[ICMI-News] ICMI News 13: December 2009

J Carvalho e Silva jaimecs at mat.uc.pt
Thu Feb 11 12:39:44 CET 2010


ICMI News 13: December 2009

A Bimonthly Email Newsletter from the 
ICMI-International Commission on Mathematical 
Instruction
Editor: Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Dep. Matematica, 
Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

CONTENTS

1. Editorial: Some views of ICMI at the crossing of two ECs
2. New Terms of Reference for ICMI
3. CIAEM becomes an Affiliate Organization of ICMI
4. CIAEM-IACME
5. Some update on ICME-12
6. A new ICMI EC is taking charge
7. Request from the European Mathematical Society
8. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community
9. Subscribing to ICMI News

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1.  Editorial: Some views of ICMI at the crossing of two ECs

As this is the last editorial to appear in ICMI 
News under the current ICMI Executive Committee, 
whose term of office ends with this year 2009, we 
felt appropriate for the two of us to prepare a 
joint note reflecting our common vision of some 
recent developments in the life of ICMI -- 
developments which point to what we consider to 
be a promising future.

We wish to stress at the outset that during the 
last three years, this EC, pursuing the work of 
the previous ICMI EC and in faithfulness to the 
values of ICMI, has tried to contribute to the 
improvement of mathematics education worldwide by 
fostering collaboration and exchange between all 
those with professional interest in mathematics 
education -- mathematicians, mathematics 
educators, teachers, teacher educators... -- and 
promoting values of international solidarity.

These last three years have been marked by a 
series of important events for ICMI, in 
particular the celebration in March 2008 of the 
ICMI centennial in Roma, as well as in July 2008 
the first ICME congress to be organised in 
Latin-America.  The ICMI Study programme was also 
a very vigorous component of ICMI actions, with 
the holding of the conferences for two ICMI 
Studies (# 18 on Statistics Education and # 19 on 
Proof and Proving in Mathematics Education), the 
publication in the New ICMI Study Series (NISS) 
of the volumes resulting from four Studies (## 
14, 15, 16 and 17), and the launching of two new 
Studies: the EIMI Study (# 20) on Educational 
Interfaces between Mathematics and Industry, in 
collaboration with ICIAM, whose conference will 
be held in Lisboa next April, and the Study on 
Mathematics Education and Language Diversity (# 
21) whose Discussion Document is very soon to be 
issued.  The preparation of ICME-12, to be held 
in July 2012 and for the second time in Asia, is 
now intensively on its way and the ICME-12 IPC 
had its first meeting last June in Seoul.  To 
this must be added the specific conferences and 
activities organized by the five ICMI Affiliated 
Study Groups, which have substantially 
contributed to help ICMI achieve its mission.

In order to improve ICMI communication, the 
bimonthly e-newsletter ICMI News has been 
launched two years ago and the ICMI website 
revamped earlier this year.  Moreover an ICMI 
historical website has been realized by a group 
of Italian colleagues.  A revised contract has 
been concluded with Springer, that now allows 
making the outcome of the ICMI Studies published 
in the NISS Series freely accessible to everyone 
after three years only, and a Digital Library has 
been established, accessible through the ICMI 
website.

Recent ECs have put a lot of energy in 
strengthening ICMI regional networks and we are 
pleased to see these efforts now be rewarded, 
especially in Africa.  The links between ICMI and 
UNESCO, which once were quite intense but had 
weakened over recent decades, are now effective 
and productive again.  In particular, UNESCO is 
currently publishing a document on the challenges 
of mathematics and sciences education in basic 
education, whose redaction one of us (M.A.) has 
been asked to pilot for the mathematical part, 
and to which the ICMI community has substantially 
contributed.  Links and collaboration with our 
mother institution IMU have also strengthened and 
we have launched jointly the ambitious Felix 
Klein project, whose enthusiastic reception by 
the community is extremely stimulating.

