Report on 2006 IUTAM General Assembly

This report was submitted by a member of the U.S. Delegation, Hassan Aref. The IUTAM report of the General Assembly may be found at http://www.iutam.net/iutam/download/GA-06-20061109.pdf.

The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics General Assembly met twice during its meeting August 11-14, 2006, in Providence, R.I., Saturday, August 12, and Sunday, August 13. The designated U.S. delegation to the IUTAM General Assembly consisted of Wolfgang Knauss (chair) Ted Belytschko, Carl Herakovich, Gary Leal and Hassan Aref. Unfortunately, Wolfgang Knauss had taken ill shortly before the meeting and so was unable to attend. Other U.S. scientists present at the meetings were Jan Achenbach (chair of symposium panel for solid mechanics), Ben Freund (president of IUTAM), Andy Acrivos (member at large) and Bruno Boley (member at large). Members of the Congress Committee were also present as observers.

Some highlights of the GA follow emphasizing items of particular interest to the U.S. mechanics community:

1. Opening of the meeting by the President

IUTAM President L. B. Freund opened the meeting promptly at 14:00. The Brown University VP for Research Clyde Bryant, a researcher in mechanics of materials, welcomed the delegates.

The minutes of the last General Assembly in Warsaw, Poland, 17-18 August, 2004, were approved by a voice vote.

2. Report by the Secretary-General

Professor Dick van Campen, Secretary-General of IUTAM gave his report. He first recalled the deaths of J. Fiszdon (Poland) and I. Imai (Japan); brief memorials were read. A moment of silence was observed.

The Secretary then gave various details concerning adhering organizations and affiliated organizations. These matters seemed mainly of concern to other nations. No immediate action items for the U.S. National Committee were noted.

The Secretary informed the GA that Prof. H. K. Moffatt, former President of IUTAM, was the new IUTAM representative in CISM (International Centre for Mechanical Sciences).

The Secretary confirmed the principle that chairs of the working parties should be rotating positions (see items 8 and 21).

Various matters related to ICSU were postponed until later in the agenda.

The Secretary reported on the successful conduct of IUTAM symposia and summer schools, and on the new practice of co-sponsoring (without financial contribution) of certain carefully selected non-IUTAM meetings.

The assessment exercise of IUTAM, completed in 2000, has now been formally closed out.

The IUTAM website is running smoothly and is helpful to both the community and the Secretary. The IUTAM newsletter has appeared twice a year since 2002. Major activities of IUTAM are described in it.

The contract to publish symposium and congress proceedings that IUTAM had with Kluwer has been taken over by Springer. After some discontinuity things seem to be working smoothly and the proceedings will be brought under the scientific citation system.

3. Report by the Treasurer on financial matters

Professor Juri Engelbrecht, Treasurer of IUTAM gave his report. IUTAM has collective assets of $411,000. The main source of income is subscription dues. Total income was $95,700 in 2005. Total income was $64,000 for the first half of 2006. A small number of adhering organizations remain seriously in arrears.

Travel for the Bureau and the Executive Committee of the Congress Committee (XCCC) to Adelaide in 2005 added up to $37,500. The allowance to the Secretary-General’s office was $23,000.

The financial state of IUTAM has remained stable in the last few years. Various questions of clarification were asked and answered by the Treasurer. The most serious was probably why IUTAM did not invest capital that was not needed for operational expenses in a more productive way.

4. Discussion on annual dues

OECD Consumer Price Index inflation data are used to set new dues by policy. Unit dues (actual and proposed) for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 were/are, respectively, USD 670, 676, 696, 710, and 726. This represents about a 2% per year increase.

There was some discussion but the GA members seemed comfortable with a rise around 2%. It was unclear whether IUTAM would levy the unit dues in Euros or USD. Currently IUTAM levies dues in USD but has most of its expenditures in Euros. This is a source of concern and financial instability.

The proposed annual dues for 2008 and 2009 were supported at the second meeting of the GA.

5. Report by the Secretary of the Congress Committee

Professor Tim Pedley, Secretary of the Congress Committee (CC), gave his report. He recalled that the main function of the CC is to assure that the four-year congresses take place and are successful.

Reports from the local organizers in Adelaide, Australia, are positive and preparations are on track.

The scientific program is also the responsibility of the CC. Nominations for various invited lectures had been solicited, the Executive Committee of the Congress Committee (XCCC) had made short lists, and the CC had made elections. At its meeting in the morning the CC had chosen opening and closing lecturers, sectional lecturers, and chairs of prenominated sessions. (The names were not disclosed since invitations have not yet been issued.)

