Please note that the list below only shows forthcoming events, which may not include regular events that have not yet been entered for the forthcoming term. Please see the past events page for a list of all seminar series that the department has on offer.

 

Mon, 01 Jun 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

TBA

Assistant Professor Nicolas Loizou
(Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA)
Abstract

TBA

Mon, 01 Jun 2026
16:30
L4

TBA

Nicos Kapouleas
(Brown University)
Abstract

TBA

Tue, 02 Jun 2026
16:00
L5

TBC

Bartoz Malman
(Mälardalen University)
Abstract

to follow

Wed, 03 Jun 2026

17:00 - 18:00
L4 tbc

tbc

Sara Franceschelli
(ENS de Lyon)
Abstract

tbc

Thu, 04 Jun 2026

12:00 - 13:00
L3

DPhil Talks

Georgina Ryan + Yunhao Ding + William Gillow + Callum Marsh
(Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford)
Thu, 04 Jun 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

TBA

Fernando De Teran
(University of Madrid Carlos III)
Abstract

TBA

Tue, 09 Jun 2026
14:00
L6

TBC

Kieran Calvert
(University of Lancaster)
Abstract

to follow

Thu, 11 Jun 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

Optimization Algorithms for Bilevel Learning with Applications to Imaging

Dr Lindon Roberts
(Melbourne University)
Abstract

Dr Lindon Roberts will talk about: 'Optimization Algorithms for Bilevel Learning with Applications to Imaging'

Many imaging problems, such as denoising or inpainting, can be expressed as variational regularization problems. These are optimization problems for which many suitable algorithms exist. We consider the problem of learning suitable regularizers for imaging problems from example (training) data, which can be formulated as a large-scale bilevel optimization problem. 

In this talk, I will introduce new deterministic and stochastic algorithms for bilevel optimization, which require no or minimal hyperparameter tuning while retaining convergence guarantees. 

This is joint work with Mohammad Sadegh Salehi and Matthias Ehrhardt (University of Bath), and Subhadip Mukherjee (IIT Kharagpur).

 

 

Thu, 11 Jun 2026
16:00
Lecture Room 4

TBA

Robin Bartlett
(Queen Mary University of London)
Mon, 15 Jun 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

TBA

Jian-Qing Zheng
(CAMS-Oxford Institute, University of Oxford)
Abstract

TBA

Mon, 15 Jun 2026
14:15
L4

TBA

Partha Ghosh
(IMJ-PRG/Sorbonne Université)
Mon, 15 Jun 2026

15:30 - 16:30
L3

TBA

Emilio Ferrucci
(SISSA)
Abstract

TBA

Mon, 15 Jun 2026

16:30 - 17:30
L2

TBA

Prof. Jinchao Xu
(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))
Abstract

TBA

This is a joint OxPDE and Numerical Analysis seminar. 

Tue, 16 Jun 2026
16:00
L5

TBC

Peter Huston
(Leeds University)
Abstract

to follow

Thu, 18 Jun 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

TBA

Daniele Boffi
(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))
Abstract

TBA

Thu, 18 Jun 2026
16:00
Lecture Room 4

TBA

Vandita Patel
(University of Manchester)
Thu, 15 Oct 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

Resonances as a computational tool

Katharina Schratz
(Sorbonne University)
Abstract

Speaker Katharina Schratz will talk about 'Resonances as a computational tool'

 

A large toolbox of numerical schemes for dispersive equations has been established, based on different discretization techniques such as discretizing the variation-of-constants formula (e.g., exponential integrators) or splitting the full equation into a series of simpler subproblems (e.g., splitting methods). In many situations these classical schemes allow a precise and efficient approximation. This, however, drastically changes whenever non-smooth phenomena enter the scene such as for problems at low regularity and high oscillations. Classical schemes fail to capture the oscillatory nature of the solution, and this may lead to severe instabilities and loss of convergence. In this talk I present a new class of resonance based schemes. The key idea in the construction of the new schemes is to tackle and deeply embed the underlying nonlinear  structure of resonances into the numerical discretization. As in the continuous case, these terms are central to structure preservation and offer the new schemes strong geometric properties at low regularity.

Thu, 22 Oct 2026

12:00 - 13:00
L3

TITLE TBC

Daniele Avitabile
( Amsterdam Center for Dynamics and Computation, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Thu, 12 Nov 2026

14:00 - 15:00

TBA

Peter Braam
(Oxford Physics)
Abstract

TBA

Mon, 30 Nov 2026

14:00 - 15:00
Lecture Room 3

Physics-informed deep generative models: Applications to computational sensing

Professor Marcelo Pereyra
(Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)
Abstract

Professor Pereyra will talk about; 'Physics-informed deep generative models: Applications to computational sensing'

This talk introduces a novel mathematical and computational framework for constructing high-dimensional Bayesian inversion methods that leverage state-of-the-art generative denoising diffusion models as highly informative priors. A central innovation is the construction of physics-informed generative models using Langevin diffusion processes and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling techniques to develop stochastic neural network architectures capable of near-exact sampling. The obtained networks are modular and composed of interpretable layers that are directly related to statistical image priors and data likelihoods derived from forward observation models. The layers encoding the data likelihood function are designed for flexibility, enabling scene and instrument model parameters to be specified at inference time and seamlessly integrated with pre-trained foundational generative priors. To achieve high computational efficiency, we employ adversarial model distillation, which yields excellent sampling performance with as few as four Markov chain Monte Carlo steps, even in problems exceeding one million dimensions. Our approach is validated through non-asymptotic convergence analysis and extensive numerical experiments in computational image and video restoration. We conclude by discussing unsupervised training strategies that allow the models to be fine-tuned directly from measurement data, thereby bypassing the need for clean reference data.

The talk is based on recent work in physics-informed generative AI for Bayesian imaging: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.12615 (ICCV 2025), which uses a distilled latent Stable Diffusion XL model trained on five billion clean images as a zero-shot prior, and  https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.02686, which integrates pixel-based diffusion models with deep unfolding and diffusion distillation (TMLR 2025). The extension to video restoration is presented in https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01339 (ICLR 2025). Our approach to unsupervised training of diffusion models is introduced in https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11964.

 

 

Further Information

Biosketch: Marcelo Pereyra

Marcelo Pereyra is a Professor in Statistics and UKRI EPSRC Open Research Fellow at the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences of Heriot-Watt University & Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He leads pioneering research advancing the statistical foundations of quantitative and scientific imaging, shaping how image data are used as rigorous quantitative evidence, and forging deep connections between statistical, variational, and machine learning approaches to imaging. His leadership and contributions have been recognized through multiple prestigious awards, most recently a five-year fulltime EPSRC Open Fellowship to drive the next generation of breakthroughs in statistical imaging sciences based on physics-informed generative artificial intelligence. Prof. Pereyra will join Imperial College London in 2027 as Chair in Statistical Machine Learning in the Department of Mathematics.

Prof. Pereyra received the SIAM SIGEST Award in Imaging Sciences for his contributions to Bayesian imaging in 2022. He has held Invited Professor positions at Institut Henri Poincaré (Paris, 2019), Université Paris Cité (2022), Ecole Normale Superiéure Lyon (2023), Université Paris Cité (2024) and Centralle Lille (2025). He is also the recipient of a UKRI EPSRC Open Research Fellowship (2025), a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development (2013), a Brunel Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Statistics (2012), a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from French Ministry of Defence (2012), and a Leopold Escande PhD Thesis award from the University of Toulouse (2012).