Finally, the ICMI Terms of Reference have very 
recently been substantially revised in order to 
take into account changes that had occurred in 
the governance of ICMI as well as the new status 
of Associate IMU Member recently created by IMU. 
These new Terms introduce a notion of Affiliate 
Organization, extending that of Affiliated Study 
Group and opening the way to new forms of 
international collaboration.

All these achievements are the result of 
collective work, within the ICMI EC of course, 
but more globally within the international ICMI 
community.  Without this community, its expertise 
and its commitment, ICMI would have neither 
strength nor power.  ICMI country 
representations, and sub-commissions where they 
exist, ICMI regional networks, ICMI Affiliate 
Organizations, are all essential for structuring 
this community and making it powerful.

On behalf of the 2007-2009 ICMI EC, and in 
particular on our behalf, we would like to 
express our deepest gratitude to all those who 
have brought their invaluable contribution to the 
mission of ICMI.  We are sure that, as they have 
supported our work, they will also support the 
work of the new ICMI EC, of its President, Bill 
Barton, and its Secretary-General, Jaime Carvalho 
e Silva. 

Together, we, all the members of the community 
that ICMI serves as a commission of IMU, must 
collaborate and do our best in order to make ICMI 
improve as an organization, so that it may more 
and more efficiently address the challenges that 
mathematics education faces today, as these 
challenges, despite our collective efforts and 
achievements, are far from being overcome.


Michèle Artigue, President of ICMI, artigue at math.jussieu.fr
Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI, bhodgson at mat.ulaval.ca

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2. New Terms of Reference for ICMI

Following a series of discussions between the 
Executive Committees of ICMI and of the 
International Mathematical Union (IMU), its 
mother organisation, revised Terms of Reference 
for ICMI were formally adopted by the EC of IMU 
on December 31, 2009, while the ICMI EC had 
adopted on the same day Guidelines pertaining to 
these Terms.

The new Terms of Reference of ICMI and the 
Guidelines are the result of a thorough revision 
of the previous version.  They aim at reflecting 
the evolution in the governance of ICMI so to 
ensure that all those having interest in ICMI and 
its activities clearly understand the 
distribution of duties and rights among the many 
actors involved in the life of ICMI.  With this 
revision, the ICMI Terms are now split into two 
parts: the first part is (as previously) under 
the jurisdiction of the IMU EC, while the new 
second part (Guidelines for the ICMI Terms of 
Reference) is under the jurisdiction of the ICMI 
EC.

Other changes include the following:

--  A statement related to participation to the 
ICMI General Assembly has been added to Clause 2 
to stress the importance of the Assembly, now 
responsible for the election of the ICMI EC.

--  Clause 3, about the ICMI General Assembly, 
specifies in particular that the only members of 
the ICMI GA having voting rights are the 
representatives of Full Member countries of IMU. 
Consequently, the representatives of IMU 
Associate Members or non-IMU Members of ICMI, the 
representatives of ICMI Affiliate organizations, 
and the ICMI EC members, have no voting rights at 
the GA.

--  Clause 4c stresses that co-optation on the ICMI EC should be exceptional.

--  Clause 9 introduces an important new notion, 
that of "Affiliate Organization", of which the 
current notion of "Affiliated Study Group" is 
becoming one "cas de figure".  Affiliation is now 
possible not only for groups devoted to a 
specific field of interest in mathematics 
education, like the current five ICMI Affiliated 
Study Groups, but also to multi-national 
organizations with interest in mathematics 
education.  We trust that this new element will 
be helpful in facilitating and supporting ICMI 
efforts about international collaboration and 
exchanges in mathematics education.

It is the hope of the IMU and ICMI ECs that these 
new Terms of Reference for ICMI will be a useful 
tool for ICMI and the community it serves.

