“In the year 1649 I removed to Oxford, being then Publick Professor of Geometry, of the Foundation of Sr. Henry Savile. And Mathematicks which had before been a pleasing diversion, was now to be my serious Study.”
Our latest Oxford Mathematician is John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry from 1649 to 1703, and the most influential English mathematician before the rise of Isaac Newton. His most important works were his Arithmetic of Infinitesimals and his treatise on Conic Sections, both published in the 1650s. These were full of fresh discoveries and insights and appeared at a critical time in the development of mathematics. It was through studying the former that Newton came to discover his version of the binomial theorem. Wallis’s last great mathematical work, A Treatise of Algebra, was published in his seventieth year.
Iain has recently completed his DPhil under the supervision of Prof. Endre Süli in the Numerical Analysis Group in Oxford. His research is on computational algorithms for solving a class of highly nonlinear partial differential equations called Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations. These equations arise in models of stochastic control that originate in a wide range of application areas, including engineering, finance and energy. He developed highly accurate and flexible methods for a broad class of these equations, thereby leading to significant gains in terms of computational efficiency over existing approaches. The results of his work are set out in two publications in SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, and one publication in Numerische Mathematik.
The prize is named in honour of Leslie Fox (1918-1992), Director of the Oxford University Computer Laboratory (1957-1983) and Professor of Numerical Analysis at Oxford University.
Alex Townsend is a former student of Nick Trefethen, Oxford Professor of Numerical Analysis. Second prizes were awarded to Patrick Farrell, who is currently at Oxford, and John W. Pearson, a former student of Andy Wathen in the Numerical Analysis Group at Oxford.
Congratulations to Oxford Mathematicians Dmitry Belyaev, Ian Hewitt, Derek Moulton, Christoph Reisinger, Zubin Siganporia (pictured), Robert Style, Nick Trefethen and Sarah Waters who have all won departmental teaching awards for the year.
OxTALENT is an annual competition and a ceremony designed to recognise and award colleagues and students from across the University for creative use of digital technologies in teaching, learning and outreach.
This year Thomas Woolley and William Binzi from Oxford Mathematics were awarded runner-up prizes in the Academic Podcasting category for their work with Mareli Augustyn in creating a video series of A Mathemagician’s Holiday. This workshop was originally created by Woolley, Binzi and Daniel Martin for an international trip to visit Dulwich Colleges in China. The workshop involves students getting to grips with mathematical problems all set around the theme of travel.
“We felt that teachers and schools around the UK might benefit from this workshop, but unfortunately we just cannot get to all the schools that contact us for a visit,” said Mareli when asked how the project started. “We thought that creating a video series might enable teachers to view the activities and do them in their own classrooms.”
The videos are not a perfectly produced work, but there is great interest in such material. The video series was posted on the University’s podcasting site, https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/mathematicians-holiday and received 700 views between October 2014 and May 2015. It was also placed on the TESConnect repository and viewed 420 times over the same period. The OxTALENT award was in recognition of the attempt to engage teachers and the public in Mathematics using digital media.
Congratulations to Dr Catherine Wilkins from Oxford Mathematics who has won a MPLS (Mathematical Physical and Life Sciences Division) award for teaching excellence. Oxford Teaching Awards are given either to individuals or to teams as a public acknowledgement of excellence in teaching and learning.
Patrick Farrell, Early Career Research Fellow in Applied Mathematics in Oxford, together with colleagues from the Simula Research Laboratory and Imperial College London, has won this year's 2015 Wilkinson Prize. Their award was given for their work in developing dolfin-adjoint, a package which automatically derives and solves adjoint and tangent linear equations from high-level mathematical specifications of finite element discretisations of partial differential equations. The prize will be presented at ICIAM 2015 and will consist of $3000 plus a commemorative plaque for each winner.
The Wilkinson Prize was established to honour the outstanding contributions of Dr James Hardy Wilkinson to the field of numerical software. It is awarded every four years.
The awards provide students with the opportunity to recognise excellence in teaching by nominating anyone who has 'made a difference and inspired' them while they have been at Oxford. Vicky is Whitehead Lecturer in the Mathematics Institute and at Balliol College.
InApril 2015, the London Mathematical Society's annual Women in Maths day was expanded to four days as part of the LMS 150th Anniversary celebrations, and was hosted by the Mathematical Institute in the Andrew Wiles Building.
The meeting was a huge success. About 430 school girls and teachers attended the days for school students, which featured talks, hands-on workshops and a mathematical treasure hunt around the building. A further 230 university mathematicians and mathematical scientists (undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and faculty) attended the remaining two days, which included plenary lectures, contributed talks by graduate students and postdocs, posters by undergraduates and graduate students, panel discussions, lots of opportunities for networking, and even mathematical craft.
Participants from all four days brought small photos of themselves which formed a collage showcasing the present and future of women in mathematics in the UK. In addition, the school students (and indeed slightly older mathematicians) were encouraged to write questions on post-it notes that were addressed by other participants later in the week.
As one school student said, "Everyone else here likes maths!". Participants fromThursdayandFridaysaid "As an undergraduate you see how many different possibilities you can get into... there’s so much variety", and "It’s absolutely inspiring", and "the attendance speaks for itself – this is easily one of the best attended meetings in the LMS calendar... it’s totally wonderful."
The event was made possible thanks to sponsorship from the Oxford Vice Chancellor's Diversity Fund, the London Mathematical Society, Oxford University Press, Schlumberger, Jane Street, and the three Oxford departments who organised the event (Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science).
Photos by Jennifer Balakrishnan and video filmed and edited by Mareli Augustyn.
Drones may evoke fear and possibility in equal measure, but they also are capable of giving us fresh perspectives, in this case a fascinating journey around the architecture and mathematics of the Andrew Wiles Building, from the unique Penrose tiling at the entrance to the building to the Crystal in the interior which floods light in to the lecture area below and whose shape represents the frequencies of a vibrating drum.
Oxford Mathematician and Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Marcus du Sautoy can be seen at a range of festivals and events this summer.
On Monday May 10, Marcus is at the Royal Society in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company to explore the relationship between science and storytelling. Later in the month (28 & 29 May) he shares the stage at two events at the Hay festival, the first with acclaimed mathematician Cedric Villani, the second continuing the exploration of Narrative and Truth first discussed in Oxford in January with Ben Okri and Elleke Boehmer.
In June Marcus will be performing a new show at the Glastonbury Festival (26-28 June ) called Death by Numbers with a special appearance by Death himself. and at the Wilderness Festival from 6-9 August Marcus will be giving his popular lecture on the Num8er My5teries.
