The Icelandic Mathematical Society

[摘要] The Icelandic Mathematical Society (IMS), or “Íslenskastærðfræðafélagið” as its name is in Icelandic, was founded 70 years ago on 31 October 1947. It was founded onthe 70th birthday of Dr Ólafur Daníelsson at his homeand in his honour. There were 15 founding members andeight of them were mathematicians; the others includedthree physicists, two engineers and two astronomers. Thedeclared purpose of the society was to be a platformfor Icelanders, who had a university education in mathematics or a related subject, to meet and discuss subjectsrelated to mathematics. It should be noted that in 1947,Iceland was a very backward country with just 133,000inhabitants. It had only been independent for three yearsand the dominant economies were agriculture and fishing. The University of Iceland, the oldest and largest university in Iceland, was founded in 1911 but teaching andresearch in mathematics first started in 1943 when DrLeifur Ásgeirsson was hired to the engineering department. Ásgeirsson had studied mathematics at the GeorgAugust University in Göttingen and received his Dr.rer. nat. degree from Dr Richard Courant in 1933. He ismainly known for his mean value theorem for ultrahyperbolic partial differential equations and was one of thefounders of the IMS.