The new Terms and Guidelines are accessible on the webpage
http://www.mathunion.org/icmi/about-icmi/icmi-as-an-organisation/terms-of-reference/current-terms-2009/

Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI, bhodgson at mat.ulaval.ca

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3. CIAEM becomes an Affiliate Organization of ICMI

The 'Comité Interamericano de Educación 
Matemática'  (Inter-American Committee on 
Mathematical Education) is now officially 
affiliated to ICMI, thus being the first 
multi-national mathematical education society to 
become linked to ICMI under the new scheme of 
"Affiliate Organisation" introduced through the 
revision of the ICMI Terms of Reference adopted 
by the IMU Executive Committee on December 31, 
2009.  This affiliation was approved by the 
Executive Committees of both ICMI and CIAEM.

CIAEM thus joins the five other organizations 
that were already affiliated to ICMI (under the 
umbrella of "Study Groups"):

HPM  The International Study Group on the 
Relations between the History and Pedagogy of 
Mathematics  (1976)
PME  The International Group for the Psychology 
of Mathematics Education  (1976)
IOWME  The International Organization of Women 
and Mathematics Education  (1987)
WFNMC  The World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions  (1994)
ICTMA  The International Community of Teachers of 
Mathematical Modelling and Applications (2003)

It is probably most appropriate that CIAEM 
becomes the first multi-national mathematical 
education society affiliated to ICMI under the 
new scheme introduced through the recent revision 
of the ICMI Terms of Reference.  CIAEM was indeed 
founded in 1961 at the initiative of Marshall 
Stone, who at that time was the President of 
ICMI, thus becoming the first "regional entity" 
of ICMI.  Hence ICMI was in no way indifferent to 
the birth of CIAEM, to say the least.  It may be 
of interest to note that a "Memorandum on 
affiliation of CIAEM to ICMI" was formally 
adopted by the ICMI EC when it met during the 
1974 International Congress of Mathematicians in 
Vancouver (as reported in the ICMI Bulletin no. 
5, 1975, p. 5).  However this memorandum does not 
seem to have been reflected in the ICMI Terms, 
and it is not easy to see its actual impact in 
the life of ICMI and CIAEM.  While the intensity 
of the contacts between ICMI and CIAEM may have 
varied over the years, depending possibly on the 
personality of those in charge of these bodies, 
it is clearly the common vision of both the 
current ICMI and CIAEM ECs that, following some 
efforts for a closer and more regular 
collaboration in recent years between the two 
organisations, these links are now in excellent 
health.  To use the words of  Angel Ruiz, CIAEM 
President and in-coming ICMI Vice-President, 
right now is a special moment to tighten still 
further the connections between ICMI and CIAEM 
and work together, so to foster the development 
of mathematics and mathematics education in the 
Americas, and especially Latin America.  It is 
the hope of the ICMI and CIAEM ECs that the 
status of ICMI Affiliated Organization, with the 
moral obligations for regular contact that it 
brings, will be useful in helping these links to 
remain vivid and productive over the years. 

It should be noted that the 50th anniversary of 
CIAEM will be celebrated in 2011 on the occasion 
of the XIII Conferencia Interamericana de 
Educación Matemática (XIII Inter-American 
Conference on Mathematics Education) to be held 
in Recife, Brasil (see 
http://xiii.ciaem-iacme.org).

More information about CIAEM can be accessed on the its website
http://www.ciaem-iacme.org/

or on the CIAEM page within the ICMI website
http://www.mathunion.org/icmi/about-icmi/affiliate-organizations/math-education-societies/ciaem/

The ICMI EC is currently pursuing discussions 
with two other multi-national organizations as 
regards a possible affiliation to ICMI and 
positive developments should be announced in a 
near future by the next ICMI EC.

Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI, bhodgson at mat.ulaval.ca

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4. CIAEM-IACME

The 'Comité Interamericano de Educación 
Matemática' CIAEM (Interamerican Committee on 
Math Education IACME) is a regional organization 
that has been associated with the International 
Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) 
since its inception. It shares ICMI's purpose in 
promoting research in Math Education. See 
http://www.ciaem-iacme.org. From 2010, due to new 
terms of ICMI, CIAEM is formally an affiliated 
organization of ICMI.

