The book presents the history of ICMI trough a prosopographical approach. In other words, it pays a lot of attention to the actors of the International movement. The portraits of the members of the ICMI Central Committees (1908-1936) and ICMI Executive Committees (1952-2008), and other eminent figures in ICMI history, who have passed away in the first 100 years of its life, are the guiding thread of the volume. Each portrait includes: · Biographical information · An outline of the various contributions made by the individual in question to the study of problems pertaining to mathematics teaching/education · Primary bibliography · Secondary with particular attention to the publications concerning the teaching of mathematics · Images: photos, book frontispieces, relevant manuscripts The authors of the portraits (30 altogether) are researchers in the history of mathematics, mathematics, and mathematics education. The focus on the officer’s role within ICMI and on his/her contributions to mathematics education, make the portraits different from usual biographies. In particular, since most officers were active mathematicians, the portraits shed light on aspects of their lesser-known activity. Connecting chapters place the action of these figures in the historical context and in the different phases of ICMI history.

At its meeting in April 1990 at the University of Cambridge, the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) decided that the largely unorganized archives of the Union should be properly arranged and catalogued. Simultaneously, the Executive Committee expressed the wish that a history of the Union should be written [1). As Secretary of the Union, I had proposed that these issues be dis cussed at the Cambridge meeting, but without having had in mind any personal role in the practical execution of such projects. At that time, the papers of the IMU were stored in Zurich, at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, and I saw no reason why they could not remain there. At about this time, Professor K. Chandrasekharan produced a handwritten article titled "The Prehistory of the International Mathematical Union" [2), and it seemed to me that this might serve as the beginning of a more compre hensive history. I had first thought that Tuulikki MakeUiinen, who during eight years as the Office Secretary ofthe IMU had become well acquainted with the Union, would do the arranging of the archives in Zurich. She had a preliminary look at the material there, but it soon became clear that the amount of work required to bring order to it was too great to be accomplished in a few short visits from Helsinki. The total volume of material was formidable.

This vividly illustrated history of the International Congress of Mathematicians- a meeting of mathematicians from around the world held roughly every four years- acts as a visual history of the 25 congresses held between 1897 and 2006, as well as a story of changes in the culture of mathematics over the past century. Because the congress is an int