INTERNATIONAL UNION OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
DIVISION OF LOGIC, METHODOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

BULLETIN No. 23

1. Executive Committee and Assessors of the Division, 2016-2019

Executive Committee:

• President. Menachem Magidor, Jerusalem, Israel.
• First Vice‐President. Helen Longino, Stanford, Calif., United States of America.
• Second Vice‐President. Amita Chatterjee, Kolkata, India.
• Secretary General. Benedikt Löwe, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Hamburg, Germany, & Cambridge, United Kingdom.
• Treasurer. Peter Schroeder‐Heister, Tübingen, Germany.
• Past President. Elliott Sober, Madison, Wisc., United States of America.

Assessors. Samson Abramsky (United Kingdom), Rachel Ankeny (Australia), Verónica Becher (Argentina), Heather Douglas (United States of America), Hannes Leitgeb (Germany), Mitsuhiro Okada (Japan), Katarzyna Paprzycka‐Hausman (Poland), Charlotte Werndl (Austria).

Former Presidents († = deceased). Elliott Sober (United States of America), Wilfrid Hodges (United Kingdom), Adolf Grünbaum† (United States of America), Michael Rabin (United States of America), Wesley Salmon† (United States of America), Jens‐Erik Fenstad (Norway), Lawrence J. Cohen† (United Kingdom), Dana S. Scott (United States of America), Jerzy Łoś† (Poland). Patrick Suppes† (United States of America), Jaakko Hintikka† (Finland & United States of America), Andrzej Mostowski† (Poland), Stephan Körner† (United Kingdom), Yehoshua Bar‐Hillel† (Israel), Georg Henrik von Wright† (Finland), Stephen C. Kleene† (United States of America).

The Executive Committee of the Division is composed of the President, the Vice‐Presidents, the Secretary General, the Treasurer, and the immediate Past President. The Council consists of the Executive Committee plus the Assessors.

Adolf Grünbaum passed away on 15 November 2018; his life and work were remembered during the Adolf Grünbaum Memorial Symposium organised by Sandra Mitchell during CLMPST XVI in Prague.

2. 16th International Congress (Prague, Czech Republic, 5–10 August 2019)

2.1 Committees

Programme Committee.

• Chair: Hanne Andersen (Copenhagen, Denmark).
• Representing the Executive Committee: Benedikt Löwe (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Hamburg, Germany & Cambridge, United Kingdom).
• Representing the Local Organising Committee: Tomáš Marvan (Prague, Czech Republic).
• Representing the Joint Commission: Hasok Chang (Cambridge, United Kingdom).
• Members: Rachel Ankeny (Adelaide, Australia), Theodore Arabatzis (Athens, Greece), Verónica Becher (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Craig Callender (La Jolla, Calif., United States of America), Hasok Chang (Cambridge, United Kingdom), Xiang Chen (Thousand Oaks, Calif., United States of America), Eleonora Cresto (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Zoubeida Dagher (Newark, Del., United States of America), Liesbeth De Mol (Lille, France), Valeria Giardino (Nancy, France), Zuzana Haniková (Prague, Czech Republic), Paul Humphreys (Charlottesville, Va., United States of America), Maria Kronfeldner (Budapest, Hungary), Sabina Leonelli (Exeter, United Kingdom), Fenrong Liu (Beijing, China & Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Endla Löhkivi (Tartu, Estonia), Michiru Nagatsu (Helsinki, Finland), Dhruv Raina (Delhi, India), R. Ramanujam (Chennai, India), Adriane Rini (Palmerston North, New Zealand), Federica Russo (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Dirk Schlimm (Montréal, Canada), Yaroslav Shramko (Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine), Smita Sirker (Delhi, India), Andrés Villaveces (Bogotá, Colombia).

The Chair of the programme committee together with the representatives of the Executive Committee, the Local Organising Committee, and the Joint Commission formed the Core Team of the programme committee.

Local Organising Committee.

• Chair. Tomáš Marvan.
• Members. Joan Bertran‐San Millán, Markéta Báčová, Marta Bílková, Vít Gvoždiak, Martin Haloun, Vladimír Havlík, Petr Koťátko, Ondrej Majer, Vera Matarese, Ondřej Ševeček, Kateřina Trlifajová, Denisa Valentová, Martin Zach (Congress Secretary).

