Mathematical Institute Bulletin

Congratulations to Ehud Hrushovski who has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). For furtherdetails please see the department's news item.

In light of the recent announcement of a recruitment freeze across the University, please ensure that you speak to the HR Team before offering any casual engagement, extension to fixed-term contract or job offer. The HR Team can be best contacted at @email or @email.

 To avoid any delay or disappointment, we will support you to ensure that any appropriate protocol approval required is in place before offers are made to employees / candidates.

Please remember to send items for inclusion in the bulletin to @email, ideally by Thursday afternoon. Thank you!

As we all continue to work remotely, vigilance against phishing remains ever more important. Everyone in the department has a part to play in this.
 
When you use email please make sure your have your email PPE to hand to significantly reduce the likelihood that you fall foul of phishing, which will lead to inconvenience for you, and substantial support time consumed to track, trace, isolate and resolve the issues, and get you back in action. In more serious cases it could even lead to lost email/files, compromised confidential personal information, requirement for an investigation, a report to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and potentially a hefty fine for the university. This is something we all would wish to avoid!
 
Read more about email 'phishing; PPE; track, trace and isolate; and herd immunity'
 
In particular note it is compulsory for all university staff to complete the information security awareness training at least annually (and a substantial proportion of department staff have received a personal reminder email on 15/4/2020 that they need to refresh this asap). Whilst the training is not currently made compulsory by the university for students or retired staff it is arguably well worth all department members completing it. The training is not perfect, nor is it a vaccine that will make you immune to phishing, and its effects tend to wear off over time, nevertheless it is still a key part of staying operational, saving inconvenience and consequences, and avoiding costly wasted time for you and others.
 
Overall, please do your bit, so for the phishers, who will never go away, it is less  like 'shooting fish in a barrel' and closer to 'trying to get blood from a stone'.

4pm, Virtual (see below for joining instructions)

Guidance in applying for EPSRC fellowships

Laura McDonnell (UKRI EPSRC)

In this session, Laura will explain the process of applying for an EPSRC fellowship. In particular, there will be a discussion on the Future Leaders Fellowships, New Investigator Awards and Standard Grant applications. There will also be a discussion on applying for EPSRC funding more generally. Laura will answer any questions that people have. 

To join Fridays@4 please log into the website and follow the joining link, which will be available at https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/35759.

Are you spending more time on your creative hobbies during lockdown? Do they (or could they) have connections to maths?

 We are looking to curate an online exhibition of creative mathematical items to be shared on social media platforms. This can be painting, sculpting, baking, dancing, knitting, music, poetry, dance, video graphics or whatever else you are keeping busy with. Be as creative as you dare!

 If you’d like to submit an item for our exhibition, please send

1. A photo or short (no more than 80 seconds) video
2. A short paragraph (no more than 100 words) explaining the Mathematics behind your piece of art
3. Your name and whether you are UG/PG/ECR/Faculty
4. Permission to use your creation on the University’s social media channels.

to exhibits@maths.ox.ac.uk by 15 May to be considered for inclusion in the launch of the exhibition. Please send this from your university email account.

 We will continue to take submissions on a rolling basis to be added afterwards.

 The first 10 published submissions will receive a £30 Amazon voucher.

The undergraduate open days scheduled for July will not go ahead as planned due to coronavirus.  The University is committed to ensuring prospective applicants have alternative online opportunities to discover Oxford, and work is now underway to develop resources to replace the events. Further information will follow as soon as possible, and we will be asking for colleagues to share their expertise and support in delivering these plans. If you have any immediate concerns or queries, please contact @email and please encourage open day enquirers to sign up for the latest news from undergraduate admissions and outreach.  We currently hope that the 18 September open day will run but realise this may not be possible if social distancing is still in place.