Canadian Summer Schools in Probability

History

The PIMS Summer School in Probability grew out of a 2004–2006 PIMS Collaborative Research Group on Probability and Statistical Mechanics, which brought together researchers at UBC, the University of Washington and the University of Alberta. As part of that program, PIMS launched a recurring month-long summer school at UBC.

Each school typically offers two long courses over four weeks (roughly 24 hours of lectures each) aimed at advanced students and postdocs working in probability theory. Many of the schools also feature mini-courses, alongside talks by participants. The schools bring together diverse participants to learn and form lasting connections.

The school has run most years since 2004, and many participants have gone on to take faculty positions across the world. In 2010 the school left Vancouver for the first time, co-hosted by the University of Washington and Microsoft Research in Seattle.

Starting in 2014, the school has been supported by CRM in Montreal, alternating between the two cities. Starting next year, it will also be supported by the Fields Institute in Toronto, and the school will rotate between the three venues.

In 2020 the school was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in its place, the organizers ran the Open Online Probability School (OOPS), a series of mini-courses. This was repeated in 2021 in parallel with a limited-capacity school in Montreal.

Additional support for the schools was received on occasion from the NSF, Mitacs, SLMath (MSRI), IAMP, and the host universities.

Organizers

The early schools were coordinated by the PIMS Collaborative Research Group in Probability and Statistical Mechanics, with a UBC committee including Martin Barlow, David Brydges, Alexander Holroyd, Vlada Limic, Ed Perkins, and Gordon Slade.

Omer Angel and Mathav Murugan later joined the organizational team as others moved or retired. As the school began alternating with Montreal, Louigi Addario-Berry, Louis-Pierre Arguin, and Lea Popovic joined the team. With the current round of schools, Ben Landon joined as well. The schools are currently organized by Addario-Berry, Angel, Landon, and Murugan.

The schools have also relied on a scientific advisory committee of probabilists from around the world. Over the years this panel included: Alison Etheridge, Chris Burdzy, Chris Hoffman, Dayue Chen, Grégory Miermont, Ines Armendariz, Jean-François Le Gall, Jeremy Quastel, Louigi Addario-Berry, Maria Emilia Caballero, Maria Eulália Vares, Mark Holmes, Neil Madras, Nina Gantert, Sandra Cerrai, Siva Athreya, Takashi Kumagai, Vladas Sidoravicius, Zhan Shi, Zhen-Qing Chen. (Apologies to anyone omitted.)

The schools