Minisymposia topics and chairs were announced in the IUTAM newsletter. A preliminary proposal to host ICTAM2012 has been received from Montreal, Canada, and a preliminary invitation was issued at the GA from Beijing, China. The Secretary of the CC also announced that he anticipated a bid from Edinburgh, UK, later this year. The decision on the venue for ICTAM2012 will be taken at ICTAM2008.

The CC had prepared a slate for new members of the CC for election by the GA. There were 5 slots and 11 nominations. Four U.S. candidates were nominated: N. R. Sottos (U Illinois), I. Puri (Virginia Tech), C. Herakovich (U Virginia), and H. A. Stone (Harvard). Elections took place at the second meeting of the GA and, unfortunately, only one U.S. candidate was elected, viz C. Herakovich who will now be invited to join the CC.

There were comments on the logistics of paper solicitation and acceptance at IUTAM congresses.

6. Matters concerning Adhering Organizations

The Yugoslav Society had been renamed the Serbian Society.

7. Matters concerning Affiliated Organizations

CACOFD, Caribbean Congress of Fluid Dynamics, wishes to change its name and broaden its scope. This initiative is supported by the Bureau. CACOFD wants to broaden to cover all of Latin America. CACOFD has asked for affiliate status with IUTAM. The GA voted in favor of this if the Latin American adhering organizations are in favor.

The issue of ICA (International Commission on Acoustics) wanting to become a member of ICSU was discussed. IUTAM will write in support of this, although the issue is complicated.

8. Reports and preliminary discussion on Working Parties (WP)

The main issues of interest to USNC/TAM are that for WP-1 Gary Leal was proposed as chair, for WP-3 Carl Herakovich was proposed as chair, and for WP-9 Hassan Aref was proposed as chair. In all new chairs were proposed for WPs 1, 3, 5, 6 and 9. All proposals were for a single individual to be elected chair unopposed. Later Leal, Herakovich and Aref were elected chairs of the Working Parties mentioned. Non-U.S. chairs were elected for WPs 5 and 6.

On a question about how the WPs were working President Freund admitted that they were not yet working as the advocacy groups for new ideas that the Bureau had hoped.

9. Report on relations with ICSU

Keith Moffatt reported on ICSU relations based on his attendance at the 28th ICSU GA in Suzhou, China, in 2005. His report is in the IUTAM Annual Report for 2005, pp.87-90.

10. Matters concerning Inter-Union Committees
11. Matters concerning non-ICSU organizations

These agenda items were skipped.

12. Discussion on Associate Membership, including discussion on changes of Statutes

This important proposal was postponed for discussion until the second meeting.

There is a report written by Moffatt, Kambe and Aref proposing a category of “associate member” of IUTAM that would open the door to developing countries. Moffatt summarized the proposal. The GA seemed generally in favor of the proposal but felt there were details that required further discussion. A pilot program may be tried in order to gain experience with such a new category of membership.

13. Proposal for Electoral Committee

The Electoral Committee has the President as chair by statute and is nominated by the sitting Bureau to prepare a slate for Bureau membership elections in 2008. The Bureau recommended the following for the electoral committee: Leen van Wijngaarden (NL), Werner Schiehlen (Germany), Yi-long Bai (China), and Andy Acrivos (USA). The Electoral Committee thus has very seasoned representation both on the solid mechanics and the fluid mechanics side from the U.S.

The Electoral Committee selects candidates for election to the Bureau: 1 president, 1 treasurer, 1 secretary-general, and 2 candidates for each of the other 4 positions.

14. Future IUTAM Symposia. Reports from Symposia Panels
15. Future International Summer Schools on Mechanics
16. Proposal for an extra IUTAM Summer school in 2007

The fluids (and solid/fluids) proposals were discussed by D. Henningson. F7 had been downgraded to a C+. Other grades were in materials sent out to the GA delegates prior to the meeting. The Symposium panels met at the GA and adjusted a few grades.

The solids (and fluid/solids) proposals for symposia and summer schools were discussed by J. Achenbach. Proposals S.1, S.3, S.7, S.8 S.11 were rated A, S.12 now rated B+, and SS.2 had been withdrawn.

14 symposia and summer schools were ranked “A” (A or A-). IUTAM would support 15 or 16. A final decision was made (based on a vote) at the second meeting of the GA. Three of the IUTAM symposia have U.S. key organizers.

17. Appointment terms of members of Symposia Panels

There is an issue of continuity of membership (several long-term members set to rotate off at the same time) and hence consistency of evaluation criteria and practices. A proposal was made to ameliorate this.

The following individuals were proposed by the Bureau for the symposia panels: Fluids panel, K. R. Sreenivasan (USA; currently in Trieste, Italy); Solids panel, G. Stepan, Hungary. These proposals were approved.

18. Date and venue of next General Assembly meeting

The next meeting of the General Assembly will take place Tuesday-Wednesday, during the Adelaide congress, 26-27 August 2008.