Congratulations to Kishan Patel who has won the 2014
Hansjoerg Wacker Prize of the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry. This
prize is awarded for a Masters thesis on Industrial Mathematics. Kishan completed the MSc in Scientific
Computing and Mathematical Modelling in 2012 at the University of Oxford and his dissertation on 'Imaging
with X-Ray Emitter Arrays' was supervised by Raphael Hauser and sponsored by
Radius Health. The chairman of the Prize Committee wrote: 'This year’s winner
stands out due to a very impressive combination of different areas of
mathematics, excellent algorithmic and programming skills together with a
significant impact for an industrial imaging process.'
The Mathematical Institute was one of 12 departments who scooped a Bronze Award at the Universitys first ever Green Impact Awards Ceremony held on 18th June 2014 hosted at the Andrew Wiles Building, Mathematical Institute.
This award is in recognition for our achievements in a number of areas, including promoting green IT, recycling methods, sustainable energy efficient buildings, travel and cycling schemes and encouraging staff to reduce their energy usage.
The University signed up to Green Impact last year - an environmental accreditation and award scheme which helps departments improve their working environments for all, whilst gaining recognition for their efforts.
During this first successful year, 199 members of staff have formed 23 departmental teams across the University. These teams help deliver a range of sustainable initiatives - impacting over 5000 members of staff.
Vice Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton attended to present awards alongside other representatives from across the University.
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to our success. For more information about the scheme please contact a member of our building operations team.
Quotes from the Vice-Chancellor
"environmental sustainability is the responsibility of us all
it should be part of everything that we do
everyone wins and its fun
this initiative helps forge relationships and partnerships across the University these networks are important and help us learn from each other
also helps us connect with other universities
We are delighted to announce our latest Public lecture featuring the recently published book "Love and Math" by EdwardFrenkel.
EdwardFrenkelis a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, the winner of the Hermann Weyl Prize in mathematical physics, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His book "Love and Math" was a New York Times bestseller and was named one of the Best Books of 2013 by both Amazon and iBooks. It is currently being translated into nine languages.
7 July,4:00-5:00pm:
Presentation and discussion in the Andrew Wiles Building, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford
Moderator: Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, University of Oxford
Questions can be submitted by Twitter using the hashtag #loveandmath. The presentation will be followed by a book signing.
"Love and Math" tells two intertwined stories: the wonders of mathematics and one young man's journey learning and living it. The book shows that mathematics - far from occupying a specialist niche - goes to the heart of all matter, uniting us across cultures. Edward works on the Langlands correspondences. Considered by many to be a Grand Unified Theory of mathematics, the Langlands Programme enables researchers to translate findings from one field to another so that they can solve hard problems that had seemed intractable before. "Love and Math" is an invitation to discover the hidden magic universe of mathematics. For more information, visithttp://loveandmathbook.com/
The 2014 Ramanujan Prize has been awarded to Miguel Walsh of the Mathematical Institute in the University of Oxford for his outstanding contributions to Ergodic Theory and Number Theory, including a proof of the norm convergence of multiple polynomial or nilpotent ergodic averages, a long-standing problem in ergodic theory, and important results in inverse sieve problems leading to a sharp bound on the number of rational points on curves.
In March Dr Walsh was awarded a Clay Research Fellowship, which he takes up on July 1. He will hold the fellowship in Oxford.
The Ramanujan Prize is awarded jointly by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, the Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) and the International Mathematical Union. More details can be seen on the ICTP website.
These two films explore
the development of Sir Roger Penrose’s thought over more than 60 years, ending
with his most recent theories and predictions.
In the first film, Roger
Penrose explains the impact of his time at Cambridge in the 1950s. The
interview brings out his highly unconventional choice of subjects for deep
study, which completely ignored the boundary between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’
mathematics. Those familiar with his world-leading development of relativity
theory in the 1960s may be surprised to learn how much he was influenced by
quantum theory in the 1950s, and also by the early origin of his new ideas.
Roger also explains the
influence of Dirac, Sciama and other leading figures of the 1950s, and goes on
to characterise the emergence of twistor theory. Non-experts will be interested to
hear how the ideas of his best-known work, The Emperor’s New Mind, also
had an origin in this early period. He also adds
fascinating detail about the psychology of mathematical discovery, explaining
how he was very slow at school, needing extra time to think issues through for
himself. The mystery of time, in physics
and human consciousness, runs through the entire conversation, and lights up
even the most technical aspects of the discussion.
In the second film, the
emphasis shifts to the recent developments in Roger Penrose’s thought. He gives
a very clear outline of his argument for Conformal Cyclic Cosmology as the
correct description of the Big Bang. However, the conversation turns once
again to the precursors of these ideas in the 1950s, with new anecdotes about
Dirac and the origin of Roger Penrose’s geometrical innovations.
Bringing the discussion up to the
present moment, Roger describes the impact of recent observations of
primordial magnetic fields and also addresses the significance of his own
predictions for the form of ‘dark matter’. And in a closing segment, the
discussion turns to the current discoveries in neurology and biophysics
relevant to Roger Penrose’s theory of microtubules as advanced in Shadows of
the Mind. The discussion ends tantalisingly with renewed speculation on the
foundations of quantum mechanics and its relation to general relativity.
Roger concludes: "to me eternity is not such a long time."
Associate Professor Mason Porter has won the 2014 Erdős–Rényi Prize. The prize is awarded to a selected young scientist (under 40 years old on the day of the nomination deadline) for their achievements in research activities in the area of network science, broadly construed. While the achievements can be both theoretical and experimental, the prize is aimed at emphasizing outstanding contributions relevant to the interdisciplinary progress of network science.
The prize awarding ceremony and lecture took take place
in a special session at the conference portion of NetSci 2014 on Jun 2-6, 2014
in Berkeley California, at the Claremont Hotel and the Clark Kerr Campus of the
University of California.
Congratulations to Professor Fernando Alday who won the Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) Teaching Award in the “Most Acclaimed Lecturer” category for the Mathematical, Physical & Life Sciences Division.
Congratulations to Professors Endre Süli and Fernando Alday who have been nominated for Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) Teaching Awards in the “Most Acclaimed Lecturer” category.
Described by
Alain Goriely as "a one-man scientific orchestra," Raymond Goldstein
is Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems, Department of Applied
Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge and an internationally
recognised leader in the fields of biological physics and nonlinear dynamics.
In this engaging lecture, 'Animalcules Redux: the Fantastic World of
Microswimmers', he focuses on biological fluid dynamics.
