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.
Oxford Mathematics Visiting Fellow and Reader in Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath, Apala Majumdar has been awarded the 2019 FDM Everywoman in Tech Academic Award. This is awarded to a woman in academia who has made an outstanding contribution to technology and science and whose work has made or has the potential to make a significant long-term impact in STEM.
Apala is an applied mathematician researching fundamental mathematical theories in material science. She specialises in Liquid Crystals and has published over 40 papers to date. Moreover, Apala works to inspire female researchers globally through mentorship and is deeply committed to teaching and training young people.
Apala was nominated by Oxford Mathematician and Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (OCIAM), Alain Goriely, who said: “I cannot think of a more deserving candidate for an academic award for young women who are inspiring other female researchers around the world. Apala has single-handedly built an international network spanning four continents, making her one of the world leaders in her field and most internationally recognised of her generation."
The FDM Tech Awards take place in the week of International Women’s Day and celebrate 50 of the most talented individuals shaking up the tech industry.
Three Oxford Mathematicians, Kristian Kiradjiev, Liam Brown and Tom Crawford are to present their research in Parliament at this year’s STEM for Britain competition 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 covers his research into the mathematical modelling of flue-gas purification, Liam's poster researches computational models of cancer immunotherapy while Tom is researching the spread of pollution in the ocean.
Judged by leading academics, the gold medalist receives £2,000, while silver and bronze receive £1,250 and £750 respectively.
Oxford Mathematics' Heather Harrington is the joint winner of the 2019 Adams Prize. The prize is one of the University of Cambridge's oldest and most prestigious prizes. Named after the mathematician John Couch Adams and endowed by members of St John's College, it commemorates Adams's role in the discovery of the planet Neptune. Previous prize-winners include James Clerk Maxwell, Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking.
This year's Prize has been awarded for achievements in the field of The Mathematics of Networks. Heather's work uses mathematical and statistical techniques including numerical algebraic geometry, Bayesian statistics, network science and optimisation, in order to solve interdisciplinary problems. She is the Co-Director of the recently established Centre for Topological Data Analysis.
The Oxford Mathematics educational experience is a journey, a journey like any other educational experience. It builds on what you learn at school. It is not unfamiliar and we don't want it to invisible. But it has aspects that are different. One of these is the tutorial system. Students have lectures. But they also have tutorials based on those lectures where they sit, usually in pairs, with a tutor, go through their work and, critically, get to ask questions. It is their tutorial.
Having streamed the First Year Students' Dynamics lecture last week and interviewed the students as they left the lecture, we now present the tutorial as it happened. Even if you are not a mathematician we hope the lectures and tutorial give you an insight in to how things work in Oxford. And maybe even encourage you, or someone you know, to think about giving Oxford a go. Or just giving maths a go.
One of our aims in Oxford Mathematics is to show what it is like to be an Oxford Mathematics student. With that in mind we have started to make student course materials available and last Autumn we filmed and made available a first year lecture on Complex Numbers. And last week, as we promised, we went a step further and livestreamed a first year lecture. James Sparks was our lecturer and Dynamics his subject. In addition, we interviewed students as they left the lecture in preparation for filming a tutorial which will also be made available later this week.
It has taken over 800 years to get here, but we are delighted to be able to share what we do and show that it is both familiar and challenging. The lecture is below together with the interviews. We welcome your thoughts. The tutorial will follow.
It's Valentine's Day this Thursday (14th February in case you've forgotten) and Love AND Maths are in the air. For the first time, at 10am Oxford Mathematics will be LIVE STREAMING a 1st Year undergraduate lecture. In addition we will film (not live) a real tutorial based on that lecture.
The details:
LIVE Oxford Mathematics Student Lecture - James Sparks: 1st Year Undergraduate lecture on 'Dynamics', the mathematics of how things change with time
14th February, 10am-11am UK time
Watch live and ask questions of our mathematicians as you watch
The lecture will remain available if you can't watch live.
Interviews with students:
We shall also be filming short interviews with the students as they leave the lecture, asking them to explain what happens next. These will be posted on our social media pages.
The Mathematics of Random Systems: Analysis, Modelling and Algorithms is our new EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT), and a partnership between three world-class departments in the area of probabilistic modelling, stochastic analysis and their applications: the Mathematical Institute, Oxford, the Department of Statistics in Oxford and the Dept of Mathematics, Imperial College London. Its ambition is to train the next generation of academic and industry experts in stochastic modelling, advanced computational methods and data science.
The CDT offers a 4-year comprehensive training programme at the frontier of scientific research in probability, stochastic analysis, stochastic modelling, stochastic computational methods and applications in physics, finance, biology, healthcare and data science.
For further information and instructions on how to apply click here.
Looking for shapes and patterns isn't only a mathematical pursuit of course. Artists are also drawn to geometry. Our latest Oxford Mathematics photography exhibition is 'Urban Geometry' by Ania Ready & Magda Wolna. Ania and Magda describe their work:
"Human eyes are naturally drawn to shapes and patterns, regardless of whether they look at modern buildings or vast landscapes. We decided to focus on the geometrical beauty of the urban environment. We explore various aspects of it, or to borrow from the shared photographic and geometrical vocabulary, various “angles” of it. We play with lines, focal points, repetitions and also with our Polish heritage."
Ania and Magda are Oxfordshire-based photographers and members of the Oxford Photographic Society. The exhibition runs from 4-21 February 2019.
Oxford Mathematics is delighted to announce that Prof. Jon Keating FRS, the Henry Overton Wills Professor of Mathematics in Bristol, and Chair of the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, has been appointed to the Sedleian Professorship of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxford.
Jon has wide-ranging interests but is best known for his research in random matrix theory and its applications to quantum chaos, number theory and the Riemann zeta function. In November, he will be the next President of the LMS.
The Sedleian is regarded as the oldest of Oxford's scientific chairs and holders are simultaneously elected to fellowships at Queen's College, Oxford. Recent holders have included Brooke Benjamin (1979-1995) who did highly influential work in the areas of mathematical analysis and fluid mechanics and most recently Sir John Ball (1996-2018), who is distinguished for his work in the mathematical theory of elasticity, materials science, the calculus of variations, and infinite-dimensional dynamical systems.
