International Congress of Mathematicians
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The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest congress in the mathematics community. It is held once every four years under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize, and the Gauss Prize are awarded during the congress' opening ceremony. Each congress is memorialized by a printed learned Proceedings recording academic papers based on invited talks intended to reflect the current state of the science.
At the 1900 congress in Paris, France, David Hilbert announced his famous list of 23 open problems in mathematics, now called Hilbert's problems. At the 1912 congress in Cambridge, Edmund Landau listed four basic problems about prime numbers, now called Landau's problems. The 1924 congress at Toronto was organized by John Charles Fields, founder of the Fields Medal; it included a roundtrip rail excursion to Vancouver and ferry to Victoria.
The 1998 congress was attended by 3,346 participants. The American Mathematical Society reported that over 4,500 partipants attended the 2006 conference. The King of Spain presided over the 2006 conference opening ceremony.
