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Oxford Mathematics in partnership with the Science Museum is delighted to announce its first Public Lecture in London. World-renowned mathematician Andrew Wiles will be our speaker. Andrew will be talking about his current work and will also be in conversation with mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry after the lecture. Attendance is free.

28th November, 6.30pm, Science Museum, London, SW7 2DD

Please email @email to attend.

Oxford Mathematician Per-Gunnar Martinsson has been awarded the 2017 Germund Dahlquist Prize by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The Germund Dahlquist Prize is awarded for original contributions to fields associated with Germund Dahlquist, especially the numerical solution of differential equations and numerical methods for scientific computing.

The prize honors Martinsson for fundamental contributions to numerical analysis and scientific computing that are making a significant impact in data science applications. Specific contributions include his development of linear time algorithms for dense matrix operations related to multidimensional elliptic PDEs and integral equations; and he has made deep and innovative contributions to the development of probabilistic algorithms for the rapid solution of certain classes of large-scale linear algebra problems. 
 
Per-Gunnar is currently Professor of Numerical Analysis at the University of Oxford. Hear more from him in this Q & A.

QBIOX – Quantitative Biology in Oxford – is a new network that brings together biomedical and physical scientists from across the University who share a commitment to making biology and medicine quantitative. A wide range of bioscience research fields are interested in the behaviour of populations of cells: how they work individually and collectively, how they interact with their environment, how they repair themselves and what happens when these mechanisms go wrong. At the cell and tissue levels, similar processes are at work in areas as diverse as developmental biology, regenerative medicine and cancer, which means that common tools can be brought to bear on them.

QBIOX’s focus is on mechanistic modelling: using maths to model biological processes and refining those models in order to answer a particular biological question. Researchers now have access to more data than ever before, and using the data effectively requires a joined-up approach. It is this challenge that has encouraged Professors Ruth Baker, Helen Byrne and Sarah Waters from the Mathematical Institute to set up QBIOX. The aim is to help researchers with the necessary depth and range of specialist knowledge to open up new collaborations, and share expertise and knowledge, in order to bring about a step-change in understanding in these areas. In regenerative medicine, for example, QBIOX has brought together a team of people from across the sciences and medical sciences in Oxford who are working on problems at the level of basic stem cell science right through to translational medicine that will have real impacts on patients.

A look at the list of QBIOX collaborators demonstrates that Oxford researchers from a wide range of backgrounds are already involved: from maths, statistics, physics, computer science and engineering, through to pathology, oncology, cardiology and infectious disease. QBIOX is encouraging any University researcher with an interest in quantitative biology to join the network. It runs a programme of activities to catalyse interactions between members. For example, QBIOX’s termly colloquia offer opportunities for academics to showcase research that is of interest to network members, and there are regular smaller meetings that look in detail at specific topics. QBIOX also has funding for researchers who would like to run small meetings to scope out the potential for using theoretical and experimental techniques to tackle new problems in the biosciences.

The QBIOX website has details of all the activities run by the network, as well as relevant events taking place across the University. If you have events you would like to feature here, just complete the contact form. You can also sign up to be a collaborator and to receive QBIOX’s termly newsletter.

We have an exciting series of Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures this Autumn. Summary below and full details here. All will be podcast and on Facebook Live. We also have a London Lecture by Andrew Wiles on 28 November (details will follow separately). Please email @email to register for the lectures below.

Closing the Gap: the quest to understand prime numbers - Vicky Neale

18 October, 5.00-6.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

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Maths v Disease - Julia Gog

1 November, 5.00-6.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

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The Seduction of Curves: The Lines of Beauty That Connect Mathematics, Art and The Nude - Allan McRobie

13 November, 5.00-6.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

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Oxford Mathematics Christmas Public Lecture - Alex Bellos, title tbc

6 December, 5.00-6.00pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

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Please email @email to register

Medicines are key to disease treatment but are not without risk. Some patients get untoward side effects, some get insufficient relief. The human genome project promises to revolutionise modern health-care. However, there are 3 billion places where a human’s DNA can be different. Just where are the genes of interest in sufferers of complex chronic conditions? Which genes are implicated the most in which disease in which patients? Which genes are involved in a beneficial response to a medicine? Which genes might be predictive of drug-induced adverse events? Collaborative industrial research by Oxford Mathematics' Clive Bowman seeks to tackle these areas to enable drug discovery companies to develop appropriate treatments.

