Mathematicians’ Day
On December 1st, a new professional holiday- Mathematicians’ Day was established in Russia, by Order No. 388 of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation dated June 5, 2024.
The initiative to establish this holiday was proposed at the All-Russian Congress of Mathematics Teachers and Lecturers, which took place at Moscow State University in November 2023. The rector of the educational institution, Viktor Sadovnichy, supported the idea, and all participants in the congress approved it. A corresponding appeal was then submitted to the national government.
The celebration coincides with the birthday of Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, a renowned mathematician who is considered one of the pioneers of non-Euclidean geometry. His groundbreaking work laid the basis for numerous discoveries in Mathematics in Russia.
The purpose of this event is to promote mathematics among a broader audience, encourage schoolchildren’s interest in the subject, identify talented young mathematicians, and recognize the importance of teachers and researchers who choose mathematics as their career. Furthermore, this is yet another reason to pay attention to the way this discipline is taught in schools and universities.
Mathematics is a science that originated from the study of quantitative relationships and spatial forms, but today, it encompasses various fields of knowledge, including algebra, geometry, number theory, mathematical logic, set theory, calculus, analysis, statistics, probability theory, and computational mathematics. Mathematics is widely used in the natural sciences to precisely describe their content and obtain new results.
Moreover, without mathematics, it is impossible to imagine the development of software for electronic devices, search engines, cryptography, artificial intelligence, machine learning, or decoding the human genome.
Mathematical methods are essential in many modern professions, and are used in optimizing transportation and communication networks, energy and engineering, forecasting and preventing natural disasters, managing healthcare and social security systems, and more.
Therefore, mathematics, as one of the oldest sciences, continues to be relevant today. Not only does it underlie many areas of human life and is essential for the development of society, but it is also a universal tool for understanding the world, helping us understand reality, developing mental abilities, and teaching logical thinking.
It’s no secret that recently, an increasing number of children and adolescents have expressed interest in science-related supplementary education programs, including those related to mathematics. According to the Russian Ministry of Education, approximately 3 million children are currently participating in such programs. Russian schoolchildren are demonstrating excellent results in international intellectual competitions at various levels. For instance, in 2023, the national team earned five gold medals and one silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad.
Let us recall that March 14 marks International Mathematics Day, established by UNESCO in November 2019.