The ICIAM 2019 (International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics), the most important international conference on its topic, organized every four years in different parts of the world, was held this year in Valencia, Spain, on the Campus of Blasco Ibáñez of the Universitat de València. It was an interesting showcase to publicize the most recent advances in industrial and applied mathematics, covering interdisciplinary topics related to mathematics and other related disciplines and demonstrating its applicability to science, engineering and industry. It was also a great opportunity for young researchers and postgraduate students to discover the vast potential of applied mathematics and get in touch with leading scientists, knowing recent trends and topics. The ninth edition of this important conference was organized by SEMA (Spanish Society of Applied Mathematics), a full member of the International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), calling approximately 4,000 participants in total.

A group of members of the Center for Research in Mathematical Engineering, CI²MA, from the Universidad de Concepción, UdeC, made up by researchers Verónica Anaya, Raimund Bürger, David Mora, Luis Miguel Villada, the postdoctoral student David Zorío, traveled to that outstanding scientific congress, in addition to Rafael Ordóñez, student of the Doctoral Program in Applied Sciences with a minor in Mathematical Engineering from UdeC.

“It is very gratifying to be able to participate in events like this one in which there are people of great scientific relevance, with a giant potential, since it is in these events where one establishes connections and makes contacts and I think that is important for the development of projects in the future and of the work that one is developing here in the CI²MA”, Rafael Ordóñez said, adding that his participation – partially funded by ICIAM organizing committee- was a “very enriching experience because there are scientists from all over the world, very good plenaries, good seminars and talks, all of them related to mathematics applied to the industry”. As for his experience at CI²MA, the student emphasizes that “each day one learns more about how to improve the presentation of the results, what are the most relevant aspects of the research that should be made known and all this is an important lesson”, he emphasizes.

For his part, Luis Miguel Villada highlighted the high level of the talkers of the different conferences and mini-symposiums of the meeting, detailing that his participation was funded by the Fondecyt Project 1181511 in which he plays the role of principal investigator. In his opinion, the meeting was a great opportunity to “consolidate the research in numerical analysis that is carried out at the local level, strengthen cooperation with researchers abroad and discuss the following scientific challenges in the area, since the advances in research that have been developing in recent years in the area of Applied and Industrial Mathematics were presented, a fairly high level in regarding of the quality of researchers who participated there”, the UBB academician explained. Regarding the main achievements obtained with his participation in ICIAM 2019, Villada explains that “with the researcher Paola Goatin from INRIA Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée, we discussed and defined the scientific work plan for these following months, in the context of the NOLOCO Associate Team Project”.

All CI²MA representatives made presentations about their research work. In addition, Raimund Bürger and his colleague Stefan Diehl (Lund University, Sweden) organized the mini symposium “Sedimentation, flotation, and related processes: modeling, numeric, applications, and calibration” which included 10 talks, while David Mora and his colleague Marco Verani (Politecnico Di Milano, Italy) organized a 16 talkson this occasion, it mini-symposium entitled "Polygonal and Polyhedral Methods in Applied Mathematics". On the other hand, the collaborators of Professor Bürger from Universitat de València, Rosa Donat, Pep Mulet and Mari Carmen Martí, were part of the local organizing committee of the event. In turn, Pep Mulet managed an invitation to Raimund Bürger to make a visit at that Iberian university, which resulted in a one-month stay by the UdeC researcher, collaborating with the local research group.

In addition, in ICIAM 2019 participated an important number of graduates of the aforementioned UdeC PhD program, such as Ricardo Ruiz-Baier, academician from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), Gonzalo Rivera, from U. de los Lagos (Chile), and also two graduated from the Mathematical Civil Engineering degree at UdeC: Manuel Sánchez, who, after doing Ph.D. studies and a postdoctorate at Brown University and University of Minnesota, respectively, holds now an assistant professorship position at the Pontifical Catholic University (Chile); and Julio Careaga, currently a PhD student in Lund University (Sweden).