2.2 Programme structure

The special theme of the programme was “Bridging across academic cultures”.

• A. Logic
  • A.1 Mathematical Logic
  • A.2 Philosophical Logic
  • A.3 Computational Logic and Applications of Logic
  • A.4 Historical Aspects of Logic
• B. General Philosophy of Science
  • B.1 Methodology
  • B.2 Formal Philosophy of Science and Formal Epistemology
  • B.3 Empirical and Experimental Philosophy of Science
  • B.4 Metaphysical Issues in the Philosophy of Science
  • B.5 Ethical and Political Issues in the Philosophy of Science
  • B.6 Historical Aspects in the Philosophy of Science
  • B.7 Educational Aspects of the Philosophy of Science
• C. Philosophical Issues of Particular Disciplines
  • C.1 Philosophy of the Formal Sciences (including Logic, Mathematics, Statistics)
  • C.2 Philosophy of the Physical Sciences (including Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Climate Science)
  • C.3 Philosophy of the Life Sciences
  • C.4 Philosophy of the Biomedical and Health Sciences
  • C.5 Philosophy of the Cognitive and Behavioural Sciences
  • C.6 Philosophy of Computing and Computation
  • C.7 Philosophy of the Humanities and the Social Sciences
  • C.8 Philosophy of the Applied Sciences and Technology
  • C.9 Philosophy of Emerging Sciences

In addition, the Congress hosted four symposia of the IUHPST Joint Commission chaired by Hasok Chang (Cambridge, United Kingdom): What is the value of history of science for philosophy of science? (JC1), Can the history of science be used to test philosophy? (JC2), Messy science (JC3), and The history and ontology of chemistry (JC4).

3. Unconfirmed Minutes of the General Assembly of IUHPST/DLMPST in Prague on 8 August 2019

Ordinary Members Present (number of votes in parentheses; total votes: 65 before agenda item 4; 75 after agenda item 4). Argentina (2), Australia (3), Austria (1), Belgium (1), Brazil (2), Canada (3), P. R. China (3), Croatia (1), Czech Republic (1; 2 after agenda item 4), Denmark (2), Eire (1), Estonia (1), Finland (2), France (4), Germany (4), Hungary (1), India (1), Israel (1), Italy (1; 4 after agenda item 4), Japan (4), Republic of Korea (2), The Netherlands (2), Norway (1), Poland (2), Serbia (1), South Africa (1), Spain (2), Sweden (3), Switzerland (1), Taiwan (2), United Kingdom (4), and United States of America (5). After agenda item 4, also the new Ordinary Members Mexico (2), Moldova (1), and Russia (3).

Ordinary Members Absent. Iran (1), New Zealand (2), Romania (1).

International Members Present (total votes: 18 before agenda item 4; 24 after agenda item 4). Association Computability in Europe (1), Association for Symbolic Logic (6), European Philosophy of Science Association (2), Association for Logic, Language and Information (2), Institut Wiener Kreis (2), Polskie Towarzystwo Logiki i Filozofii Nauki (1), Société de Philosophie des Sciences (4). After agenda item 4, also the new International Members Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (2), Association for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice (1), Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsphilosophie (2), and Scandinavian Logic Society (1).

International Members Absent. Charles S. Peirce Society (1).

Commissions Present (total votes: 5). Commission on Arabic Logic (1), Commission on the Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences (1), History and Philosophy of Computation (1), International Association for Science and Cultural Diversity (1), Joint Commission (1).

Commissions Absent. Inter‐Division Teaching Commission (1).

Membership Candidates Present. Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (2), Association for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice (1), Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsphilosophie (2), Mexico (2), Moldova (1), Russian Federation (3), and Scandinavian Logic Society (1).

Membership Candidates Absent. None.

Others. According to tradition, the General Assembly was open to all Congress Participants. The Division for History of Science and Technology (DHST/IUHPST) was represented by DHST President Elect Marcos Cueto (Brazil).

Total number of votes present. 88 before agenda item 4; 104 after item 4 (6 votes absent). Therefore, the number of votes present was at least half of of the valid voting power and thus the General Assembly was validly constituted according to Article 15 of the Division's statutes.

