Minisymposium Proposal

An ICIAM minisymposium proposal requires a title and a short abstract or description (to be printed in the program) plus a short justification (only accessible by the referees and the congress organizers). Additionally, an area of research, a subarea of research, and a socio-economic code have to be specified; lists of these classifications are given in Sections 17 and 18, respectively.

In addition to the main organizer there may be up to two co-organizers. Both organizers and co-organizers are identified by the system via their login name, so their personal data has to be entered on the preregistration page before the proposal can be made here. However, an organizer may preregister the co-organizers if they have given their consent. They will automatically be informed by email about this action.

Title and abstract may contain L^ATEX macros (including those provided by the packages amsmath and amssymb), but do not define your own macros. The abstract is restricted to 2000 characters and may not contain any figures. Use labelled equations only when absolutely necessary, and if so, use labels that are unlikely to be used by another author (such as, e.g., \label{MullerPeteR11}).

The justification should, in particular, contain a list of suggested speakers, their affiliations, and tentative topics of their talks. Titles and abstracts of the minisymposium talks can be submitted at a later stage by the speakers themselves. This will require that the speakers and their coauthors are preregistered.

Each minisymposium consists of either one session (four talks of 30 minutes [incl. discussion]) or two sessions (eight talks of 30 minutes [incl. discussion]).

A participant may organize several minisymposia, but should speak only in one of them. He or she may also speak in another minisymposium that is organized by somebody else. More precisely, in order to give many different persons the possibility to present their results, and still keep the number of parallel events as low as possible, the following restrictions are imposed:

• A person can give only one talk in (possibly several) minisymposia organized by the same organizer.
• To promote the organization of minisymposia by more than one organizer, this restriction is to be interpreted as follows: If A (main organizer) and B organize a minisymposium on Topic Q, and B (main organizer) and A organize a minisymposium on Topic R, then A and B are allowed to speak in both minisymposia.
• If in addition A organizes a minisymposium on Topic S, then A and B are not allowed to speak there (if they speak in the minisymposium on Q).
• If the minisymposium on Topic Q covers four hours rather than two, that is, consists of Parts I and II, then A (or B) is only allowed to speak in either Part I or Part II.

Here are some additional minisymposium guidelines (adapted from SIAM's):

• A minisymposium is a session of four (or, possibly, eight) coordinated presentations on a single topic of substantial current interest.
• In conducting the minisymposium, the session organizer should provide an overview of the minisymposium, introduce the speakers, and provide an opportunity for discussion among the speakers and the audience. The organizer may also be the chair and one of the speakers.
• Organizers will select the topics to be addressed, obtain speakers for those topics, decide with each speaker on the title of his/her presentation, and provide other information as needed.
• Organizers are especially encouraged to include speakers from more than one country and from underrepresented groups, whenever appropriate.
• ICIAM and the conference organizing committee will not be able to waive the registration fee for minisymposium organizers and speakers, or reimburse their expenses. Therefore, organizers should make no financial commitments on behalf of ICIAM to speakers when organizing their minisymposium.
• Minisymposium organizers should seriously consider the following recommendations when selecting speakers in a minisymposium.
  1. Speakers should be selected primarily for their current contributions to the topic.
  2. Speakers should represent the current research in the area as broadly as possible.
  3. The first speaker should provide an overview of the topic, put the whole area in perspective, also with regard to applications.
  4. ICIAM discourages minisymposia in which most of the speakers or all the coauthors come from the same organization.

The deadline for ICIAM minisymposium proposals has been extended to 10 October 2006. Proposals that were submitted by 31 August 2006 get evaluated by 30 September, those that are submitted by the extended deadline of 10 October get evaluated by 31 October 2006.