Irena Lasiecha is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, where she have been teaching and researching since 1987. Her previous positions were at the Mathematics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida and at the University of California, Los Angeles on a Postdoc Fellowship.

I. Lasiecka: In my opinion, the most significant activities of TC7 can be categorized in the following groups: (i) General TC7 conferences, (ii) WG's confer-ences and workshops, (iii) resulting publications.

I shall elaborate on the significance of each of these activities.

(i) General TC7 Conferences take place bi-annually. These conferences are general in scope, with the aim of representing scientific activities across the entire spectrum of TC. In fact, sessions and minisymposia organized within the conference represent activities of all seven WG’s, as well as scientific areas which are not encompassed by a single Working Group, but which have significant representation among TC7 members. One example is Nonlinear Programming--a very strong and active component of the TC7, but not represented by a single WG. General Conferences are expected to present the "state of the art" of research activities carried in TC7. The choice of plenary speakers reflects the main trends in each working group as well as in TC7 as a whole. General Conferences allow for interaction between WG’s and the TC7 members. They often lead to some joint interdisciplinary activities of interest to more than one Working Group. Our aim is to support, promote and facilitate this synergism and interactions. They provide good visibility to specific areas as integral parts of a broader project. We make a strong effort in attracting scientists from under-represented countries and Eastern-Central European countries, which have a long and strong tradition in optimization theory. This, in turn, provides good visibility to the IFIP as an international organization.

(ii) Conferences and Workshops organized by single WG’ are, of course, more focused. This is the place where real work takes place. Participation in these events is most often by invitation and the point is made to integrate top researchers in a given area within and outside IFIP. It is of prime importance that these events be accessible to young, bright people who eventually become leaders in their respective fields. Keeping costs of events contained is one of our major concerns. This particularly refers to more theoretically oriented groups, whose access to large funds is limited.

(iii) Publications representing the activities of the TC play a very important role in our activities. This is a very natural way to promote the scientific reputation of the TC and to increase its visibility within IFIP and the outside world.

In fact, we make a point that each General Conference be covered by a volume of Proceedings published by IFIP’s Official Publisher. In addition, most of our WG’s Conferences also have volumes of Proceedings covering the main topics and achievements of specific WG’s.

I. Lasiecka: In principle, most of the activities within TC7 satisfy this criterion. In fact, this is the criterion for selecting directions and certain types of activities for our Working Groups. For instance, very recently, TC7 has decided to reorganize WG 7.4 with the idea and aim of providing stronger links with Computer Science and Information Technology. The developments in these areas have clearly identified societal and economic benefits.

A similar situation is taking place within WG 7.5 under the new leadership of Prof. Furuta. Modern techniques in systems’ reliability and optimization--areas pivotal to social/economic benefits--are put forward and strongly emphasized.

Developments within WG 7.7--a particularly active WG--have always been on the front of research in the area of stochastic optimization which, in turn, has strong links with many economic issues.

Also, within WG 7.2, one of the most recent initiatives is to feature the state-of-the-art Workshop on Environmental Problems and Ecology. Topics covered include problems in optimization of water resources, optimization of waste pollution, etc. Top-level researchers from the US (Rice, MIT) and Europe (Austria, France, Germany, Russia) have already agreed to participate.

These are just a few examples--but by no means an exhaustive list--of the sensitivity of TC7 program toward societal and economic issues.

I. Lasiecka: TC7 is a group with a strong theoretical flavor. Most of our members are affiliated with academic institutions. Also, we have a very strong representation of young researchers. This, of course, implies that the access to external funding is somewhat less than in other TC’s, which have closer connections with industrial-corporate organizations. One of our problems is competition with other professional societies, which represent similar scientific interests to TC7. These include IEEE, SIAM, IFAC, IMACS, OR, AMS and many others. All of these organizations are much bigger and financially more powerful. Therefore, in order to attract top caliber researchers to our IFIP–sponsored activities, we cannot expect these people to pay registration fees which are non-competitive with other conferences. On the other hand, full compliance with IFIP's sponsorship fees would force us to charge prohibitive (within the above context) registration fees. This, of course, will have detrimental effects on the attendance and the quality of events, which are the source of visibility for IFIP.

The above dilemma is a perennial issue faced by almost every organizer of an IFIP-sponsored event. We have been juggling this so far, by reaching a balance between sponsorship fees and compliance with contracts imposed by official IFIP publishers (which pay royalties to IFIP). However, more understanding in this respect from IFIP as an organization would definitely have beneficial effects on our modus operandi.

- Another issue is that of publication policy. Although the situation has improved drastically over the status of few years ago, still we would benefit by having more flexibility. I understand that this difficult issue is discussed within a specially formed Committee, so technical details may be reserved for this group of people.

- Outreach. IFIP is one of a few (if not unique) truly international organizations in the area of Information and Processing. The outreach issue is fundamental. Every time TC7 organizes a major conference, significant effort is invested in attracting researchers from developing countries or former EE countries. The outcome is not always successful. One of the problems is last moment cancellations of previously accepted invitations. The issue is a chronic lack of funding in these countries. Within TC we can offset some of these expenses, but not to the point we would like to. There is a serious conflict of interests with sponsorship funding. Financial sponsors are understandably reluctant in providing funding, knowing that this funding is used for IFIP’s sponsorship fees or for help to under-represented countries. It would be very beneficial to our TC (perhaps to other Groups as well), if IFIP could administer some special type of financial aid, designated solely for the purpose of helping the participation of under-represented groups in IFIP-sponsored events.