Agenda item 1. Opening and confirmation of the agenda

The General Assembly took place in the Kotěra Lecture Hall of the Faculty of Architecture of Czech Technical University in Prague. After verification of the delegates and distribution of the paper ballots, the President opened the Assembly at 6:33pm. The agenda was presented and unanimously confirmed by the Assembly:

1. Opening and confirmation of the agenda.
2. Confirmation of the minutes of the 2015 General Assembly.
3. Reports by the President, the Secretary General, and the Treasurer.
4. Membership Issues.
5. Commission Issues.
6. Election of the next Council.
7. Hosting the next Congress in 2023.
8. Any other business.

Nina Atanasova and Dirk Schlimm were unanimously approved by the Assembly as tellers for all votes with paper ballots cast. The Secretary General announced that Giuseppe Primiero was taking notes during the Assembly and gave an overview of the voting rules for the Assembly and the use of the distributed paper ballots.

Agenda item 2. Confirmation of the minutes of the 2015 General Assembly

The minutes of the previous General Assembly (Helsinki 2015) had been made available on the Division's website and published in print as part of the DLMPST Bulletin No. 22 in the journal Mathematical Logic Quarterly (Vol. 61, Issue 6, 2015, pp. 383–398) in unconfirmed form. The Assembly unanimously approved the confirmation of the minutes.

Agenda item 3. Reports by the President, the Secretary General, and the Treasurer

3a. President's Report

The President gave a brief report about the activities of the Division. He remembered four past officers of the Division and four past Council members of the Division who passed away between the 2015 congress in Helsinki and the 2019 congress in Prague: Jaakko Hintikka (12 January 1929–12 August 2015; Assessor 1969–1971; First Vice President 1971–1975; President 1975), András Hajnal (13 May 1931–30 July 2016; Second Vice President 1983–1987), Petr Hájek (6 February 1940–26 December 2016; First Vice President 1995–1999), and Adolf Grünbaum (15 May 1923–15 November 2018; Assessor 1971–1975; President 2004–2007), as well as Mary Hesse (15 October 1924–2 October 2016; Assessor 1971–1975), Marcel Guillaume (1928–25 Oct 2016; Assessor 1975–1979), Boris G. Yudin (14 August 1943–6 August 2017; Assessor 1995–1999), and Roberto Cignoli (1937–2018; Assessor 2000–2003). The Assembly stood in silence in memory of the deceased. [After the General Assembly, it was brought to the Secretary General's attention that the past Council member Myroslaw Popowych (12 April 1930–10 February 2018; Assessor 1971–1975) also passed away between the last two congresses.]

The President informed the Assembly that the year 2019 marked the centenary of Mario Bunge (born 21 September 1919, Buenos Aires). The Assembly acknowledged Bunge's immense, diversified yet systematic, science‐informed, life‐time contribution to philosophy of science with admiration.

The President reported that the past term saw an increase in the participation of the Division in the activities of other international bodies of science governance as well as an increase in the membership engagement in the activities of the Division. He encouraged the Division and its members to continue on this path of increased participation and engagement. The President was particularly pleased with the increased cooperation of the Division with its sister division DHST and encouraged the Division and its members to intensify this connection in future years.

3b. Secretary General's Report

The Secretary General gave a detailed report on the activities of the Division. A written version of the report had been made available to the delegates in advance. The following includes the complete text of the report:

Internal matters

The Executive Committee during the term 2016–2019 consisting of the President, the two Vice Presidents, the Past President, the Secretary General, and the Treasurer had regular e‐mail discussions. There were no separate physical meetings of the Executive Committee.

The Council, consisting of the members of the Executive Committee and the eight Assessors met twice during the term: in the context of a workshop “Global Perspectives on Reasoning and Scientific Method” in Salzburg (Austria) on 30 November and 1 December 2017, and during CLMPST XVI in Prague on 7 August 2019.

Relationship with members

In the last term, the Executive Committee has increased its efforts to connect to the members. Already the last Executive Committee had decided to set up a scheme of “Small conference grants” where member institutions can support research workshops and conferences to receive funding from the Division. This programme was continued in 2017 and 2018 (cf. below); the Executive Committee decided not to issue a call for funding of events in 2019 in order to avoid competition with the Congress.

During the last General Assembly, the Council had announced that the election procedure would “strengthen the involvement of the Division's members in the nomination of candidates in the future”. This was implemented by the Nominations Committee in 2018: members were given the opportunity to recommend candidates for the new Council in December 2018 with a deadline of 31 January 2019. All candidates recommended by members were added to the proposed slate by the Nominations Committee (cf. agenda item 6).

