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Dr Bernd Kirchheim of the University of Oxford was awarded a Whitehead Prize for his fundamental work in several areas of real analysis. His results in geometric measure theory include a proof that rectifiable metric spaces have density one, a metric differentiation theorem, and a surprisingly powerful extension with Ambrosio of the Federer-Fleming theory of currents to general metric spaces. His results in the calculus of variations include a proof that the quasiconvex envelope of a continuously differentiable function remains continuously differentiable and a complete solution to the problem of existence of non-trivial Lipschitz self-maps of the plane whose gradients attain only finitely many values.

Marcus du Sautoy has been awarded a literary prize in Italy, the Peano Prize 2005 for the most readable book about mathematics published in Italian. Previous recipients have included Alain Connes and Keith Devlin.

Congratulations to Peter Grindrod, who is to be Visiting Professor in Industrial Mathematics for three years from July 2005

Marcus du Sautoy has been awarded a Senior Media Fellowship from the EPSRC. The fellowship will run for three years starting in October 2005. The aim of the fellowship is to continue the Institute's outreach activity by promoting mathematics on radio, TV and through the print media.

Four classes, each lasting 3 hours on Saturday mornings at the end of November and the beginning of December, were given for 40 year-9 (13 year-old) Oxfordshire school children. They were held at Queen's College. The lecturers were:

• Peter Neumann Challenges;
• Ian Tustian and David Wheeler (Warriner School, Banbury) Fill it up! --- maximisation problems
• David Acheson 1089 and all that
• Professor Sir Christopher Zeeman Gyroscopes and boomerangs.

Prof. Dominic Welsh will be a plenary speaker at the Combinatorics meeting organised by the New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in Taupo next week.

Marcus du Sautoy is presenting Mind Games on BBC4 on Mondays at 9:00 and Wednesdays at 10:00.

Jon Chapman has spent Michaelmas 2004 at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand on a Visiting Oxford Fellowship.

Dr Eamonn O'Brien (University of Auckland) is in Oxford on a two and half week visit funded by EPSRC grant GR/S86259/01. During his visit he gave a talk to the Algebra Seminar, and has also given talks in Manchester, Canterbury & Birmingham. During his visit Eamonn O'Brien and Michael Vaughan-Lee have finalized their database of groups of order p^7. They have also settled an old problem on whether every finite p-group can be generated by a set of elements all having the same order - the answer is "No".

Prof. Frances Kirwan is currently President of the London Mathematical Society, just beginning her second year of office. Nick Woodhouse is the LMS Treasurer and Brian Stewart is the LMS Education Secretary.