Barcelona, awarded for the events celebrating International Mathematics Day
Yesterday, Barcelona City Council received the Mathematics and Society 2024 Prize, awarded by the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation, for the events organised to celebrate International Mathematics Day. The councillor for the Neighbourhood Plan, Promotion of Older People and Education, Lluís Rabell, was in charge of collecting the award at the awards ceremony of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC).
Specifically, the prize was awarded to Barcelona City Council for its initiative in organising the events to celebrate International Mathematics Day on Thursday 14 March in the city of Barcelona, with the slogan “Barcelona with Mathematics”.
The people selected as judges valued the organisation, on that day, of mathematics workshops for young people from secondary schools in Ciutat Vella with a clear commitment to gender equality and social equity, for promoting mathematics aimed at the general public and for the unveiling of a symbolic plaque with the number π in the Plaça del Pi in Barcelona.
The celebration also included a solemn act in the Saló de Cent of Barcelona City Hall presided over by Jordi Valls, fourth deputy mayor, and with the participation of Dr. Ariadna Farrés, astrodynamics specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and crew member of the Hypatia I mission and commander of the next Hypatia II mission.
The Mathematics and Society Prize
The aim of the award, instituted in 2008 by the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation, is to stimulate the presence of mathematics in the media thanks to reports or activities on any aspect of mathematics produced in the Països Catalans. The Board of Trustees of the Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation, at its meeting on 6 March 2024, agreed to award the prize, which consists of a scale reproduction of a work of art from the art collection of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