CIAEM was founded in 1961 by a group of 
mathematicians and math educators from the three 
Americas, led by the famous mathematician, 
Marshall Stone, from the United States, who was 
at the time the President of ICMI. The principal 
objective of CIAEM was to bring together 
educators from throughout the Americas to 
evaluate and reformulate mathematics curricula in 
general, but, especially, to promote the 
development of the countries of Latin America. 
The first Interamerican Conference on Math 
Education was held in Bogotá, Colombia, in 
December of 1961. There, the first Executive 
Committee of CIAEM was created. The second 
Interamerican Conference on Math Education was 
held in Lima, Peru, in 1966.

These first Conferences prompted a productive 
movement for Math Education in the Americas, 
despite the challenges of geography, 
communication, and, principally, the economy. 
From the beginning the Conferences have been held 
regularly: Bahía Blanca, Argentina, November, 
1972, 209 participants from 22 countries; 
Caracas, Venezuela, December, 1975, 281 
participants from 22 countries; Campinas-SP, 
Brazil, February, 1979, 569 participants from 28 
countries; Guadalajara, Mexico, November, 1985, 
180 participants from 24 countries; Santo 
Domingo, Dominican Republic, July, 1987, 316 
participants from 22 countries; Miami, USA, 
August, 1991, 141 participants from 21 countries; 
Santiago, Chile, August, 1995, 1080 participants 
from 17 countries; Maldonado, Uruguay, August, 
1999, 600 participants from 20 countries; 
Blumenau, Brazil, August, 2003, 600 participants 
from 20 countries, and, finally, in Querétaro, 
Mexico, in July, 2007, with more than 800 
participants from 25 countries.

The XIIIth Conference is going to be held in 
Recife, Brazil, in June 2011, where CIAEM will 
celebrate 50 years of life. See 
http://xiii.ciaem-iacme.org

CIAEM puts an emphasis on the academic and 
scientific quality of the event, and on the 
presentation of research results and serious 
proposals for improving Math Education.

Since its creation, the following persons have 
occupied the Presidency of CIAEM: Marshall Stone 
(1961-1972), Luis Santaló (1972-1979), Ubiratan 
D`Ambrosio (1979-1987), Eduardo Luna (1987-1995), 
Fidel Oteiza (1995-1999), Carlos Vasco 
(1999-2003), Salett Biembengut (2003-2007) and 
Ángel Ruiz (2007-2011).

In the 11th International Congress on Math 
Education (ICME 11) Ubiratan D'Ambrosio received 
the 2005 Felix Klein Medal from ICMI for his 
meritorious achievements and the results of his 
life-long dedication to Math Education.

Executive Committee
President: Ángel Ruiz (Costa Rica), angelruizz at racsa.co.cr
First Vice President: Eduardo Mancera (Mexico), eduardo_mancera at prodigy.net.mx
Second Vice President: Patrick Scott (USA), Patrick.Scott at state.nm.us
Secretary: Hernán Miranda (Chile), hmiranda at nmsu.edu
Past President: Salett Biembengut (Brazil), salett at furb.br
Member-at-Large: Hugo Barrantes (Costa Rica), habarran at gmail.com

Ángel Ruiz, President of CIAEM, angelruizz at racsa.co.cr

------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Some update on ICME-12

As announced in ICMI News 8 (February 2009), the 
International Programme Committee (IPC) for 
ICME-12 had its first meeting on June 14-17, 
2009, in Seoul under the presidency of its Chair, 
Sung Je Cho (sungjcho at snu.ac.kr).  Many decisions 
were then made about the programme, in particular 
as regards the plenary sessions and the 37 Topic 
Study Groups to be offered at ICME-12 (see the 
list below).

General information about the main programme 
components is available via the First 
Announcement, to be found on the congress website
http://www.icme12.org/.

The ICME-12 congress will be held on July 8-15, 2012, in Seoul, Korea.