The IUHPST

The Division is one of the two Divisions of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST). The governance of the Union is determined by a Memorandum of Cooperation between its two Divisions, the DLMPST and the Division for History of Science and Technology (DHST). The Memorandum is available on the DLMPST webpage.

The Memorandum determines that the Presidency of the Union rotates between the DLMPST President and the DHST President. The following were the officers of the Union in the past four years:

 

The Divisions send representatives to each other's Council meetings and Congresses. DLMPST was represented by Menachem Magidor at the DHST Council meeting in Beijing (2015), by Benedikt Löwe at the DHST Council meetings in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Princeton (2017) and at the DHST Congress in Rio de Janeiro (2017), and by Mitsuhiro Okada at the DHST Council meeting in Tokyo (2018). DHST was represented by Catherine Jami at the DLMPST Council meeting in Salzburg (2017) and by Marcos Cueto at the DLMPST Congress in Prague (2019).

The Secretary General used this opportunity to invite Marcos Cueto, President Elect of DHST to deliver words of greeting to the Assembly from the sister division DHST.

The DLMPST and the DHST share four inter‐division commissions: History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC), the International Association for Science and Cultural Diversity (IASCUD), the Inter‐Division Teaching Commission (IDTC), and the Joint Commission (JC). The Joint Commission has a special status and is governed by the Memorandum. According to a decision of the Councils of both divisions (DLMPST in Helsinki, August 2015 and DHST in Beijing, December 2015), a joint committee of the two divisions re‐evaluated the Joint Commission and proposed a re‐organisation of the Joint Commission to the General Assembly of the DHST in Rio de Janeiro in 2017. The members of this committee were Hasok Chang, Jean Gayon, Catherine Jami, Benedikt Löwe, Menachem Magidor, and Efthymios Nicolaidis. The committee proposed opening JC membership to additional people in order to give the JC the opportunity to develop more activities: this proposal was implemented by the two Councils in 2018. The JC also instituted the IUHPST Essay Prize in History and Philosophy of Science; the prize was won by Theodore Arabatzis (Athens) for his essay “What's in it for the historian of science? Reflections on the value of philosophy of science for history of science” in 2017 and by Agnes Bolinska and Joseph D. Martin (Cambridge) for their essay “Negotiating History: Contingency, Canonicity, and Case Studies” in 2019.

Relationship with ICSU/ISC

The IUHPST has been a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU) since 1955. At the last General Assembly, the Executive Committee reported that ICSU was planning to merge with the International Social Science Council (ISSC). In October 2016, an extraordinary General Assembly of ICSU was held (where Catherine Jami and Benedikt Löwe represented IUHPST) during which the executive of ICSU and ISSC were given the mandate to plan the merger.

The merger was implemented at great speed: ICSU and ISSC formed joint working groups, a Strategy Working Group (SWG) and a Transition Task Force (TTF). IUHPST nominated members for both of these groups; Benedikt Löwe was appointed as a member of the SWG. The SWG jointly wrote the strategy document of the new council, entitled Advancing Science as a Global Public Good.

At the 32nd ICSU General Assembly in Taipei in October 2017 where IUHPST was represented by Benedikt Löwe, the members of ICSU and ISSC decided to merge the two councils into the new International Science Council (ISC).

The founding General Assembly of the new ISC took place in Paris in July 2018; IUHPST was represented by Catherine Jami, Benedikt Löwe, and Michael Osborne. IUHPST nominated a candidate for the Governing Board of the newly formed Council, but was not successful in the elections in Paris.

In the last year, the ISC has started its work; in particular, the four statutory committees of ISC were formed: the Committee for Finance and Fundraising, the Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS), the Committee for Science Planning, and the Committee for Outreach and Engagement. IUHPST nominated candidates for three of these four committees and ISC appointed our nominee Craig Callender to the CFRS.

IUHPST is one of the participating Unions in the ICSU projects Gender Gap in Science. A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences: How to Measure It, How to Reduce It? coordinated by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) as well as TROP‐ICSU: Educational Resources for Teachers to Integrate Climate Topics across the Curriculum. The Gender Gap project has been presented in a special symposium at CLMPST XVI and Benedikt Löwe and Amita Chatterjee represented DLMPST at Gender Gap workshops in Paris (May 2017) and Taipei (November 2017), respectively.

