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 Mathematical Institute is delighted to be hosting a major exhibition of artist Kathleen Hyndman's mathematical 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.
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.’
Happy New Year. And as it's a new year, as usual we have lots of student lectures which you can watch for free. We have already started with Andy Wathen introducing Complex Numbers to our first years and Alain Goriely, complete with 3D print out (picture) explaining the geometry and eavesdropping potential of Conics to the same group.
What's to come? Well, there are lectures on Quantum Mechanics, Complex Analysis, Probability, Information Theory, Mathematical Biology, Algebraic Topology and the History of Mathematics. That should take us through to the welcome days of spring.
We all have to live with uncertainty. We attribute good and bad events as ‘due to chance’, label people as ‘lucky’, and (sometimes) admit our ignorance. In this Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture David shows how to use the theory of probability to take apart all these ideas, and demonstrate how you can put numbers on your ignorance, and then measure how good those numbers are.
David Spiegelhalter was Cambridge University's first Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk. He is the author of 'The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck' (Penguin, September 2024).
Two Oxford Mathematicians are among four University of Oxford researchers who have been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grants, part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme. These grants, totalling €678 million this year, aim to support outstanding scientists and scholars as they establish their independent research teams and develop their most promising scientific ideas.
ERC Consolidator Grants are highly competitive; this year 328 proposals were selected from 2313 applications, a success rate of 14.2%. Each of the Oxford recipients will receive up to €2 million over five years.
Dawid Kielak works in Geometric Group Theory, an area on the intersection of Algebra, Geometry, and Topology. He is particularly interested in the notion of “fibring”, the concept that a complex space may be understood as a simpler, lower dimensional structure changing over time. An example of this is space-time: a four-dimensional universe that can be viewed as a three-dimensional space evolving in time.
‘It turns out that the symmetries of the “universe” we are studying can reveal a lot about potential fibrings’ Dawid says. ‘I am looking for situations where these symmetries provide a complete picture as to whether fibring is possible. Using this grant, I aim to demonstrate that “negatively curved universes” (hyperbolic manifolds) with an odd number of dimensions always admit fibring, if small adjustments are made. This property is already known to hold for three-dimensional manifolds, and I will investigate how it extends to higher dimensions.
Mark Mezei's research focuses on the behaviour of interacting particles in the quantum world, which has applications ranging from early quantum computers to understanding black holes. Recent breakthroughs have enabled scientists to better control experimental quantum systems and produce new solvable models to study chaotic systems with many particles. Professor Mezei aims to uncover which insights from these studies are unique to specific systems and which apply universally across a wide variety of physical scenarios.
‘My approach uses a mathematical framework called Effective Field Theory, which can explain universal patterns in systems as varied as large networks, turbulent fluids, and nuclear interactions’ says Mark. ‘The goal is to adapt this powerful tool to study the chaotic behaviour of quantum systems with large numbers of particles. Besides enabling us to better understand these systems, this could ultimately provide predictions for quantum computing beyond the microwave range, and even new technologies in telecommunications, medicine, and remote sensing.’
