The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) was held in Rio de Janeiro from August 1st to 9. This major gathering takes place every four years. It is where the Fields Medals are awarded, among other honors. They are often—wrongly—compared with the Nobel Prize, although they recognize mathematicians under 40 and are awarded only once every four years. Above all, the congress gives more than three thousand mathematicians from across the globe an opportunity to meet and exchange ideas; 114 nationalities were represented.
This was the first congress to be held in the Southern Hemisphere… which meant that the weather was rather cool and a little damp. Given the scorching summer in Europe, that was not necessarily unpleasant. Besides the presentation of prestigious awards, there were also—and above all—numerous talks: some were "plenary" talks, while others were "invited" talks held in parallel sessions. There were also other, shorter presentations, either as posters or as talks for the general public, such as Étienne Ghys's lecture on the geometry of snowflakes—in Portuguese!—and Cédric Villani's on determining the age of the Earth. Both can be found on the ICM2018 YouTube channel. Round-table discussions also covered many issues affecting the mathematical community, including publishing and open access, developing countries and popularization… Everything was extremely well organized, even though the conference hall originally booked for the event was struck by a spectacular fire just two days before it began. The organizers found a solution in record time: hats off to them!
Fields medals and the Nevanlinna prize ---------------------------------------
The suspense was short-lived: as tradition dictates, the names of the Fields medalists and the winners of the other prizes were announced on the very first day. Few were surprised to hear the name of the prodigious German mathematician Peter Scholze. A specialist in number theory and algebraic geometry, he has established numerous results in the Langlands program. Born in Dresden in 1987, he was exceptionally appointed as a professor at the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics in Bonn at the age of 25.