Nobody will care if the conference isn’t held in Philly. Holding it elsewhere will probably make it a little easier and possibly a little cheaper for people to attend. I doubt mathematicians are part of the 1%, so cash and travel hassle should matter. And given today’s Internet, there’s going to be remote attendance which can happen most anywhere.
While it’s still convenient to gather together to discuss a field, it’s not crucial as it was in past times. Easier to do what’s best for the largest number of people.
I'm going to guess that for many signers-- or at least the US ones-- their opposition to the United States and "its unbridled hatred" doesn't extend to not accepting funding from the US taxpayer.
Entry requirements and the overhead of dealing with visa hoops are a perennial problem for international conferences, nothing new-- and presumably a part of why it hasn't been held in the US in recent memory. But the language on this petition is particularly extreme.
"The petition follows months of trepidation about the congress within the math community. “You do not get 1,500 signatures in 10 days without having many, many mathematicians already registering their complaints to their professional societies and to the ICM organizers,” says Ila Varma, a mathematician at the University of Toronto and one of the petition’s co-authors."
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ICM's peak attendance is around four thousand, so 1,500 would-be attendees signing a petition to move the conference in ten days is pretty authoritative.
There are many researchers who already avoid US conferences. The risk of arbitrary arrest, being denied entry, or general asshattery from border guards who want to snoop through your social media is just too high. The needless and unjustified war against Iran is just the final straw.
> The petition cites the 2022 decision by the ICM’s organizing body, the International Mathematical Union (IMU), to move the last congress out of Saint Petersburg, Russia, in response to the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier that year. The event was moved mostly online, with a small in-person awards ceremony held in Helsinki, Finland.
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> “Holding the ICM in the United States, after it started two illegal wars, represents a double standard, given that, practically immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, the ICM in Russia was canceled,” says Michael Harris, a mathematician at Columbia University. Harris is a scheduled panelist for the conference, though he is listed by the petition as an ICM speaker who shares its values.
The logic checks out. Must have some logician signatories.
Not to mention the risk of getting blocked at customs or arrested by ICE.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 34.0 ms ] threadWhile it’s still convenient to gather together to discuss a field, it’s not crucial as it was in past times. Easier to do what’s best for the largest number of people.
https://theconversation.com/calls-for-a-boycott-of-the-2026-...
Entry requirements and the overhead of dealing with visa hoops are a perennial problem for international conferences, nothing new-- and presumably a part of why it hasn't been held in the US in recent memory. But the language on this petition is particularly extreme.
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ICM's peak attendance is around four thousand, so 1,500 would-be attendees signing a petition to move the conference in ten days is pretty authoritative.
[1] https://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/meetings/national/jmm20...
The logic checks out. Must have some logician signatories.
Not to mention the risk of getting blocked at customs or arrested by ICE.