Joining the celebrations will be guest speakers Jay Ingram of television’s @discovery.ca program, whose presentation will focus on the challenges of communicating mathematics; Nobel Laureate and economist James J. Heckman with the University of Chicago; and Donald G. Saari, distinguished mathematician and director of the Center for Decision Analysis at the University of California, Irvine.

"With the opening of BIRS, The Banff Centre will form a collaborative hub for some of the brightest and best mathematical minds in the world," says Mary E. Hofstetter, president and CEO of The Banff Centre. "We expect to see 2,000 people from universities and research centres pass through our doors every year."

"The Centre’s unique multi-disciplinary learning environment and inspiring facilities will support a variety of creative endeavours that will take shape over the next few years," Hofstetter says. "And because of the number of talented participants in various program areas at the Centre – including music, mountain culture, writing and publishing, and visual arts—there will be opportunities for mathematicians and artists to interact and to explore the relationship between art and science."

"This is an exciting international partnership," says Bob Church, chair of the Alberta Science and Research Authority (ASRA) that is funding the $5-million facility along with the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). "Mathematicians, scientists, and researchers will congregate in Banff to share knowledge, to challenge existing boundaries in their work, and to seek new insights."

Modelled after one of the most successful mathematical institutes in the world, Germany’s Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut, BIRS will feature multi-day workshops and focused research groups for up to 50 people a week. Participants will ponder the greatest problems in algebra, geometry, statistics, and other math disciplines.

BIRS was initiated and is administered by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) and by the Berkeley-based Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).