Guidelines for Preparing a Minisymposium Proposal

What is a Minisymposium?

A minisymposium is a session of coordinated presentations on a single topic of substantial current interest and importance in mathematics and its applications. It is normally two hours long. Minisymposia organizers should check the conference submissions web page of the conference to which they plan to submit for information on the length and number of talks in each minisymposium.

In conducting the minisymposium, the session organizer should provide an overview of the minisymposium, introduce the speakers, and provide an opportunity for discussion among the speakers and the audience. The organizer may also be the chair and one of the speakers.

Organizing a Minisymposium

Those interested in organizing a minisymposium must submit a proposal by the published deadline. Organizers will select the topics to be addressed, obtain speakers for those topics, decide with each speaker on the title of his/her presentation, and provide other information as needed.

Organizers are especially encouraged to include speakers from more than one country and from underrepresented groups, including women and minorities, whenever appropriate.

SIAM and the conference Organizing Committee will not be able to waive the registration fee for minisymposium organizers and speakers, or reimburse their expenses. Therefore, organizers should make no financial commitments on behalf of SIAM to speakers when organizing their minisymposium.

Recommendations for Selecting Minisymposium Speakers:

1. Speakers should be selected primarily for their current contributions to the topic area.
2. Speakers should be as representative of researchers in the area as is practical.
3. Minisymposium organizers should select the first speaker based on one who can provide an overview of the topic area, put the whole area in perspective, particularly with regard to applications, and suggest new venues for continued research and application. A minisymposium organizer may speak in the minisymposium he or she is organizing.
4. Minisymposium organizers are encouraged to include women and members of underrepresented minorities as speakers whenever appropriate.
5. SIAM discourages minisymposia in which most of the speakers come from the same organization or if all co-authors on the papers being presented in a minisymposium are from the same organization.

Preparation of the Proposal

The Minisymposium Organizer should provide the following information:

• Title: Describe the subject of your minisymposium as accurately and specifically as possible in not more than 10 words.
• Organizer: Provide your full name, affiliation, country and, email address.
• Summary: Describe your minisymposium in no more than 1,500 characters, including spaces. The summary should be written to attract those who specifically work on your topic as well as those who work in related areas. Based on experience, we suggest the following outline:
  1. Explain the problem area to be addressed by the speakers and why it is important in significant applications.
  2. Identify current directions of research and methods being developed to solve problems, including their advantages and shortcomings.
  3. Describe the scope of your minisymposium.
• Speakers: Provide the full name, affiliation, and email address of each speaker and the title of his/her presentation. Presentation titles and abstracts should be added to the Conference Management System by the presentation abstract deadline. The Conference Management System will re-open for updates after the program schedule is complete.

If you wish to organize a minisymposium, please go to the appropriate conference web page listed at our Conference Calendar.