-minute talks, 1100 fifteen-minute talks and over 90 posts. During ICM2002, WU Wentsun, J. Nash, M. Poovey and S. Hawking each delivered a general public talk. Before ICM2002, a total of 46 satellite conferences drew about 4000 participants from all over the world, which covered all the fields of mathematics.