LIST OF TOPIC STUDY GROUPS AT ICME-12

TSG 1 Mathematics education at preschool level
TSG 2 Mathematics education at tertiary level and access to tertiary level
TSG 3 Activities and programs for gifted students
TSG 4 Activities and programs for students with special needs
TSG 5 Mathematics education in and for work
TSG 6 Mathematics literacy
TSG 7 Teaching and learning of number systems and 
arithmetic --- focusing especially on primary 
education
TSG 8 Measurement --- focusing especially on primary education
TSG 9 Teaching and learning of algebra
TSG 10 Teaching and learning of geometry
TSG 11 Teaching and learning of probability
TSG 12 Teaching and learning of statistics
TSG 13 Teaching and learning of calculus
TSG 14 Reasoning, proof and proving in mathematics education
TSG 15 Problem solving in mathematics education
TSG 16 Visualization in the teaching and learning of mathematics
TSG 17 Mathematical applications and modelling in 
the teaching and learning of mathematics
TSG 18 Analysis of uses of technology in the teaching of mathematics
TSG 19 Analysis of uses of technology in the learning of mathematics
TSG 20 The role of history of mathematics in mathematics education
TSG 21 Research on classroom practice
TSG 22 Learning and cognition in mathematics
TSG 23 Mathematical knowledge for teaching at primary level
TSG 24 Mathematical knowledge for teaching at secondary level
TSG 25 In-services education, professional development of mathematics teachers
TSG 26 Preservice mathematical education of teachers
TSG 27 Motivation, beliefs and attitudes towards mathematics and its teaching
TSG 28 Language and communication in mathematics education
TSG 29 Gender and mathematics education
TSG 30 Mathematics education in a multilingual and multicultural environment
TSG 31 Task design and analysis
TSG 32 Mathematics curriculum development
TSG 33 Assessment and testing in mathematics education
TSG 34 The role of mathematical competitions and 
other challenging contexts in the teaching and 
learning of mathematics
TSG 35 The history of the teaching and learning of mathematics
TSG 36 The role of ethnomathematics in mathematics education
TSG 37 Theoretical issues in mathematics education

Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI, bhodgson at mat.ulaval.ca

------------------------------------------------------------------------

6.  A new ICMI EC is taking charge

As of January 1st, 2010, a new Executive 
Committee of ICMI will take charge for the period 
2010-2012.  The elected members of this EC, 
following the election which took place during 
the 2008 ICMI General Assembly held in Monterrey, 
are:

PRESIDENT:
William (Bill) Barton (New Zealand)

SECRETARY-GENERAL:
Jaime Carvalho e Silva (Portugal)

VICE-PRESIDENTS:
Mina Teicher (Israel)
Angel Ruiz (Costa Rica)

MEMBERS AT LARGE:
Mariolina Bartolini Bussi (Italy)
Sung Je Cho (Korea)
Roger Howe (USA)
Renuka Vithal (South Africa)
Zhang Yingbo (China)

According to the ICMI Terms of Reference, the 
past President of ICMI as well as the President 
and the Secretary of IMU are also members of this 
EC.

For any matter pertaining to ICMI, contact can be 
made with the incoming President or 
Secretary-General of ICMI, who can be reached at 
the following email addresses:

b.barton at auckland.ac.nz   (Bill BARTON)
jaimecs at mat.uc.pt   (Jaime CARVALHO E SILVA)


Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI, bhodgson at mat.ulaval.ca

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7. Request from the European Mathematical Society

Dear colleagues

As you may know, the European Mathematical 
Society (EMS) (http://www.euro-math-soc.eu/), 
consisting of about 50 mathematical societies in 
Europe, 20 academic institutional members, and 
many individual members has a number of standing 
committees under which the 'Education' committee 
is working to bridge the gap between mathematics 
as a field and its teaching and learning in 
society.

A new committee 
(http://www.euro-math-soc.eu/comm-education.html) 
was established this autumn; Günter Törner 
(guenter.toerner at uni-due.de) is the chair and 
Despina Potari (dpotari at math.uoa.gr) is 
vice-chair. The committee will become active from 
January 1, 2010 after Konrad Krainer 
(konrad.krainer at uni-klu.ac.at) has opened the new 
term temporarily on behalf of the Executive 
Committee of EMS.

