Israel Mathematical Union

The IMU represents Israel's professional community of mathematicians and works to encourage advanced mathematical research and teaching. Its principal activities include organizing an annual meeting, maintaining relationships with mathematical societies abroad, and sending national student teams to international mathematics competitions.[1][3]

The Union also administers membership programs and participates in reciprocal or institutional relationships with major international mathematical organizations.[6][7]

The Israel Mathematical Union was established in 1953.[1] Its existence is documented as early as 1954 in an Israeli State Archives register, which lists the organization in Jerusalem under storage unit ג, container 14095, item 3.[2]

By 1955, the IMU was assisting in the publication of גליונות מתמטיקה ופיסיקה לנוער הלומד ולחובבים, a Jerusalem periodical on mathematics and physics for students and enthusiasts. Edited by Zvi Shor, it appeared four times a year; documented issues include volume 1, issue 5 from June 1955 and issue 6 from September 1955.[8]

The Union's historical resources place its development within the broader history of Israel's mathematical community. They include Edmund Landau's 1925 lecture at the inauguration of the Einstein Institute of Mathematics, a historical study of the institute at the Hebrew University, and material on Scripta Universitatis, described as the first mathematical research journal with articles in Hebrew.[9]

The IMU is the professional association of mathematicians in Israel, and its officers typically change every two years.[1] For 2025–2026, its administration is based at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan; the listed officers are President Mina Teicher, Secretary Michael Schein, and Treasurer Jonathan Beck.[1] Its mailing address is the Department of Mathematics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002.[10]

Membership is open to mathematicians residing outside Israel as well as within the country.[6] The listed annual fees are 220 ILS for standard IMU membership and 400 ILS for joint IMU–European Mathematical Society membership. Reduced rates apply to retired, adjunct, and college faculty—110 ILS and 290 ILS, respectively—and to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers—55 ILS and 155 ILS, respectively.[6] Joseph Bernstein has been a member since 1994.[11]

Eliezer Rowan served as the Union's president in 2011, while Alex Lubotzky held the position in 2019.[12][13]

The IMU's most prominent award is the Erdős Prize, named for Anna and Lajos Erdős and awarded to an Israeli mathematician aged 40 or younger working in pure mathematics, applied mathematics, or computer science.[4] Ynet described it as the most prestigious mathematics prize granted in Israel.[4]

Elon Lindenstrauss received the prize for 2009.[5] In August 2010, he became the first Israeli recipient of the Fields Medal, receiving it at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad for research with applications to number theory.[5][14] His other distinctions included the Haim Nessyahu Prize, the 2004 Salem Prize, a 2004 European Mathematical Union prize, and the Fermat Prize of the Toulouse Mathematics Institute.[15]

In 2020, the Erdős Prize was shared by Doron Puder and Nathan Keller.[4] The prize committee cited Puder's research at the intersection of probability theory, geometric group theory, the spectral theory of graphs and manifolds, and random matrices, stating that his combination of these areas had produced breakthroughs across several fields.[4] Amir Abboud was the 2024 laureate, while Or Hershkovits and Eliran Subag were identified as the 2025 laureates.[16][17]

The IMU holds institutional or reciprocal status with several major international mathematical bodies.[7] It is a member society of the European Mathematical Society and has three representatives on the EMS Council. It is also a reciprocal society of the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, as well as an associate member of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.[7]

The Israel Mathematical Union should not be confused with the International Mathematical Union, whose congress in India hosted the 2010 Fields Medal ceremony.[15] Cooperation with overseas counterparts has also included joint programming: in 2019, the IMU's annual conference was planned to be held jointly in Jerusalem in 2021 with the annual conference of the German Mathematical Society.[13]

The published program for the IMU's 2025 meeting at Bar-Ilan University listed plenary lectures by Elon Lindenstrauss and Amnon Shashua, ceremonies for the Erdős and Nessyahu Prizes, lectures by laureates Or Hershkovits and Eliran Subag, a business meeting, and parallel sessions covering algebra, algebraic geometry, analysis, applied mathematics, combinatorics, geometry, mathematics education, probability, recreational mathematics, and set theory.[16]

The published 2024 program placed the annual meeting at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot on September 8, with a Student Talks Day on September 9.[17] It listed a plenary lecture by Mikhail Sodin, a lecture by Erdős Prize laureate Amir Abboud, a prize ceremony, a business meeting, and parallel sessions in mathematical physics, algebraic and arithmetic geometry, non-commutative algebra, history of mathematics, analysis, number theory, and operator algebras.[17]

For 2026, the Union scheduled its annual meeting for July 5–6 at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, followed by a Student Talks Day on July 7.[18] Mina Teicher, Jonathan Beck, and Michael Schein were listed as the main-meeting organizers, with Nathan Keller responsible for the Student Talks Day.[18]

In 2011, the IMU entered a public debate over Israeli mathematics education when its then-president, Eliezer Rowan, sent Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar a letter concerning what Rowan characterized as the poor quality of mathematics education in Israeli high schools.[12] The letter bore the signatures of 15 professors of mathematics, physics, and computer science. It proposed subsidized study and conditional loans for mathematics-teaching students, higher salaries for mathematics teachers with relevant degrees, and compulsory licensing requirements for mathematics teachers.[12]