Alison Etheridge FRS, Professor of Probability in the University of Oxford, has been named Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). Professor Etheridge received the award for outstanding research on measure-valued stochastic processes and applications to population biology; and for international leadership and impressive service to the profession.
Each Fellow nominee is assessed by a committee of their peers for the award. In 2016, after reviewing 50 nominations, 16 were selected for Fellowship. Created in 1935, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics is a member organisation which fosters the development and dissemination of the theory and applications of statistics and probability. An induction ceremony took place on July 11 at the World Congress in Probability and Statistics in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
This summer, about 200 teenagers will take part in mathematical summer schools hosted by Oxford Mathematics in the Mathematical Institute. Here is their story.
First to arrive were the 24 students from 15 countries across Europe who are taking part in PROMYS Europe, a six-week mathematical programme run by a partnership of PROMYS, the Mathematical Institute in Oxford, the Clay Mathematics Institute, and Wadham College, University of Oxford. As one student attending for the first time put it, "At PROMYS we do not learn Maths; we discover it. This gives us a much better understanding of the basics on which all other Maths is built".
PROMYS has run in Boston, USA for more than 25 years, and this year sees the second occurrence of the new PROMYS Europe programme. Thanks to generous support from the organising partners and donors, selection for the programme is needs-blind, with partial and full financial support for those participants who would otherwise not be able to attend. The super-keen students are joined this summer by 7 undergraduate 'counsellors', also from across Europe (and including two current Oxford students), with teaching from Glenn Stevens (Boston University), Henry Cohn (Microsoft Research), Vicky Neale (Oxford) and David Conlon (Oxford), and guest lectures by mathematicians from Oxford and beyond. One counsellor, who also attended PROMYS as a student, observed "Three years ago, when I entered the PROMYS family, I learned one of the most important lessons - one should be taught how to think, not what to think - and this is exactly what this program does."
The Andrew Wiles Building is an ideal venue for hosting summer schools such as these, and indeed with careful planning can accommodate not one but three simultaneous events. The university's one-week UNIQ summer schools are for UK students about to enter their final year at school, to give them a taste of what it is like to study at Oxford, with priority being given to applicants from low socio-economic backgrounds and/or from areas with low progression to higher education. Demand for mathematics and statistics is high, and this year Rebecca Cotton-Barratt, the Schools Liaison Officer and Admissions Coordinator in the Mathematical Institute, and Mareli Grady, the Schools Liaison Officer in the Statistics Department, have between them coordinated three UNIQ summer schools, giving over 80 students the inspiring experience of studying Mathematics in Oxford. Reflecting at the end of the week, students commented "I thought I wasn’t good enough to apply but I will be applying now as I have gained more confidence", and "really enjoyable with lots of variety in various fields", and, interestingly, "I don’t want to go home now".
Later in the summer, we are looking forward to welcoming two summer schools organised by the UK Mathematics Trust. The National Mathematics Summer School and Summer School for Girls are each for around 40 students aged 15 and 16, invited to participate on the basis of their outstanding performance in national mathematics competitions. They give students a taste of mathematics beyond the school curriculum, as well as exploring more familiar material in depth, with an emphasis on problem solving and collaborative work. The teams of staff leading these summer schools include alumni, students and staff from Oxford Mathematics, and we are delighted to host these events.
All in all, the schools demonstrate that there is a passion for the subject of mathematics, a passion Oxford and its partners are keen to nurture for the long-term educational, scientific and economic benefits it will bring.
Oxford Mathematician Dominic Joyce FRS has won the 2016 LMS (London Mathematical Society) Fröhlich Prize "for his profound and wide-ranging contributions to differential and algebraic geometry." Dominic is Professor of Mathematics and Senior Research Fellow at Lincoln College. His research is, in his own words, "mostly in Differential Geometry, with occasional forays into some more esoteric areas of Theoretical Physics."
Oxford Mathematician James Maynard has been awarded a European Mathematical Society Prize at the 7th European Congress of Mathematics in Berlin. The prizes are awarded every four years in recognition of excellence in mathematics to ten individuals under the age of 35 living or working in Europe.
In the words of the judges James was awarded the prize for "his remarkable and deep results in analytic number theory, dealing especially with the distribution of primes. He is recognised in particular for his new proof, with improved estimates, of the 'small gaps between the primes theorem'."
In addition to James, Geordie Williamson, formerly a researcher in Oxford Mathematics was also awarded a prize for his "fundamental contributions to the representation theory of Lie algebra and algebraic groups, including his proof of Seorgel's conjecture on bimodules associated to Coxeter groups, and his startling counterexamples to the expected bounds in Lustig's conjecture on the characters of rational representations of algebraic groups."
