The Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS) was established in 2001 by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the London Mathematical Society (LMS) and the Royal Statistical Society (RSS). The CMS comprises representatives and observers from the mathematical sciences community, including the Presidents and Chief Executives of these three societies.
The CMS provides an authoritative and objective body that exists to develop, influence and respond to UK policy issues that affect the mathematical sciences in higher education and research, and therefore the UK economy and society in general.
In October 2006, Professor David Wallace CBE FRS FREng was appointed as the first independent Chair of the CMS.
In 2008 the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and the Operational Research Society became Members of the CMS.
Professor Frank Kelly FRS took over from Professor Sir David Wallace CBE FRS FREng as independent chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences in October 2010. Professor Kelly is Professor of the Mathematics of Systems in the University of Cambridge, and Master of Christ's College. From 2003 to 2006 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the United Kingdom's Department for Transport. He is a trustee of the policy-research group RAND Europe.
