An Overview of SIAM
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is an international community of over 14,000 individual members. Almost 500 academic, manufacturing, research and development, service and consulting organizations, government, and military organizations worldwide are institutional members.
SIAM fosters the development of applied mathematical and computational methodologies needed in these various application areas. Applied mathematics in partnership with computational science is essential in solving many real-world problems. Through publications, research, and community, the mission of SIAM is to build cooperation between mathematics and the worlds of science and technology.
SIAM was incorporated in 1952 as a nonprofit organization to convey useful mathematical knowledge to other professionals who could implement mathematical theory for practical, industrial, or scientific use. Since then, SIAM’s goals have remained the same:
- To advance the application of mathematics and computational science to engineering, industry, science, and society;
- To promote research that will lead to effective new mathematical and computational methods and techniques for science, engineering, industry, and society;
- To provide media for the exchange of information and ideas among mathematicians, engineers, and scientists.
SIAM is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, staffed by more than 60 full- and part-time employees.
For a publication with information found in this section, download "About SIAM: Science and Industry Advance with Mathematics" [PDF,
History
105th meeting of SIAM Council
Inspired by the vision that applied mathematics should play an important role in advancing science and technology in industry, a small group of professionals from academe and industry met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led to the organization of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Learn more about our history by downloading "Looking Back, Looking Ahead: A SIAM History" [PDF, 660K] and a SIAM Timeline up to 2003 [PDF, 1,570K]
Publications
SIAM publishes 16 peer-reviewed journals, including SIAM Review, a quarterly journal of expository survey and education-oriented papers; SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification, all-electronic and new in 2013; SIAM Journal on Financial Mathematics, which launched in 2010 in all-electronic format and addresses theoretical developments in financial mathematics as well as breakthroughs in the computational challenges they encompass; SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences, covering all areas of imaging science, broadly interpreted; Multiscale Modeling and Simulation, focused on the fundamental modeling and computational principles underlying various multiscale models; and SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, publishing research articles on the mathematical analysis and modeling of dynamical systems and its application to the physical, engineering, life, and social sciences. Journal information can be found at www.siam.org/journals. SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO), an open-access publication for undergraduates, has published reviewed undergraduate manuscripts since 2008. SIAM News, published 10 times a year, is the newsjournal reporting on issues and developments affecting the applied and computational mathematics community. Information about SIAM News can be found at www.siam.org/news. Approximately 25 books are also published each year by SIAM. Book information can be found at www.siam.org/books.
Journals
The SIAM Journal Program began as a means of meeting one of the primary objectives for organizing the Society: to provide media for the exchange of information and ideas between mathematicians and other scientists. Since its inception in 1953, SIAM’s journal program has continued to produce quality, peer-reviewed journals that are respected and highly cited throughout the applied mathematics and computational science community.
SIAM now produces 16 journals, including four that are published in all-electronic format, and a translation of a Russian journal (TVP). Authors of the all-electronic journals are strongly encouraged to incorporate color, animated visualizations, and internal linking in their articles.
SIAM began publishing its journals electronically in 1997. Manuscripts in SIAM’s research journals are published one article at a time, in final form, up to 12 months ahead of their print counterparts. The electronic editions are the definitive editions, and abstracting and indexing services use the accelerated electronic versions as the versions of record for their coverage of SIAM’s journals.
SIAM provides two ways of accessing its electronic journal content. SIAM Journals Online (SJO) is the electronic full-text archive of all SIAM journals from 1997 through today. With SJO, full-text articles are available in PDF for subscribers; the tables of contents and abstracts can be searched and browsed free of charge by anyone with web access. Current articles are published online as soon as they are available. Locus is the electronic full-text archive for every SIAM journal article published from the journal's inception through 1996. Subscribers are encouraged to obtain access to Locus and SJO for complete access to all SIAM journal content. Subscription bundles are available for all journal archives as well as for each individual journal in both print and electronic versions.
SIAM journals, and first year of publication:
- SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics (SIAP) – 1953 Research articles that treat scientific problems using methods that are of mathematical interest. Appropriate subject areas include the physical, engineering, financial, and life sciences.
- Theory of Probability and Its Applications (TVP) – 1956A translation of the Russian journal Teoriya Veroyatnostei i ee Primeneniya, which contains papers on the theory and application of probability, statistics, and stochastic processes.
- SIAM Review (SIREV) – 1959 Consists of five sections, all containing articles of broad interest: Survey and Review, Problems and Techniques, Education, SIGEST, and Book Reviews, covering all aspects of applied mathematics and computational science.
- SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization (SICON) – 1962 Research articles on the mathematics and applications of control theory and on those parts of optimization theory concerned with the dynamics of deterministic or stochastic systems in continuous or discrete time or otherwise dealing with differential equations, dynamics, infinite-dimensional spaces, or fundamental issues in variational analysis and geometry.
- SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis (SINUM) – 1964 Research articles on the development and analysis of numerical methods. Topics include the rigorous study of convergence of algorithms, their accuracy, their stability and their complexity.
- SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis (SIMA) – 1970 Research articles of the highest quality employing innovative analytical techniques to treat problems in the natural sciences.
- SIAM Journal on Computing (SICOMP) – 1972 Coverage of the most significant work going on in the mathematical and formal aspects of computer science and nonnumerical computing.
- SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (SISC) – 1980 Research articles on numerical methods and techniques for scientific computation. Papers address computational issues relevant to the solution of scientific or engineering problems and generally include computational results demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed techniques.
- SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications (SIMAX) – 1980 Research articles in matrix analysis and its applications and papers of interest to the numerical linear algebra community. Applications include such areas as signal processing, systems and control theory, statistics, Markov chains, and mathematical biology.
- SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics (SIDMA) –1988 Research articles on a broad range of topics from pure and applied mathematics including combinatorics and graph theory, discrete optimization and operations research, theoretical computer science, and coding and communication theory.
- SIAM Journal on Optimization (SIOPT) –1991 Research articles on the theory and practice of optimization. The areas addressed include linear and quadratic programming, convex programming, nonlinear programming, complementarity problems, stochastic optimization, combinatorial optimization, integer programming, and convex, nonsmooth and variational analysis.
- SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems (SIADS) – 2002 Research articles on the mathematical analysis and modeling of dynamical systems and its application to the physical, engineering, life, and social sciences. SIADS is published in all-electronic format, and encourages color, animation, and internal linking.
- Multiscale Modeling & Simulation: A SIAM Interdisciplinary Journal (MMS) – 2003 Centered around multiscale phenomena, and is an interdisciplinary journal focusing on the fundamental modeling and computational principles underlying various multiscale methods.
- SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences (SIIMS) –2008 A broad authoritative source for fundamental results in imaging sciences, with a unique combination of mathematics and applications. The all-electronic SIIMS is mathematically and computationally based, and offers a unique forum to highlight the commonality of methodology, models, and algorithms among diverse application areas of imaging sciences.
- SIAM Journal on Financial Mathematics (SIFIN) –2010 Addresses theoretical developments in financial mathematics as well as breakthroughs in the computational challenges they encompass. The journal provides a common platform for scholars interested in the mathematical theory of finance as well as practitioners interested in rigorous treatments of the scientific computational issues related to implementation.
- SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification (JUQ) – 2013. Publishes research articles presenting significant mathematical, statistical, algorithmic, and application advances in uncertainty quantification, defined as the interface of complex modeling of processes and data, especially characterizations of the uncertainties inherent in the use of such models. Jointly offered by SIAM and the American Statistical Association.
For further information on SIAM journals, please visit www.siam.org/journals.
Conferences
SIAM held its first annual meeting in 1954 and has since then used the conference forum to provide members and attendees with a broad view of the state-of-the-art in applied mathematics and computational science. Through invited presentations, prize lectures, minisymposia, mini-tutorials, contributed papers, and posters, members have been able to join their peers and leading experts in the field to exchange ideas and to expand their personal and professional networks.
Through focused conferences and the annual meeting SIAM has helped demonstrate that many societal problems can be solved through various methods of applied mathematics and computational science. SIAM holds several conferences each year, each focused on timely topics in applied mathematics and computational science. Some of these are sponsored by SIAM Activity Groups. SIAM conferences are held within the United States, with international conferences as well. A full calendar of all upcoming SIAM conferences, including meetings in cooperation with other groups, and an archive of past conferences can be found at www.siam.org/meetings.
SIAM conferences have recently focused on topics such as analysis of partial differential equations, applied linear algebra, computational science & engineering, control and its applications, data mining, discrete algorithms, discrete mathematics, dynamical systems, financial mathematics and engineering, geometric design, geosciences, imaging science, life sciences, materials science, mathematics for industry, nonlinear waves, numerical combustion, optimization, parallel processing and scientific computing.
SIAM offers travel support for students through SIAM Student Travel Awards. The awards are made from the SIAM Student Travel Fund, created in 1991 and maintained through book royalties donated by SIAM book authors, donations from SIAM members, and donations from industry. Any full-time student in good standing is eligible to receive an award plus gratis registration for the meeting. Limited travel support for post-docs and early career participants in SIAM conferences is also available through a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Applicants must be affiliated with a U.S. institution and be within five years of their PhD at the time of the conference.
For further information on the SIAM Conference Program, please visit www.siam.org/meetings.
Membership
SIAM membership has grown from a few hundred in the early 1950s to over 13,000 today. Members are applied and computational mathematicians, computer scientists, numerical analysts, engineers, statisticians, mathematics educators, and students. Membership benefits include networking opportunities; visibility in the applied mathematics and computational science communities; access to cutting-edge research; subscriptions to SIAM News and SIAM Review; discounts on conference and workshop registration, on all SIAM books, and on print and electronic access to SIAM journals; eligibility to nominate or to be nominated as a SIAM Fellow; eligibility to vote, hold office, and serve on SIAM committees to help guide the future of applied mathematics and computational science; the opportunity to join SIAM Activity Groups to explore common interests and exchange ideas with peers; the opportunity for every nonstudent member to nominate two students for a free SIAM membership; the opportunity to enroll in group insurance programs; and inclusion in the membership directory. More information about membership can be found at www.siam.org/membership.
SIAM Activity Groups (SIAGs)
SIAM Activity Groups (SIAGs) provide opportunities for SIAM members to communicate with colleagues and stay current in a particular discipline or application area. SIAGs organize conferences, minisymposia, newsletters, electronic communications, and websites, and they award prizes. SIAG members organize targeted electronic communications and newsletters, and receive access to electronic membership directories and additional discounts on SIAG-sponsored conferences. More information on SIAM Activity Groups can be found at www.siam.org/activity.
Moody’s Mega Math (M3) Challenge
SIAM annually organizes Moody’s Mega Math (M3) Challenge, an applied mathematics contest for high school students, funded by The Moody’s Foundation. Each year $80,000 in scholarship prizes are awarded to M3Challenge can be found at http://m3challenge.siam.org.
Contact SIAM
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
3600 Market Street, 6th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104-2688 USA
Phone +1-215-382-9800
Fax +215-386-7999
Email [email protected]
Web www.siam.org