The Moscow Center for Continuous Mathematical Education supported by the Math Department of the Russian Academy of Science, the Steklov Mathematical Institute and the Moscow Department for Education holds a mathematical school which is unique both in academical staff and in participants.

Within two weeks about a hundred of participants will attend 100 lectures and seminars. The classes are longer than a school lesson, but shorter than a university lecture, they take exactly 74 minutes. Despite the fact that the summer could be very hot there were some participants who attended 3 to 4 classes a day. And judging by the programs of the previous schools one can say the words “Contemporary Mathematics” in the title are not an exaggeration.

Among the professors of the school are the leading mathematicians of the country and the corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Science, such as V.I.Arnold (1937–2010), D.V.Anosov (1936–2014), L.D.Beklemishev, A.A.Bolibrukh (1950–2003), V.M.Bukhshtaber, V.A.Vassiliev, A.A.Gaifullin, A.G.Kuznetsov, Yu.V.Matiyasevich, S.P.Novikov, D.O.Orlov, I.A.Panin, V.Yu.Protasov, A.A.Razborov, A.N.Shiryaev, professor A.A.Kirillov, S.K.Lando, A.M.Raigorodsky, S.K.Smirnov, A.B.Sossinsky, V.M.Tikhomirov, V.A.Uspensky (1930-2018), A.G.Khovansky; also the yesterday’s and today’s students who have relatively recently started their way in science (for example, A.E. Braverman, A.I. Bufetov, V.A. Kleptsyn, R.M. Fyodorov at the school-2003; Yu. Kudryashov, Yu. Pritykin, M. Raskin at the school-2009; O.Romaskevich, N.Kurnosov, I.Mitrofanov in 2014). Since the participants were absolutely free to choose the courses, they wanted to attend, the experienced speakers had to meet competition from their younger colleagues many times. And the Organizing Committee often had to correct the schedule so that the participants of the school (and quite often the professors too) were able to attend all the classes that they had chosen.

The audience make-up was quite outstanding too. Many participants of the school went through experiences of different Russian and international mathematical competitions, others were recommended by the leading teachers and scientific advisors of the universities.

Besides math the school sticks in one’s memory because of the informal communication of the young mathematical elite of Russia between themselves and with the older counterparts. The yesterday’s different levels olympiads winners and the students from the best Russian universities will long remember not just lectures and seminars but the conversations on the bench, volleyball games with the professors (V.A.Vassiliev, A.V.Arkhangelsky, A.A.Kirillov, M.E.Kazaryan), football matches (where one can try and beat A.B.Sossinsky or I.A.Panin), lawn tennis (A.A.Bolibrukh) and table tennis (I.A.Panin or M.A.Tsfasman) tournaments (who is going to believe that the professors were not invited according to this principle!), evening songs in two or three groups at the same time with unexpected “visitors” older by a generation or two.

We would like to believe that the previous schools were a success. At least many of the professors did not want to leave (sometimes they even changed their plans to stay longer at school), and the participants while answering the elaborate poll questions like “were there too many classes?” said that there were not enough of them. What is more interesting, when asked “will you come here next year?” they did not just say “sure will!” but once someone answered, “in what capacity?”

From 2001 to 2016 Vitaly Dmitrievich Arnold (1968–2017) was the heart and the head organizer of the schools. He was the one who set the unique traditions of the Summer School of the Contemporary Mathematics.

We hope that the tradition of the summer schools “Contemporary Mathematics” will continue and the summer of the next year will see the best of those committed to math spending a week and a half communicating with the best Russian mathematicians.

We take this opportunity to extend a heartfelt thank you to our friends. Without their material and moral support, it would be much more difficult for us to prepare and hold the schools. A special thank you to Dmitry Zimin Fund Dynasty, Mathematical Etudes Fund, computer market Nix and Yandex company. Thank you to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (and a number of its separate services) for annual cooperation.

A number of books and brochures were created and published as a result of the previous schools. The videos of some of the classes are available in the video archive of the website MathNet.ru.

Organization Committee e-mail:
dubna@mccme.ru