What was your highlight of 2023? 

Without doubt, Conrad Shawcross' exhibition of over 40 mathematically inspired artworks has been one of ours, not only attracting visitors to our building who would not otherwise visit a mathematics building, but also inspiring our mathematicians to think about their own field and work. A gallery of art in a gallery of minds.

Mathematical modelling played a key role in describing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic; now a different kind of maths is helping us understand how immune cells interact in the lungs of patients with severe COVID-19.

In a damaged lung with a massive immune cell infiltrate, as seen with severe COVID-19 infection, it can be difficult to figure out which cells are involved in causing lung injury. 

For the first several centuries of its existence, an education at the University of Oxford entailed a basic grounding in a range of different subjects, rather than the specialised study of a single discipline. The goal was to turn out well-rounded individuals rather than narrow experts.  Nevertheless, the university often tried, wherever possible, to provide advanced instruction in specific areas for those students who were interested.