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.’
Ben Green, Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics in Oxford, will receive the inaugural I. Martin Isaacs Prize for Excellence in Mathematical Writing for his article “On Sárközy’s theorem for shifted primes,” published in Journal of the American Mathematical Society in 2024.
The citation reads: "Green successfully balances serving different audiences. Experts can readily extract the key ideas from his paper, while beginners can appreciate the motivation and context for the techniques. Those who wish to check the details will find every detail made available to them, while those who are trying to understand the big picture will also find what they need. Green’s paper is a joy to read, and his effort and skill in writing are a model of how to communicate technically forbidding mathematics."
Ben says: "I am very happy to be awarded this prize, as writing is something I have always taken quite seriously. I am particularly pleased that the prize is associated with I. Martin Isaacs, whose famous book on character theory I have owned and enjoyed looking at since I was an undergraduate. Although the cited paper is single-author, I have learned a great deal about how to write mathematics from several collaborators over many years. Let me mention in particular Terence Tao, with whom I have written over 30 joint papers and who taught me much about how to structure an argument; my first co-author, Imre Ruzsa, who writes with exceptional clarity and elegance; and my PhD supervisor, Timothy Gowers, whose papers are always a pleasure to read."
Ben Green was born and grew up in Bristol, England, attending local schools there. His undergraduate and graduate education was at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD in 2003, supervised by Timothy Gowers. He was a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity, a Clay Research Fellow, and a PIMS Postdoctoral Fellow before returning to Cambridge as the first Herchel Smith Professor of Pure Mathematics in 2006. He moved to Oxford in 2013, where he is the Waynflete Professor of Pure Mathematics and a Fellow of Magdalen College. He is married and has two sons aged 8 and 6.
The I. Martin Isaacs Prize is awarded annually for excellence in writing of a research article published in a primary journal of the AMS in the past two years.
The prize will be presented at the 2025 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle. Thank you to the AMS for allowing us to use their article.
When you've got the world's largest and smelliest flower you want to know why it is so large and why it is so smelly. A huge and pungent story of Oxford scientific collaboration starring botanist Chris Thorogood and mathematician Javier Chico Vazquez.
Rafflesia or Stinking Corpse Lily is a flowering plant of South-East Asia. Its flowers are the largest in the world and its is scent described by Chris as reminiscent of rotting meat (the hint is in its alternate name). However, because it is impossible to grow Rafflesia outside its remote habitats, Chris has enlisted mathematics to understand better the plant's size and structure.
Watch Chris and Javier describe how they worked together and how collaboration works across disciplines across Oxford.
Professor Dominic Joyce has been appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry here in Oxford.
Dominic will be the 21st holder of the Savilian Chair. Established in 1619 by Sir Henry Savile, it has been held by many top mathematicians - including John Wallis (who introduced the ∞∞ notation), Edmond Halley (after whom Halley's comet is named), Edward Titchmarsh, and Sir Michael Atiyah.
Dominic Joyce FRS has been at Oxford for many years, doing his BA and DPhil at Merton College, followed by a Junior Research Fellowship at Christ Church College, and a University Lectureship in Pure Mathematics and Tutorial Fellowship at Lincoln College, before moving to a professorial post in the Mathematical Institute in 2006. His research spans a broad range of topics in Differential Geometry, Algebraic Geometry, and Symplectic Geometry. He lives in North Oxford with his wife, three daughters, and a cat called Honey.
If you ever want to get a mathematician's attention, however busy they are, check if they have some mathematical toys lurking on their shelf, glance that way and they are all yours. In the first episode of Toy Stories:
Jon Chapman and Sam Howison - You spin me right round
Today, October 14th, 8.59am, Andrew Wiles Building, Oxford Mathematics. It may have been raining for 40 days and 40 nights, but it's our favourite day of the year, the first day of a new academic year.
So here are our students arriving for lectures, accompanied by the soundtrack of first year students talking about their first three lectures which they attended this morning: Geometry, Analysis 1 and Computational Mathematics. These three courses are accompanied by five others over the course of the eight-week term: Introduction to University Mathematics, Introductory Calculus, Introduction to Complex Numbers, Linear Algebra 1 and Probability.
Are numbers essential for counting? Probably, in a world where we don’t just want to know if something is good, but exactly how good. But it wasn’t always the case.
In this clip from his Vicky Neale Public Lecture, Tim Harford demonstrates that earlier cultures used alternate ways to keep track.
The Inaugural Vicky Neale Public Lecture was given by economist and broadcaster Tim Harford in recognition of the invaluable contribution to mathematical education of the late Vicky Neale. In the lecture, Tim looks at how data built the modern world - and how we can use it to build a better one.
So what do you fancy today? Carrollian holograms? The Möbius function? Software to tackle pollution? Additive versus multiplicative structure over integers? A celebration of the many people who have used maths in their everyday lives?
We can do all that and more. We've 100s of case studies online: pure, applied and all things combined. Just click here.
Image: mathematical methods reveal complex cell patterns in high-resolution kidney data from the Topology and medicine combine to tackle kidney disease case study.
Philip Maini has been awarded the Sylvester Medal by the Royal Society for his contributions to mathematical biology, especially the interdisciplinary modelling of biomedical phenomena and systems.
Philip's research uses mathematical modelling to gain insights into biology and medicine. It focuses mainly on pattern formation in early development, cell movement in wound healing, and the dynamics of cancer growth. It consists of developing mathematical models, which range from coupled systems of partial differential equations to multi-scale hybrid agent-based models, analysing them and using their results to advance our understanding of the biomedical sciences. Philip also take great pleasure in training the next generation of researchers in this field, and over 40 of the graduate students and postdocs he has (co-)supervised now have permanent faculty positions in mathematical biology in universities worldwide.
He says of the award: "Receiving this prize is a truly humbling experience when I look at past winners. It is recognition of the important role that mathematical biology is now playing both in mathematics and in the life sciences. I would like to thank my mentor J.D. Murray for introducing me to this field and for all his help and support throughout my career. I have been very lucky to have worked with so many talented colleagues, graduate students and early career researchers."
Philip's student lectures and other films are extremely popular on YouTube and social media with over 20 million views.
The Sylvester Medal is awarded for outstanding contributions in the field of mathematics. The medal is accompanied by a gift of £2,000.
