A message from the president / Brief words from the editor-in-chief

Dear members of the EMS,

There is a light on the horizon: the hope that the vaccination campaign will normalize the way we do our research and teaching, getting us out of the video conferences and back into the classroom. But there is still a long way to go, and it is possible that our mathematical life may continue to be different from before.

The EMS needs to find new post-pandemic procedures, and learn how to perform research and communication within the mathematics community of the future. The virtual European Congress 8ECM in Portorož will be a major test case for these new procedures. Although we will certainly miss the aspects of personal meeting and communication, it will also open new possibilities, in particular the opportunity for young mathematicians everywhere to participate in the online community life. I am looking forward to the congress, and hope that many of you will join us online.

One of the new initiatives that the EMS executive committee hopes to pursue in the future is the creation of an EMS Youth Academy. The idea is that each year, member societies will propose excellent young mathematicians just before and after their Ph.D., from among which a committee will then select young academy members for a period of four years. The members of the Youth Academy will then organise themselves, initiating new activities and also participating in the already-established EMS committees. This idea will be discussed in detail at the EMS president’s meeting on May 29, 2021, and hopefully approved at the next EMS council in 2022.

Let us make the best out of the terrible pandemic experience and move the EMS forward.

Volker Mehrmann

President of the EMS

Dear readers of the EMS Magazine,

In this issue of the EMS Magazine you can find two more articles written by 2020 EMS Prize winners, this time by Alexander Efimov and Joaquim Serra. Additionally, as usual, there are articles on a variety of topics, for instance: the one by Emmylou Haffner on the edition of Riemann’s collected works, or the article by Quentin Mérigot and Boris Thibert about mirrors, lenses and Monge–Ampère equations, among many other contributions to the usual columns on societies, research centres, or maths education.

The current issue is also the first with Donatella Donatelli as the new editor for book reviews, substituting in this role Jean-Paul Allouche who completed his second term as editor at the end of 2020.

Finally, you may have noticed that the first two issues of the EMS Magazine (Issue 119 and the current one, 120) have arrived to your mail box later than expected. I apologize for this delay and assure you that we (the editors and the EMS Press staff) are doing our best to smooth processes so that the Magazine reaches you on time in future.

Fernando Pestana da Costa

Editor-in-chief