A poster for the International Mathematical Union delivered during the session organized by the ICSU's World Data System at the 23rd CODATA International Conferenceb Open Data and Information for a Changing Planet -- held in Taipei on 28 - 31 October 2012. It comes with a prezi at http://prezi.com/lagth0nehum0/

1. INTERNATIONALMATHEMATICALUNIONIMUThe International Mathematical Union is a non-governmental and non-profit scientific
organization devoted to promoting the development of mathematics in all its aspects across the
world. IMU is a member of the International Council for Science – ICSU. First founded in 1920,
it was reborn after World War II in 1951. Members are countries who are represented in IMU
through Adhering Organisations. At present, the IMU includes 69 Members, 8 Associate, and 4
Affiliate Members. IMU’s governing body is the General Assembly made up of delegates,
representatives, and of the IMU Executive Committee. The permanent Secretariat, based in
Berlin, runs IMU’s day to day business, provides support for many IMU operations, and hosts the
IMU archive.
The most important activity of the IMU is to support and
assist the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM)
taking place every four years and uniting mathematicians
from all branches and from all over the world. The first ICM
took place in Zurich in 1897, the last in Hyderabad in 2010,
and the next one will be in Seoul in 2014. At the ICM
Opening Ceremony the scientific prizes of IMU are
awarded: the Fields Medals (two to four medals are given
since 1936), the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize (since 1986), the Carl
Friedrich Gauss Prize (since 2006), and the Chern Medal
Award (awarded for the first time in 2010).
The Fields Medal (often referred to as the Nobel Prize of
mathematics) recognises outstanding mathematical
achievement. The Nevanlinna Prize honours distinguished
achievements in mathematical aspects of information
science. The Gauss Prize is awarded for outstanding
mathematical contributions that have found significant
applications outside of mathematics. The Chern Medal
honours an individual whose lifelong achievements in the
field of mathematics warrant the highest level of recognition.
Awardees of the Fields Medals and of the Nevanlinna Prize
cannot be older than forty years old.
MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION The IMU keeps close
contacts to mathematics education through its International
Commission on Mathematical Instruction. This commission
is organized similarly to IMU with its own Executive
Committee and General Assembly.
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES The newly created
Commission for Developing Countries administers a
significant percentage of IMU’s budget, including grants
received from individuals, mathematical societies,
foundations, and funding agencies, spent on activities for
developing countries.
HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS The International
Commission for the History of Mathematics is operated
jointly by the IMU and the Division of the History of
Science of the International Union for the History and
Philosophy of Science.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION The
Committee on Electronic Information and Communication
advises on matters concerning mathematical information,
communication, and publishing. The IMU favours
unrestricted access to metadata and navigation, and
ultimately (embargoed) open access. The availability of
historical literature in mathematics has been a concern and
several projects are providing scans of works that are not
born digital. The current vision of a World Digital Library of
Mathematics focuses on an implementation that benefits the
developing world as well as countries with an established
scientific, mathematical and computing infrastructure. Since
its Call to All Mathematicians to Make Publications Electronically
Available in 2001, the IMU has explicitly recognised that open
access to mathematical literature would be of great
importance to research and a key to sustainability.
www.mathunion.org
IMU poster for the WDS Members' Forum, at the CODATA 2012 Conference, Taipei. Taiwan 2012. © Copyright 2012, CEIC. All Rights Reserved.
International Mathematical Union Secretariat Markgrafenstr. 32 D-10117 Berlin.
IMU EC 2011-2014
President: I. Daubechies (US), Secretary: M. Grötschel (DE), Vice-
Presidents: C. Rousseau (CA), M. Viana (BR), Members at large: M. de
León (ES), Y. Long (CN), C. Praeger (AU), V. Srinivas (IN), J. Toland
(UK), W. Werner (FR) , Ex-officio: L. Lovász (HU).