The Royal Society Industrial Fellowship research at the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (OCIAM) extends stochastic insights from communication theory into producing easy-to-interpret visualisations for biotech use. Interacting determinants of the illnesses or adverse syndromes can be displayed as heatmaps or coded networks that highlight potential targets against which chemists can rationally design drugs. All types of measured data can be used simultaneously and dummy synthetic indicators such as pathways or other ontologies can be added for clarity. Heterogeneity is displayed automatically allowing understanding of why some people get a severe disease (or drug response) and others a mild syndrome, as well as other variations, for example due to someone’s ethnicity.

Helped by this mathematics the hope is that the right drug can be designed for the right patient and suffering alleviated efficiently with the minimum risk for the individual. For fuller detail on Clive's work please click here.

The image above shows a drug adverse event example (please click on the image). Clockwise from top left: Drug molecule (by Fvasconcellos); heat map showing patients with severe (red) or mild (blue) syndrome in multidimensional information space (courtesy of Dr O Delrieu); two aetiological subnetworks to syndrome; 3D animation display of results with dummy indicator variables.

Oxford Mathematician Ulrike Tillmann FRS has been elected a member of the Council of the Royal Society. The Council consists of between 20 and 24 Fellows and is chaired by the President.

Founded in the 1660s, the Royal Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. The Royal Society's motto 'Nullius in verba' is taken to mean 'take nobody's word for it'. 

Ulrike specialises in algebraic topology and has made important contributions to the study of the moduli space of algebraic curves.

An Oxford-led project to improve the lives of people living in cities in developing countries has been awarded £7 million.

An international team working on The PEAK Program and led by Professor Michael Keith, Co-Director of the University of Oxford Future of Cities programme and involving researchers from all four academic divisions across Oxford including Oxford Mathematicians Peter Grindrod and Neave Clery has received the grant from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) funded through the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The funds will be used over five years to foster a generation of urban scholars working in the field of humanities, science and social science to enable cities to meet the needs of their future inhabitants and help manage their growth. Michael Keith said “We aim to grow a new generation of interdisciplinary urbanists and a network of smarter cities working together across Africa, China, India, Colombia and the UK.”

In particular the mathematics of urban living, with a growing wave of data becoming available, and its potential input into policy, is a critical part of any future urban planning. The PEAK grant will support Neave and three other Oxford Mathematics Postdoctoral Researchers (PDRAs) who will spend time at partner sites abroad - in turn PDRAs from abroad will visit Oxford to share learning.  

With the passing of Landon T. Clay on 29 July, Oxford Mathematics has lost a treasured friend whose committed support and generosity were key factors in the recent development of the Mathematical Institute. The support of Landon and his wife Lavinia was the indispensible mainstay of the project to create the magnificent new home for Oxford Mathematics in the Andrew Wiles Building; the building is a symbol of the enduring legacy of their insightful, incisive support for mathematics and science. Landon's membership of the University of Oxford's Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors also recognised the breadth of his support for many parts of the University, always with a sharp emphasis on supporting excellence.

Landon Clay was the Founder of the Clay Mathematics Institute, which has had a profoundly beneficial effect on the progress and appreciation of research into fundamental mathematics. He will perhaps be best remembered for his inspired creation of the Millennium Prizes: these have the crucial feature that they draw the public’s attention to the fundamental importance of the prize problems themselves, in contrast to the focus on the prize-winners as is the case with the other great prizes of mathematics.

The Clay Mathematics Institute, directed from the President’s Office in the Andrew Wiles Building, supports mathematical excellence in many other ways. In particular, the Clay Research Fellowships give the brightest young mathematicians in the world five years of freedom to develop their ideas free of financial concerns and institutional demands. The fruits of this programme can be implied from the fact that three of the four Fields Medallists at the International Congress in 2014 were former Clay Fellows.

The ramifications of Landon Clay’s generous and astutely directed support for mathematics will echo long into the future. A fuller account of his life and the range of his philanthropy can be found on the Clay Mathematics Institute website.

Photograph by Robert Schoen, 2004

Ocford Mathematician Nick Trefethen FRS has been awarded the George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) "for the exceptionally well-expressed accumulated insights found in his books, papers, essays, and talks... His enthusiastic approach to his subject, his leadership, and his delight at the enlightenment achieved are unique and inspirational, motivating others to learn and do applied mathematics through the practical combination of deep analysis and algorithmic dexterity."

Nick is Professor of Numerical Analysis and Head of the Numerical Analysis Group here in Oxford. 

Oxford Mathematicians Stephen Haben and Peter Grindrod and colleagues have won an outstanding certificate as part of the new IIF Tao Hong Award for papers in energy forecasting published in the International Journal of Forecasting.

The paper, 'A new error measure for forecasts of household-level, high resolution electrical energy consumption,' provides high-quality verification tools for load forecasts, which are essential in managing power systems. This is particularly helpful for work on demand profiling in the residential sector, where the temporal resolution of data has increased rapidly in recent years.