The Spanish Society of Applied Mathematics (SEMA) was created in 1991, as a milestone in the development of applied mathematics in Spain, motivated by the success and continuity of the national Spanish Congress of Differential Equations and their Applications (CEDYA), that began in 1978. Its main purpose was to contribute in a coordinated manner to the development of mathematics in connection with its applications, responding in this way to new challenging problems of the real world, in the most diverse areas in science and industry. This was motivated by the quantitative deep change occurred in the preceding decade in the application of the mathematical techniques and methodology, essentially due to the development of parallel and subsequently high performance computing.
Today the activity of SEMA is based upon the consideration that mathematical modeling and analysis, numerical simulation and control techniques are essential tools to understand and solve the many challenging problems in physics, chemistry, engineering, biomedical sciences, geosciences, economy, finance, among others.
The Society was legally founded in February 25 1993.
The statutes foresee an Annual Meeting, where the election of the members of the Executive Committee and the President take place. Details on the first steps leading to the creation of the society can be found at Boletín Electrónico de SEMA, 06 (septiembre de 2014) (in spanish).
Presidents of SEMA
The first president of the Society was Prof. Antonio Valle, from Universidad de Málaga, who had an outstanding contribution. During his term, the provisional statutes of the Society were approved. Professor Valle ended his annual nomination in September 1994. He was followed by Prof. Jesus Ildefonso Díaz, from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in the period 1994-1995. The third president was Prof. Mariano Gasca, from Universidad de Zaragoza, in the period 1995-1996, succeeded by Prof. Juan Luis Vázquez Suárez, from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in the period 1996-1998. The fifth president was Prof. Enrique Fernández Cara, from Universidad de Sevilla, in the period 1998-2000, who was succeeded by Prof. Eduardo Casas Rentería, from Universidad de Cantabria, in the period 2000-2004. The seventh president was Prof. Juan Ignacio Montijano Torcal, from Universidad de Zaragoza, in the period 2004-2006, followed by Prof. Carlos Vázquez Cendón, from Universidad de la Coruña, in the period 2006-2010. The ninth president was Prof. Pablo Pedregal Tercero from Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, in the period 2010-2012, who was followed by Prof. Rafael Bru García from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, in the period 2012-2016. Since June 2016 the president is Prof. Rosa M. Donat Beneito, from Universidad de Valencia.