The Committee is interested in becoming a 
platform for exchange of information, experience 
and views, and to explore issues and problems of 
significance to European mathematics education 
and promote its development everywhere.

The committee also decided to start with an 
inventory: Solid findings in mathematics 
education. We regard it helpful to identify two 
or three findings in mathematics education which 
seem to be established and thus spread the 
information to other interested groups in Europe. 
Based on the answers, possibly a small volume or 
booklet might be produced.

Your comments and hints are welcome.

Guenter Toerner, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, 
Duisburg, Germany, guenter.toerner at uni-due.de

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8. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community

International Consortium for Research in Science 
and Mathematics Education - 2010 Consultation
BlueBay Los Angeles Locos Hotel, La Manzanilla, Mexico, March 9-12, 2010
http://ehe.osu.edu/groups/icrsme/

International Symposium in the History of Science:
Mathematics meets physics - General and local aspects
Leipzig, Germany, March 22-25, 2010
http://www.saw-leipzig.de/mathsmeetsphysics

Educational Interfaces between Mathematics and Industry (EIMI)
Lisboa, Portugal, April 19-23, 2010
http://eimi.mathdir.org/

Tenth Maghrebian Colloquium on the History of Arab Mathematics
Tunis, Tunisia, May 29-31, 2010
information: mahdi.abdeljaouad at gmail.com

ICOTS8: 8th International Conference on Teaching Statistics
Data and context in statistics education: towards an evidence-based society
Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 11-16, 2010
http://icots8.org

5th International Conference on Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education
Singapore Management University, Singapore, July 13-17, 2010
information: Eileen Tan (origamiwolf at gmail.com), 
Patsy Wang-Iverson (pwangiverson at gmail.com)

PME 34 - CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP 
FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Belo Horizonte, Brazil, July 18-23, 2010
http://pme34.lcc.ufmg.br/

ESU-6 - 6th EUROPEAN SUMMER UNIVERSITY ON THE 
HISTORY AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Vienna, Austria, July 19-23, 2010
http://www.algebra.tuwien.ac.at/kronfellner/esu6/

Fourth International Conference on Ethnomathematics
Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland, July 25-30, 2010
http://icem-4.org/

EARCOME5 - The Fifth East Asia Regional Conference on Mathematics Education
Tokyo, Japan, August 18-22, 2010
http://www.earcome5.jp/

YESS-5 - FIFTH YERME SUMMER SCHOOL
Palermo, Italy, August 18-25, 2010
http://math.unipa.it/~grim/YESS-5/Home_YESS-5.html

ICM - International Congress of Mathematicians
Hyderabad, India, August 19-27, 2010
http://www.icm2010.org.in/

epiSTEME - 4:  Fourth international conference to 
review research on Science, TEchnology and 
Mathematics Education
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (TIFR), 
Mumbai, India, January 5-9, 2011
http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/episteme4

CERME 2011 - Conference of the European Society for Research in Mathematics
Rzeszow, Poland, February 9-13, 2011

ICTMT10 - 10th International Conference on Technology in Mathematics Teaching
University of Portsmouth, July 5-8, 2011
http://www.ictmt10.org/

PME 35 - CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL GROUP 
FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Ankara, Turkey, July 10-15, 2011

SEMT 11 - SYMPOSIUM ON ELEMENTARY MATHS TEACHING
Prague, Czech Republic, August 21-26, 2011
http://kmdm.pedf.cuni.cz/Default.aspx?PorZobr=7&PolozkaID=-1&ClanekID=267

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9. SUBSCRIBING TO ICMI News

There are two ways of subscribing to ICMI News:

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and go to the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to ICMI News online.

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Subject: subscribe

In both cases you will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription so
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make it available to others.

Previous issues can be seen at:
http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news

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