International Relations
At the international level, the Catalan Society of Mathematics is a full member of the European Mathematical Society (European Mathematical Society, EMS) and is represented in the International Mathematical Union (IMU) through its membership in the Spanish Committee of Mathematics (CEMAT).
It is represented at the International Centre for Pure and Applied Mathematics (CIMPA), an organization dedicated to cooperation, and is a member of the European Women in Mathematics association (European Women in Mathematics, EWM).
It also has direct representation in the Kangourou sans Frontières association (Kangourou sans Frontières, AKSF) as the holder of the Kangaroo Test in Catalan-speaking territories and coordinates its implementation in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Country.
In Catalonia, the SCM has organized the’Catalan Mathematical Olympiad since the 1970s, which is the Catalan phase for qualifying for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
European Mathematical Society (EMS)
The European Mathematical Society (EMS) is the international reference for the SCM. It is a full member with equal rights and obligations as the rest of the mathematical societies in Europe and has always played an active and positive role.
To exemplify the commitment to the EMS, we can highlight that in 2000 Barcelona hosted the Third European Congress of Mathematics (3ECM), and that in the period 2011-2014 Professor Marta Sanz-Solé, a member of the SCM, served as its president. We can add that Catalonia has been the venue for meetings of various EMS committees.
Each of the societies that make up the EMS has a correspondent or contact person both to convey the activities carried out by the territorial societies to the EMS and for the EMS to publicize the activities promoted at the European level. Previously, Eva Miranda and Martí Lahoz collaborated in this role, and currently the correspondent is Judit Chamorro (UAB).
The EMS periodically publishes the magazine EMS Newsletter, in which members receive information about the Society's activities.
It is important that SCM members also become EMS members, as this institution allows mathematics to have a voice in European institutions, which are increasingly important and influential, and in scientific policies (education, research, and transfer) at the European level.
The SCM has a reciprocity agreement with the EMS, so that the EMS fee is reduced by half. Check it at You can become a member via link.
For undergraduate or doctoral students in mathematics, we can manage a letter of recommendation so that they can become free members of the European Mathematical Society (EMS). Contact the Secretariat of the SCM.
International Mathematical Union
The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is the highest-ranking scientific organization or institution in the field of mathematics at the international level. The main objectives of this organization are to promote international cooperation in mathematics, to promote and organize the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) every four years, and to foster and support other international mathematical activities that are considered to contribute to the development of mathematical science in any of its aspects (pure, applied, education, etc.). During each ICM, the IMU awards, among other prizes, the prestigious Fields Medals, undoubtedly one of the highest-level awards in mathematical research worldwide.
The IMU is not a mathematical society in the sense that it does not have individual members. Its members are the countries of the world that wish to join and that, through their universities and institutions, maintain a consolidated activity in the field of mathematics. Each member state is represented by an adhering organization, which is usually the main academy of sciences or mathematical society of the country in question, or some other institution, group of institutions, or state agency that assumes these functions. In our case, Catalonia cannot be a member of the IMU because it does not have a state behind it, and the Catalan Society of Mathematics is part of it through the Spanish Committee of Mathematics (CEMAT), the Spanish adhering organization, of which the SCM is a member on equal terms with the other Spanish mathematical societies.