Vicky Neale from Oxford Mathematics has won an MPLS (Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences) Teaching Award for her innovative and entertaining undergraduate teaching. Using blogs and tips to back up her lectures, Vicky's expansive approach has led to widespread praise from the toughest of critics, namely the students themselves.
Vicky is Whitehead Lecturer at Oxford, a post dedicated to the wider communication of mathematics. She regularly gives public lectures, including the prestigious London Mathematical Society Popular Lectures in 2013 and runs workshops for schools and teenagers including PROMYS Europe. She is also a regular guest on radio including BBC Radio 4's' Start the Week' and 'In Our Time'.
The MPLS awards are part of the University of Oxford's commitment to the highest standards of teaching across all its departments.
How can we explain the patterns of genetic variation in the world around us? The genetic composition of a population can be changed by natural selection, mutation, mating, and other genetic, ecological and evolutionary mechanisms. How do they interact with one another, and what was their relative importance in shaping the patterns we see today?
In our latest Oxford Mathematics Public Lecture Alison Etheridge FRS, Professor of Probability in the University of Oxford explores the remarkable power of simple mathematical caricatures in interrogating modern genetic data.
Oxford Mathematician Heather Harrington will be giving the London Mathematical Society (LMS) Popular Lectures this summer in London on 29 June and in September in Birmingham. The Lectures present exciting topics in mathematics and its applications to a wide audience and feature two lecturers who have been chosen for their mathematical distinction and communication skills.
Heather's talk will be titled "the Shape of Data in Biology' and will focus on how computational developments in abstract mathematics can provide new insights in to the vast amounts of data generated by biological systems. The lectures are free but booking is required.
Oxford Mathematician Maria Bruna has won a prestigiousL'Oréal UK & Ireland Fellowship For Women in Science. Launched in January 2007, the Fellowships are awards offered by a partnership between L'Oréal UK & Ireland, the UK National Commission for UNESCO and the Irish National Commission for UNESCO, with the support of the Royal Society. Five Fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding female postdoctoral researchers. Each worth £15,000, the Fellowships are tenable at any UK or Irish university / research institute to support a 12-month period of postdoctoral research in any area of the life and physical sciences, mathematics and engineering.
The Fellowships have been designed to provide practical help for the winners to undertake research in their chosen fields. For example, winners may choose to spend their fellowship on buying scientific equipment, paying for child care costs, travel costs or indeed whatever they may need to continue their research.
Maria's research interests lie in the stochastic modelling of interacting particle systems, with applications for explaining how individual-level mechanisms give rise to population-level behaviour in biology and ecology. She is the first mathematician to win a fellowship.
A tree branch, a ram's horn, your hand - how have these distinct and consistent shapes come about? The growth and form of a biological entity is a complex matter that involves integrated activities across a number of length scales. Viewed at the scale of tissues, or large clusters of cells, understanding growth and form is a problem well suited for continuum mechanics and mathematical modelling.
Find out more about how this applies not only to your hands, but to rubber balls and even stalks of rhubarb in the latest in the Oxford Mathematics Alphabet series.
The Mathematical Institute has struck gold in this years Green Impact Awards, adding to the silver and bronze awards received in the preceeding two years. The Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) division as a whole continues to go from strength to strength and this year four departments received the highest level gold award. The scheme is now in its third year in the university and has grown to involve over 200 people representing over 40 departments/teams.
Green Impact, the University’s main engagement programme is all about making small changes that add up to make a big difference. Changes are made by staff and students within their working environment, whether a department or building, laboratory or college. Green Impact sees teams recognised at four levels: working towards bronze, bronze, silver, and gold. 45 teams took part across the University this year with 16 teams reaching the gold level, an outstanding achievement.
The evening was hosted by Pro-Vice-Chancellor William James and President of the Oxford University Student Union Becky Howe and took place at the new Blavatnik School of Government Building.
Guest presenters and speakers included: Vice-Chancellor Professor Louise Richardson; Neil Jennings, National Union of Students; Calum Miller Chief Operating Office of Blavatnik School of Government; last year’s Green Impact staff award winner Sue Henderson from the Chemistry Department; Paul Goffin, Director of Estates; Professor Mark Pollard, Associate Head of Social Sciences Division (Research); Professor Donal Bradley, Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences (MPLS) Division; Professor Alastair Buchan, Dean of Medicine and Head of Medical Sciences Division; Alan Rusbridger, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall; and Harriet Waters, Head of Environmental Sustainability.