Relationship with CIPSH

The Division is a member of the Conseil International de Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines (CIPSH); in this council, DLMPST and DHST are separately members (as opposed to the ISC where the Union is a member). CIPSH is undergoing a process of re‐vitalisation and re‐organisation. The General Assembly 2015 had given the Executive Committee the mandate to decide whether the Division should remain a member of CIPSH “based on further information concerning the re‐organisation of CIPSH and the success of WHC”.

The Division was represented by Menachem Magidor at the CIPSH General Assembly in Beijing in December 2015 and by Benedikt Löwe at the CIPSH General Assembly in Liège in August 2017. Benedikt Löwe was a member of the programme committee of the World Humanities Conference (WHC) in Liège (Belgium) in August 2017. CIPSH is involved in the project Global History of Humanity and the World Humanities Report, and has been co‐ordinating programs of UNESCO‐CIPSH Chairs and CIPSH Chairs for specially designated chairs in the Humanities.

At the WHC, the Division organised a Symposium on Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science and Technology (coordinated by Benedikt Löwe; speakers: Mieke Boon, Stefania Centrone, Inkeri Koskinen, Pierluigi Minari) in order to encourage the exchange of ideas between the humanities‐centred disciplines and those that straddle the humanities‐science divide. There is the desire in the governance of CIPSH to strengthen this dialogue, but it is unclear how much support this has among the other CIPSH members.

The Division nominated Benedikt Löwe to serve on the CIPSH Executive Committee and he was elected by the CIPSH General Assembly in Liège. He attended the first meeting of the CIPSH Executive Committee in Xiamen (China) in April 2018.

Other activities

In addition to the mentioned symposium on Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the World Humanities Conference in Liège in August 2017 and the workshop Global Perspectives on Reasoning and Scientific Method organised in combination with the Council meeting in Salzburg in November and December 2017, the Division joined the Sociedade Brasileira de Lógica (SBL) in organising a logic satellite meeting (in Niterói) to the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) organised by the IMU in Rio de Janeiro in August 2018.

IUHPST became one of the sponsors of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT 2019); a special symposium marked this involvement at CLMPST XVI.

In 2019, the arrest of Tuna Altınel (Université de Lyon) in Turkey for signing a peace petition got international media attention and many learned societies and international organisations joined the protests against his incarceration. IUHPST sent an open letter to the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 1 June 2019. Tuna Altınel was released from prison on 30 July 2019 after 81 days in prison.

CLMPS XV proceedings volume

The proceedings of CLMPST XV in Helsinki (Finland) were published as

Hannes Leitgeb, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Päivi Seppälä, and Elliot Sober (eds.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress, College Publications (2017).

 

 

CLMPST XVI in Prague

After the re‐naming of our Division from DLMPS to DLMPST, the sixteenth congress is the first to be held under the new name of Congress on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (CLMPST). The Congress was excellently hosted by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences under the auspices of the Division; the chair of the Local Organising Committee was Tomáš Marvan; the chair of the Programme Committee was Hanne Andersen (Denmark). Andersen, Marvan, the Secretary General, and the JC chair formed the Core Team within the Programme Committee that dealt with executive decisions. Upon proposal of the Core Team, the Council decided that the theme of CLMPST XVI should be

Bridging across academic cultures, a theme at the heart of many logicians and philosophers of science who are dealing with mediating between the disciplinary cultures of the humanities and the sciences in their academic daily lives. The Programme Committee implemented the theme of the congress by considering the programme structure and its subdivisions as fluid and open in order to allow people from different disciplinary cultures to interact and talk to each other. The Programme Committee was gender balanced and had representatives from all continents except for Africa with good representation of the traditionally under‐represented continents Asia (6 members), Australasia (2 members), and South America (3 members). The Programme Committee produced a list of three plenary and 22 invited speakers that was also gender balanced and included names from all continents.

 

In addition to the regular sessions and symposia, the Congress had a number of special features, including a jointly organised symposium with the International Science Council (ISC) on the topic Denial of facts: Instrumentation of science, criticism, and fake news dealing with the important interface between philosophy of science and science policy; a symposium reporting on progress of the Gender Gap project of which IUHPST is a party (see above); a celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 (IYPT) where philosophers of science discussed the relevance of the periodic table for their work; and a journal panel where editors of prominent journals discussed issues facing scholarly publishing.

