The International Congress of Mathematicians 1994, was held in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 3-11. A total of 2536 participants from 87 countries attended together with 363 accompanying members and 77 exhibitors of publishing companies. The Congress was organized under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union by the Swiss Mathematical Society and was supported by the University Foundation of the Canton Zurich, the ETH domain of the Swiss Confederation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the City of Zurich, the Swiss Academy of Sciences and many private corporations.
The Opening Ceremony took place in the Congress Hall of Zurich in the morning of Wednesday, August 3. The President of the International Mathematical Union, Prof. Jacques Louis Lions, declared the Congress open and announced the following members of the Program Committee, wish was responsible for the scientific program of the Congress: L.Nirenberg (Chairman), S.K.Donaldson, V. Drinfield, P. de la Harpe, R. Karp, H. Kraft, A.Majda, M. Raynaud and Ya. Sinai. Then, by his proposal, Prof. Henri Carnal, the President of the Organizing Committee, was elected President of the Congress and, by proposal of the Organizing Committee, Beno Eckmann, the founder of the Mathematical Research Institute at ETH-Zurich and former Secretary of IMU, was elected Honorary President. Welcome Addresses were given by Mrs. Ruth Dreifuss, Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs, by Dr. Alfred Gilgen, Head of the Department of Education of the Canton Zurich and by Dr. Thomas Wagner, City Councillor of Zurich. The Chairman of the Fields Medals Committee, Prof. D. Mumford, announced the recipients of the Fields Medals: Jean Bourgain, Pierre-Louis Lions, Jean Christophe Yoccoz and Efim Zelmanov. Prof Eckman handed the medals and the prizes to the winners. The Chairman of the Nevanlinna Prize Committee, Prof. J.L. Lions, announced Avi Wigderson as teh recipient of the prize, which was handed again by Prof. Eckman. The Fields Medal Committee consisted of Prof. David Mumford (Chairman), J. Tits, V. Arnold, L. Cafarelli, B. Mazur, S. Varadhan, D. Sullivan, M. Kashiwara and A. Schrijver, and the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize Committee consisted of Prof. J.L. Lions (Chairman), H.W. Lenstra, R. Tarjan, M. Yamaguti and J. Matijasevic.
In the afternoon of August 3, addresses on the works of the prize winners were given. L.Caffarelli described the work of J.Bourgain, S. Varadhan the work of P.L.Lions, J.Matijasevic the work of A.Widgerson, A.Douady the work of J.C. Yoccoz and W.Feit that of E.Zelmanov. From August 4 to August 11, except for Saturday, August 7, one-hour plenary addresses were delivered in the Congress Hall in the morning (on the last day also in the afternoon) and 45-minutes section lectures in up to 7 parallel sessions were held during the afternnon in the rooms of the University and of the ETH Zurich. In total, there were 16 plenary and 148 section lectures. The speakers had been invited by the Organizing Committee according to the decisions of the Program Committee. Six invited speakers declined for different reasons and two didn't show up. In addition, there were 4 lectures invited by the International Commission on the History of Mathematics, which were scheduled along with the section lectures and 978 short communications appeared in a Book of Abstracts. Most of them and some 100 additional contributions were presented at the poster session which took place at ETH during the afternoon. There were also several informal seminars as well as a symposium organized on Thursday, August 4, by the Association for Women in Mathematics and European Women in Mathematics.
The Organizing Committee was able to support the prize winners, the officials of IMU, 19 of the invited speakers and some 200 participants from Eastern Europe. The International Mathematical Union through its Special Development Fund, paid the travel expenses of 79 young scholars from developing countries whose living expenses were covered by the Organizing Committee.
At the Closing Ceremony in the afternoon of August 11, Prof. J.L.Lions announced the new members of IMU Executive Committee and of ICMI, CDE and ICHM for the term 1995-1998 and the site or ICM98, as decided by the General Assembly in Lucern. Prof. F. Hirzebruch invited the mathematicians of the world to meet in Berlin in 1998. A banquet was offered to the participants on Friday, August 5, a classical concert by H.H.Schneeberger (violin) and G.Wyss (piano) on Tuesday, August 9 and a performance by the pantomime group Mummenschanz together with the folk music group Trio da Besto on the same evening.