Last chance to book for the Mathematical Institute Garden Party - Saturday 16 July 2011, 16:00

Professor Caroline Series speaks on “Indra’s Pearls,” the patterns created by iterating conformal maps of the complex plane called Möbius transformations, and their connections with symmetry and self-similarity

Lecture in the Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, followed by a reception at St Anne’s College

Further details and registration form
Registration closes on: Friday 8 July 2011

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 07 Jul 2011 - 09:50.

University Internet link failure

The University's link to JANET, that links us on to the internet is currently down. OUCS had already scheduled work for Tuesday morning, 28th June, at 7am to fix this so it is possible there will be no internet connection until then. We are sorry for the obvious inconvenience this will cause.

Update: It looks like the internet is back, at least partially. Further failures may follow until tomorrow.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 27 Jun 2011 - 22:02.

Oxford wins the Woolly Owl Trophy

The 15th Biennial Oxford/Cambridge Applied Mathematics Meeting was won by Oxford.  The Woolly Owl Trophy is now back in the halls of OCIAM in Dartington House.

This event has taken place biennially since 1983. Fifteen minute talks are given by young researchers. They are judged by two distinguished academics from other institutions who award the winning university the coveted Woolly Owl.  However, this year there were three judges: John Harper (Victoria University of Wellington, NZ), Arash Yavari (Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA), Sharon Stephen (University of Birmingham, UK).

Speakers and talks are listed on the OCIAM web pages.  The next event will be hosted by Cambridge in 2013.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 21 Jun 2011 - 16:04.

Final Stage Approval of the Mathematical Institute New Building by the University Council

We are delighted to report the recent final stage approval of the Mathematical Institute new building by the University Council. With this approval, construction is set to commence later this summer with a projected two year build timeline. We plan to be settled in to the new building for the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year.

However, this does not mean that work to secure funding will cease. We aim to raise another £19.3M in addition to the £10.1M which has been raised to date. This will ensure that the department enters the new building in a good financial position, fully able to make the best use of the new, inspiring environment. We look forward to providing you with news and updates on the building as work progresses.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 10 Jun 2011 - 08:55.

Department takes part in World IPv6 Day

The 8th June 2011 is World IPv6 Day.

The department is showing its support for this event by enabling IPv6 connectivity to several of its websites:

The last unreserved IPv4 address blocks were allocated at the end of January 2011.

You can click here to see if you're accessing the Maths website via IPv6.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 07 Jun 2011 - 08:01.

Emergency work to repair mail server

It appears the departmental mail server developed a problem around 11pm last night. The problem is being investigated and we hope to restore service soon.

Service restored at 11:15am.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 30 May 2011 - 10:29.

Making the Department Greener

Over the last few years the department has increased its efforts to be greener in various ways, e.g. reducing the amount of energy it uses, wasting less, recycling more, donating old equipment to charities for reuse etc.

A Green IT system for desktop computers around the department was phased in at the beginning of 2010. The aim of the system design is to be as unobtrusive as possible whilst saving lots of energy. Based on feedback from users, monitoring user habits and other experience the system was thus designed to be fully automatic and hence does not rely on the user having to remember to turn off the PC (although they do need to logout). The system has been highly successful (the most successful within the university) and is the major contributor to a 23% reduction in the total electricity usage compared to 2009 figures available. The green IT system uses free tools and is well documented so others can make use of the work elsewhere.

Efforts have also been made to reduce the electricity consumed by air conditioning and heating around the department. With 3 old buildings all with different inefficiencies this is not always easy. However, the department has produced some common sense guidance for the use of air conditioning and heating, and where possible automatically manages the air conditioning systems.

The department is planning to move to a single new building on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site in Summer 2013. Green measures and energy efficiency have been at the heart of the design process from the beginning. Within the maths building space there will be a site wide energy centre utilising ground source heat pumps and a biomass boiler, and the majority of the building will be naturally ventilated. The building will also have facilities for secure bike parking and showering to further encourage cycling. The building is targeting BREEAM excellent standard.

On a related note the Oxfordshire Cycle Challenge is into its last week. So far not many people within the department have logged journeys but hopefully this will rise in the last few days to help both the departmental and overall university totals.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 23 May 2011 - 14:21.

Daniel Gray Quillen

With great regret we announce the death, on 30 April 2011, of Daniel Gray Quillen, Waynflete Professor of Mathematics from 1984 to 2006. Details of memorial events will be added in due course.

Please contact us with feedback and comments about this page. Created on 03 May 2011 - 17:13.