All in all, CLMPST XVI had almost 800 registered participants, over 600 presentations, and forty symposia. The Division plans the publication of the proceedings of CLMPST XVI in Prague (Czech Republic) as

Hanne Andersen, Tomáš Marvan, Benedikt Löwe, Hasok Chang, Ivo Pezlar (eds.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Congress, Bridging Across Academic Cultures, College Publications (to appear).

 

 

The Secretary General used this opportunity to invite Hanne Andersen to report to the Assembly on the programme of CLMPST 2019.

Small conference grants

In the years 2017 and 2018, the Division invited applications from members to support conferences and meetings. The following meetings were supported:

2017.

1. Workshop “Consequence and Paradox between Truth and Proof”, in Tübingen, Germany, 2–3 March 2017. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.
2. SILFS 2017: Triennial International Conference of the Italian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science, in Bologna, Italy, 20–23 July 2017. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.
3. Humboldt‐Kolleg “Proof Theory as Mathesis Universalis”, in Como, Italy, 24–28 July 2017. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.

 

2018.

1. LSFA 2018: 13th Workshop on Logical and Semantic Frameworks with Applications, in Fortaleza, Brazil, 26–28 September 2018. DLMPST support. USD 1,000.
2. IX SLMFCE: IX Congress of the Spanish Society of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, in Madrid, Spain, 13–16 November 2018. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.
3. 29th Novembertagung: “History of Mathematical Concepts and Conceptual History of Mathematics”, in Seville, Spain, 28–30 November 2018. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.
4. PTS3: Proof‐Theoretic Semantics: Assessment and Future Perspectives. Third Tübingen Conference on Proof‐Theoretic Semantics, in Tübingen, Germany. 27–30 March 2019. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.
5. Workshop “Responsible Research and Innovation: An HPS/STS Agenda”, in Canberra, Australia, 17–18 April 2019. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.
6. CiE 2019: Computability in Europe 2019, in Durham, England, 15–19 July 2019. DLMPST support: USD 1,000.

3c. Treasurer's Report

The Treasurer gave a short summary of his financial report that had been made available to to delegates prior to the General Assembly. The following includes the complete text of the report.

The financial details are listed in Appendix  A . Formally the report was given for the years 2015 to 2018, but the comments are based on the four‐year periods 2012 to 2015 and 2016 to 2019, as these are the terms of office of the respective Executive Committees. The Executive Committee usually prepares its four‐year budget at the beginning of its term of office, that is, at the beginning of the year after the Congress. Moreover, since the Division's financial contribution to the Congress is sometimes split between the year of the congress and the year before, the figures for the four‐year period starting with a congress year and ending with the year ahead of the next congress, could be unreliable. The figures for 2012 to 2014 are part of the previous reporting period. The figures for 2019 are based on a (reliable) estimate.

As mentioned in past reports, most of our assets come from the time when the Division received funding from UNESCO via ICSU (now ISC), of which the IUHPST is a member. For more than two decades now (and with no expected changes for the foreseeable future), the only income of the Division has been membership fees. Over the past years this has been roughly USD 16,000 per annum. It varies between years as sometimes members pay with a delay, so that the fee is booked only in the next accounting year. In the period of this report we managed to secure almost all fee payments which were due, sometimes requiring considerable effort in reminding our members of their payment obligations.

The previous Executive Committee (2012 to 2015) initiated a gradual reduction of our assets by around USD 4,000 per year and invested this amount in productive activities, in particular the award of small conference grants and financial support of our commissions. In the three congress‐free years, grants of up to USD 1,000 were offered for the organisation of conferences, the application for which had to be submitted through our member committees. Furthermore, our Commissions were able to apply for financial support of their work. Of course, our main activity, also in financial respect, is the Congress, which we supported with USD 45,000 in 2015 (Helsinki). The income during the period 2012 to 2015 was roughly USD 62,000, and our expenses were USD 77,000. This reduced our total assets by USD 15,000 over four years (from USD 89,000 to USD 74,000), which was roughly as planned.

This policy of asset reduction was continued by the current Executive Committee (2016 to 2019). The Treasurer outlined the overall four‐year budget for the current term of the Executive Committee formally accepted by the Executive Committee by unanimous vote on 16 November 2016 with expected expenses of USD 80,000 and an expected income of USD 64,000.