In this Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture Gábor Domokos will use the geometric theory of tilings to describe natural patterns ranging from nanoscale to planetary scale, appearing in physics, biology, and geology.
Rock fragments can be modelled by polyhedra having, on average, six flat faces and eight sharp vertices, reflecting Plato’s postulate of pairing the element Earth with the cube. If we depart from polyhedra and admit curved faces then we can tile space without any sharp corners with a new class of shapes, called soft cells, which appear in both living and non-living nature.
Wednesday 30 April 2025, 17:00 - 18.00, Mathematical Institute, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, OX2 6GG
This lecture will be premiered on our YouTube Channel on Thursday 22 May at 5pm (and any time after). No need to register for the online version.
Gábor Domokos is a research professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He is best known for proving a conjecture of V.I. Arnold by constructing, with Péter Várkonyi, the Gömböc, the first homogeneous, convex shape with just one stable and one unstable static equilibrium. Since then he has developed geometrical models of natural shapes and their evolution, including Martian pebbles, turtles shells, planetary crack patterns, rock fragments, asteroids, ooids, supramolecular structures and, most recently, soft cells.
The Oxford Mathematics PublicLectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.
Information Theory, formalised by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, is one of the planks of 20th and 21st century science. You can now watch eight lectures we're showing from Sam Cohen's popular 3rd year Oxford Mathematics course, part of our aim of making more of our teaching visible to a wider audience.
In addition we are also showing five lectures from Jan Obloj's 'Probability, Measure and Martingales' course. What is a martingale? Well, a horse's harness, sailboat rigging, a coat, a prostitute, and a double your bet gambling strategy. And, best of all, a mathematical stochastic process and the topic of Jan Obloj's 3rd year course.
You can watch the first Information Theory lecture below and the full set here. The martingale lectures will roll out over the next few weeks and you can watch the first one here.
All first and second year lectures are followed by tutorials where students meet their tutor in pairs to go through the lecture and associated problem sheet and to talk and think more about the maths. Third and fourth year lectures are followed by classes.
The Mathematical Institute is delighted to be hosting a major exhibition of artist Kathleen Hyndman's mathematically inspired work.
The exhibition of drawings and paintings illustrate Hyndman’s desire to see nature and the world around her in mathematical sequences and geometrical patterns. Golden Section proportions and angles, prime numbers as well as Fibonacci numbers and eccentric constructions are all used to create works achieving a calm and balanced unity.
Born in Essex, Hyndman trained at Kingston-upon-Thames School of Art and exhibited widely in the UK and abroad, including MOMA Oxford and the Hayward Annual in London. As well as a full time artist, she was also a teacher and mother of two. She lived and had her studio in Kingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire and had exhibitions at Zuleika Gallery in Woodstock until her death in 2022.
The exhibition is curated by Zuleika Gallery and Professor Martin Kemp FBA, and will run until the end of the year.
Our latest series of shorts on YouTube sees us asking our mathematicians if they use their mathematics in their everyday lives, either consciously, subconsciously or not at all.
You never quite know what to expect, but geometry as a stress buster, how to empty bottles quicker, not taking the same route round a tree each time you go for a walk?
You can watch the first films via the videos below. First up is Nivedita, Graduate Student in Mathematical Physics. Next to Nivedita is Josh, postdoc in Mathematical Biology.
Many more to come including Roger Penrose (see trees above), Dame Alison Etheridge on using mathematics to play Wordle and Kit Gallagher on how he applies maths to his voluntary role in a bicycle repair shop.
Patrick has been awarded the Germund Dahlquist prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for his "broad, creative, and groundbreaking contributions to numerical solutions of partial differential equations, and the design and analysis of algorithms and software for scientific computing".
Patrick is a Professor in the Numerical Analysis group here in Oxford Mathematics and a Tutorial Fellow at Oriel College. His work focuses on the numerical solution of partial differential equations, with a particular focus on finite element methods, bifurcation analysis of nonlinear PDE, adjoint techniques, their application and automation, and preconditioners and fast solvers. He has applied numerical techniques to various applications in the areas of mixtures, renewable energy, cardiac electrophysiology, glaciology, magnetohydrodynamics, quantum mechanics, and liquid crystals.
Patrick obtained his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Galway, and his doctorate from Imperial College London in 2010. He has been awarded several prizes so far in his career including a 2021 Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society.
Patrick is also a very popular lecturer here in Oxford Mathematics and you can see him in action below Introducing algorithms to our first year students.
Germund Dahlquist (1925-2005) was a Swedish mathematician known primarily for his early contributions to the theory of numerical analysis as applied to differential equations.
The two Graduate Scholarships, generously funded by G-Research, will focus on advancing research in machine learning. They form part of a package of nine scholarships distributed between the Departments of Statistics, Computer Science and Engineering Science as well as Mathematics.
The funding aims to support students with proven and potential academic excellence, enabling departments to offer these prestigious scholarships to their very top candidates.
In addition to financial support, students in receipt of these scholarships will benefit from a range of career development opportunities offered by G-Research.
G-Research is a leading quantitative research and technology company, specialising in developing cutting-edge models and software for financial markets. Their commitment to advancing machine learning research and supporting future talent underscores their dedication to innovation and collaboration with the academic community.
In this Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture, considered one of the best we have had by our regulars, Hugo Duminil-Copin illustrates how counting can shed light on the behaviour of complex physical systems, while simultaneously revealing the need to sometimes go beyond what numbers tell us in order to unveil all the mysteries of the world around us. You can now watch the lecture on our YouTube Channel via the link below.
Hugo Duminil-Copin is a French mathematician recognised for his groundbreaking work in probability theory and mathematical physics. In 2022 he was awarded the Fields Medal, the highest distinction in mathematics.
The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.
Wound healing is a highly conserved process required for survival of an animal after tissue damage. In this Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture, Tannie will describe how we are beginning to use a combination of mathematics, physics and biology to disentangle some of the organising principles behind the complex orchestrated dynamics that lead to wound healing.
Wednesday 19 Feb 2025, 17:00, Lecture Theatre 1, Mathematical Institute, Oxford
Tanniemola Liverpool is a Professor in the Applied Mathematics Institute of the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol.
Please email @email to register to attend in person.
The lecture will be broadcast on the Oxford Mathematics YouTube Channel on Wednesday 12 March at 5-6pm and any time after (no need to register for the online version).
The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.
Want a quick flavour of who we are and what we do?
Our YouTube shorts are, unsurprisingly, short films featuring Oxford Mathematicians talking about, among other things, their research, their toys and their toothpaste. And there are also clips from our popular public lectures to whet the appetite for the full thing.
Below you get to see more of Tommy than you might expect.
Oxford Mathematician Alison Etheridge has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Mathematical Sciences.
Alison is Professor of Probability in Oxford, having worked at the Universities of Cambridge, Berkeley, Edinburgh and Queen Mary University London before returning to Oxford. Her interests have ranged from abstract mathematical problems to concrete applications with her recent work focused on mathematical modelling of population genetics. She was Head of the Department of Statistics in Oxford until August 2022.
Alison said: ‘this really is a huge honour and it's taking a while to sink in. It has made me appreciate how lucky I have been to have the support of family, friends, students, and colleagues in and beyond Oxford. And of course, it has been a huge privilege to spend so much of my career in the University of Oxford.’
