British Combinatorial Committee

British Combinatorial Committee
Name	British Combinatorial Committee
Abbreviation	BCC
Formation	1960s
Type	Learned society committee
Region	United Kingdom
Fields	Combinatorics

British Combinatorial Committee

The British Combinatorial Committee is a coordinating body for combinatorial mathematics in the United Kingdom that connects researchers, institutions, and international partners. It engages with major universities, funding bodies, and learned societies to promote research in combinatorics, design theory, graph theory, and discrete mathematics. The Committee liaises with organizers of national and international meetings and supports publications, prizes, and educational outreach.

History

The Committee traces roots to mid-20th-century initiatives that involved scholars associated with University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University of Manchester, and University of Edinburgh. Early members included figures who collaborated with institutions such as the London Mathematical Society, Royal Society, Science and Engineering Research Council, British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The BCC played roles during periods when combinatorics intersected with developments at British Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, St John's College, Oxford, and research groups linked to Bell Labs, IBM Research, and AT&T Bell Labs visiting scholars. Its history reflects interactions with prize committees like the Fields Medal-related committees, regional efforts including Scottish Mathematical Council, and international partnerships such as the European Mathematical Society and International Mathematical Union.

Structure and Membership

The Committee's governance typically comprises elected officers drawn from departments at University of Warwick, Queen Mary University of London, University of Leeds, University of Birmingham, and University of Southampton. Membership includes representatives from learned societies like the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and professional bodies connected to Heriot-Watt University and University College London. Ex officio links often involve delegates from funders including the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, and the National Physical Laboratory. Committees and subcommittees have included past affiliates from University of Bristol, University of Glasgow, University of Nottingham, University of York, and international liaisons with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Harvard University, ETH Zurich, Universität Wien, and CNRS.

Activities and Programs

The Committee organizes prize schemes and lecture tours, working with bodies that administer awards such as the MacArthur Fellowship, Sloan Research Fellowships, and national recognitions coordinated with the Royal Society and the London Mathematical Society. It runs working groups that collaborate on problems connected to the Ramanujan Prize, combinatorial designs related to collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and applied projects with partners like Bletchley Park-linked initiatives and industrial collaborations with Rolls-Royce, Siemens, and BT Group. The BCC maintains liaison roles with curricula committees at institutions including Open University and professional development schemes associated with British Council exchanges and summer programs tied to Mathematical Association initiatives.

Conferences and Workshops

The Committee sponsors and endorses biennial and annual meetings, including national gatherings hosted at venues like Royal Holloway, University of London, University of St Andrews, Durham University, University of Exeter, and conference centres linked to Trinity College Dublin for cross-border events. It has coordinated special sessions in partnership with international conferences such as the International Congress of Mathematicians, the European Congress of Mathematics, and focused workshops that have accommodated visiting scholars from National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Toronto. The BCC also supports themed workshops on graph theory, design theory, and extremal combinatorics in collaboration with institutes like the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Fields Institute, and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

Publications and Research Initiatives

While not itself a publisher, the Committee endorses series and special issues in journals affiliated with publishers and societies such as the London Mathematical Society, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and specialist journals connected to Elsevier and Springer Science+Business Media. It has helped establish research networks that produced monographs and proceedings edited by contributors from Princeton University Press and coordinated themed issues involving editorial boards at Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Discrete Mathematics, and venues associated with the American Mathematical Society. Research initiatives supported by the BCC have dovetailed with grants from the European Research Council, collaborative projects with EPSRC, and joint ventures involving Nesta and technology partners like Microsoft Research and Google Research.

Outreach and Education

Outreach programs promoted by the Committee target schools and public engagement through collaborations with organizations such as the Mathematical Association, the Royal Institution, Science Museum, and regional outreach at Cambridge Science Festival. They support problem-solving contests and enrichment linked to the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust, the Maths Olympiad infrastructure, and summer schools run alongside universities like University of Warwick and University of Oxford. The Committee also works with teacher training providers at Institute of Education, University College London, policy groups within the Department for Education framework, and international exchange programs coordinated with Fulbright Commission and the British Council.

Category:Mathematical societies of the United Kingdom