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Oxford Mathematics is delighted to announce that Professor Sam Cohen has been chosen as one of seven Public Engagement with Research Leaders in the University of Oxford.

Mathematical research is an integral part of all our lives, though many people are blissfully unaware of the connection. Sam's role will be to encourage colleagues to explain that connection and to find smart and entertaining ways for them to do it, building on our mix of Public Lectures, Research Case-studies and social media.

Sam's own research is in stochastic analysis and mathematical finance. Beyond mathematics, he has interests in philosophy and Christian theology. Watch this space.

Oxford Mathematician Sarah Waters has been elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. Sarah's research is in physiological fluid mechanics, tissue biomechanics and the application of mathematics to problems in medicine and biology. In the words of the citation Sarah was elected "for exposing the intricate fluid mechanics of biomedical systems and impactfully analyzing them with elegant mathematics.” 

Oxford Mathematican Nick Trefethen has been elected to the Academia Europaea. Nick is Professor of Numerical Analysis in Oxford, a Fellow of Balliol College and Head of Oxford Mathematics's Numerical Analysis Group. He has published around 140 journal papers spanning a wide range of areas within numerical analysis and applied mathematics, including non-normal eigenvalue problems and applications, spectral methods for differential equations, numerical linear algebra, fluid mechanics, computational complex analysis, and approximation theory.

Nick will be an invited speaker at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics in Slovenia in 2020.

Oxford Mathematics is part of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division (MPLS) here in Oxford and every year the division gives teaching and equality and diversity awards in recognition of the fact that teaching and the learning environment are at the very core of what we are about and from where all future success will derive.

This year Oxford Mathematicians were successful in various ways. In the teaching category Mareli Grady (who splits her time with the Department of Statistics) won for raising awareness of mathematics and engagement with the public through the Oxford Maths Festival; while Ian Griffiths, Sam Cohen and Frances Kirwan were recognised for their work on Fridays@4, an initiative which since 2015-16 has enhanced graduate students' study skills and their long-term educational development, and helped integrate students within the department.

Under the equality and diversity heading the Outstanding Contribution by a Staff Member – Student Choice Award is made to an individual (academic, researcher or administrator), nominated by a student or group of students, who has made an important contribution to advancing equality and diversity. Dominic Vella from Oxford Mathematics was nominated for creating and fostering a diverse and inclusive research group, with people from many different countries, socio-economic and educational backgrounds, and varying ethnic, gender and age profile.

The Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine has announced the winners of the Martin Black Prize for 2019, which is awarded for the best paper published in Physiological Measurement.

The winner was 'Big data in Parkinson’s disease: using smartphones to remotely detect longitudinal disease phenotypes’ by Oxford Mathematician Siddharth Arora and John Prince and Maarten de Vos from Oxford's Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Engineering Science respectively.

The paper's objective was to better understand the longitudinal characteristics of Parkinson’s disease through the analysis of finger tapping and memory tests collected remotely using smartphones. More on Siddharth's work can be found here.

Three Oxford Mathematicians have been awarded 2019 London Mathematical Society (LMS) Prizes.

Andrew Wiles has been awarded a De Morgan Medal for his seminal contributions to number theory and for his resolution of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’ in particular, as well as for his numerous activities promoting mathematics in general.

Ben Green has been awarded a Senior Whitehead Prize for his groundbreaking results in additive combinatorics, analytic number theory and group theory.

David Conlon has been awarded a Whitehead Prize in recognition of his many contributions to combinatorics. His particular expertise is Ramsey Theory, where he has made fundamental contributions to both the arithmetic and graph-theoretic sides of the subject. 

Oxford Mathematician Matthew Butler has been awarded the biennial Lighthill-Thwaites Prize for 2019. The prize is awarded by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications to researchers who have spent no more than five years in full-time study or work since completing their undergraduate degrees.

Matthew's research focuses on fluid dynamics, particulary flows at low Reynolds number involving surface tension and interactions with elastic boundaries. His talk at the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium 2019 where the prize was awarded was entitled 'Sticking with droplets: Insect-inspired modelling of capillary adhesion" and focused on how having a deformable foot can be beneficial when trying to adhere to a substrate using the surface tension of a fluid droplet. In his PhD Matthew is studying insect adhesion, and in particular how insects can utilise physical laws to improve their ability to stick to surfaces.

Oxford Mathematician Doireann O'Kiely won the prize in 2017 and Laura Kimpton, also from Oxford, won it in 2013. Oxford Mathematician Jessica Williams was also a finalist this year.

Oxford Mathematician Artur Ekert has been awarded a Micius Quantum Prize 2019 (Theory category) for his invention of entanglement-based quantum key distribution, entanglement swapping, and entanglement purification. The prizes recognise the scientists who have made outstanding contributions in the field of quantum mechanics and the 2019 prizes focus on the field of quantum communication. 

Artur Ekert is one of the leaders in the Quantum Cryptography field. His research extends over most aspects of information processing in quantum-mechanical systems and brings together theoretical and experimental quantum physics, computer science and information theory. Its scope ranges from deep fundamental issues in physics to prospective commercial exploitation by the computing and communications industries.

Oxford Physicist and close colleague of Artur's, David Deutsch was also awarded a prize in the Quantum Computation Theory Category.

The Micius prizes are awarded by the Micius Quantum Foundation. The Foundation is named after Micius, a Chinese philosopher who lived in the fifth century BC.

Oxford Mathematician Jon Chapman and Visiting Fellow Mason Porter have been made Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).

Jon is Professor of Mathematics and its Applications here in Oxford and a Fellow of Mansfield College. His research interests cover a vast range of the Applied Mathematics landscape including industrial mathematics, mathematical modelling, matched asymptotic expansions, partial differential equations, mathematical physiology, tumour growth and nonlinear models of biological tissue.

In the words of his citation Jon is being recognized "for his outstanding contributions to physical and biological modeling as well as for his asymptotic methods development in applied mathematics."

Mason is a former member of the Oxford Mathematics Faculty and remains a Visiting Fellow as well as holding a full-time position as a Professor of Mathematics at UCLA in the United States. Mason's work spans a wide range of interests including nonlinear science, nonlinear dynamics and chaos, nonlinear waves, quantum chaos, network science, social network analysis and mathematical biology. Mason was cited for his "contributions to diverse problems and applications in networks, complex systems, and nonlinear systems."

Oxford Mathematician Kristian Kiradjiev has won the Gold Award in the Mathematical Sciences category at this year’s STEM for Britain at the House of Commons on 13th March. This prestigious competition provides an opportunity for researchers to communicate their research to parliamentarians.  

Kristian’s poster covered his research into the mathematical modelling of flue-gas purification and the removal of toxic chemicals from the gas.

As reported last week, Kristian was one of three Oxford Mathematicians presenting in the Commons.