Brief History of Conference

In 1973, after I.G.Petrovskii's death, a seminar on differential equations and mathematical physics named after him was organized at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow M.V.Lomonosov State University. Petrovskii was a mathematician with a very wide range of interests, and therefore the organizers (O.A.Oleinik, V.I.Arnold, S.P.Novikov, and M.I.Vishik) paid special attention to mathematical questions connected with physics and other applications.

Five years later, in 1978, the first joint seminar session together with Moscow Mathematical Society took place. Mathematicians from Moscow and other USSR cities gave about 60 talks. In 1979 it was decided that the conference would be held annually, the mathematicians were impressed by the high quality of the talks and highly appreciated the opportunity of personal informal contacts. The conference usually began on January, the 18-th (I.G.Petrovskii's birthday) and lasted about a week. The number of lectures increased from year to year and foreign mathematicians also were invited. In 1991, the year of Petrovskii's ninetieth anniversary, a large international conference took place, that year not in January, but in May. About 200 lectures were given and mathematicians from 9 countries were present. The next conference in 1993 (the XV-th joint seminar session) was smaller because of financial difficulties, but in 1996 the year of the 95-th anniversary of I.G.Petrovskii, again there were about 200 talks and foreign participants gave forty of them.

Wellknown mathematicians from Russia and other countries took part in the conference during all these years.