Greek mathematics poised for major boost
The ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse contributed much to science in the third century BC and today is considered one of the greatest of all times. An EU-supported initiative paid tribute to the renowned mathematician and Greece's long tradition of great discoveries by establishing an applied mathematics centre in his name. The 'Archimedes Center for Modeling, Analysis and Computation in Crete' (ACMAC) project aimed to reinforce the research capacity of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Crete in areas where it has recognised expertise. The new centre attracted experienced mathematicians and early-stage researchers mostly from outside Greece. During the course of the 4-year project, 21 mathematicians were appointed to the position of senior researcher and 19 postdoctoral fellows received funding for their research. Numerous distinguished scientists who are leaders in modern computational and applied mathematics also visited the Center to conduct research together with ACMAC researchers. Besides helping fund scientists to travel to ACMAC, specialised scientific equipment that includes powerful computers and peripherals were acquired to facilitate the organisation of thematic programmes. A series of nine programmes covered scientific topics ranging from scientific and high-performance computing to women in applied mathematics. Numerous results emerged from ACMAC's ongoing research. One such result is a rigorous and flexible framework for the parallelisation of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and multi-level coarse-graining methods for sampling stochastic particle systems. These were disseminated through workshops and conferences as well as the Center's website. ACMAC is expected to have a strong, positive impact on the field of computational and applied mathematics in Greece, strengthening the local scientific community's ties with the European Research Area (ERA). This new centre of excellence will undoubtedly benefit the rest of south-east Europe as it slowly becomes a global player in modern computational and applied mathematics.
Keywords
Applied mathematics, Archimedes, computation, high performance computing, Monte Carlo simulations
