During World Mathematical Year 2000, many articles on mathematics addressing a general audience were published throughout the world, and many valuable ideas for articles popularizing mathematics were generated. The Committee for Raising Public Awareness of Mathematics of the European Mathematical Society (acronym RPA) believes that it is vital that such articles be written. In order to inspire future articles with a mathematical theme and to collect valuable contributions, which deserve translation into many languages, the EMS wishes to encourage the submissions of articles on mathematics for a general audience, to a competition. The EMS is convinced that such articles will contribute to raising public awareness of mathematics.

The RPA-committee of the EMS invites mathematicians, or others, to submit manuscripts for suitable articles on mathematics.

To be considered, an article must be published, or be about to be published, in a daily newspaper, or some other general magazine, in the country of the author, thereby providing some evidence that the article does catch the interest of a general audience. Articles for the competition shall be submitted both in the original language (the published version) and preferably also in an English translation. Articles (translations) may, however, also be submitted in French, German, Italian or Spanish. The English (or alternative language) version should be submitted both in paper and electronically.

There will be prizes for the three best articles, respectively 200, 150 and 100 Euros and the winning articles will be published in the Newsletter of the EMS. Other articles from the competition may also be published if space permits. Furthermore, it is planned to establish a web-site containing English versions of all articles from the competion approved by the RPA-committee.

By submitting an article for the competition, it is assumed that the author gives permission to translation of the article into other languages, and for possible inclusion into a web-site. Translations into other languages will be checked by persons appointed by relevant local mathematical societies and will be included on the web-site.

Articles should be sent before December 31, 2002, to the chairman of the RPA-committee of the EMS:

Professor Vagn Lundsgaard Hansen,

Department of Mathematics,

Technical University of Denmark,

Matematiktorvet, Building 303,

DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.

e-mail: V.L.Hansen@mat.dtu.dk