Earlier this month Professor Jim Murray, Professor Emeritus Mathematical Biology, University of
Oxford & Senior Scholar, Applied and
Computational Mathematics, Princeton University, gave the first Hooke Lecture here in Oxford. Entitled “Why
there are no 3-headed monsters, resolving some problems with brain
tumours, divorce prediction and how to save marriages” Jim described three very different problems: the development of the mechanical
theory of morphogenesis and how it was used to move evolution backwards; a
model for quantifying the growth of brain tumours and individual patient
treatments: and an example from the social sciences that is used to predict
marital stability and divorce. The Hooke lectures are part of a series of Public Lectures
intended to display the power and beauty of mathematics to a wider audience.
Congratulations to Dr Christian Yates, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, who has won the Silver Award in the mathematics category of the SET for Britain awards for his work on locust swarming. Find out more
about the devastating consequences of locust swarming, how,
counterintuitively, randommness helps swarms of locusts stay together and how
understanding cannibalism in locusts might be the key to dispersing the
swarms.
Oxford Mathematicians Lloyd
Chapman, a DPhil student, and Konstantinos Koumatos, a Postdoctoral Researcher, will be presenting posters to MPs and a panel of
expert judges, as part of SET for Britain
on Monday 17 March. Lloyd will demonstrate his work on mathematical modelling of cell growth in tissue engineering devices while Kostas' research relates to the mathematics of phase transitions in
crystalline solids and, in particular, proposes a deep mathematical
explanation for a peculiar nucleation mechanism observed in a shape-memory
alloy.
On
presenting his research in Parliament, Lloyd said, “I think it's very important
for mathematicians and scientists to communicate their work with a wider
audience, and it's fantastic to be given the opportunity to do this in such a
special setting".
Lloyd and Kostas's work, together with that of colleagues Giovanni Alberti and Christian Yates, demonstrates both the range of mathematics in Oxford but also the reach that the subject has across all scientific disciplines.
Giovanni
S Alberti, 26, a DPhil student here at the University of Oxford, hailing from Imperia
in Italy, is joining colleague Christian Yates at the Houses of Parliament to present his mathematical research to a range of
politicians and a panel of expert judges, as part of SET for Britain on Monday 17 March.
Giovanni’s
poster on research about the mathematical aspects of some newly emerging hybrid
medical imaging modalities will be judged against dozens of other mathematicians’
research in the only national competition of its kind.
On
presenting his research in Parliament, he said, “combining the beauty of
Mathematics with the importance of medicine is a fantastic job, and I am
delighted to have the opportunity to share my research with those in government”.
Dr
Christian Yates, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, will be presenting a poster about the mathematics of locust swarming to MPs and expert judges on Monday 17 March, as part of SET for Britain. Christian’s work will be judged
against dozens of other mathematicians’ research in the only national
competition of its kind.
Christian,
who also works on discovering the causes of African trypanosomiasis (sleeping
sickness) and cell migration during embryo formation, amongst other topics in Mathematical
Biology, was shortlisted from hundreds of applicants to appear in Parliament.
On
presenting his research in Parliament, he said, “As a researcher I aim to
communicate my work to as wide an audience as possible. I also think it’s
important to be able to explain and justify the work I do. Presenting my work
in Parliament will provide me the opportunity to do both.”
Andrew
Miller MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, said, “This
annual competition is an important date in the parliamentary calendar because
it gives MPs an opportunity to speak to a wide range of the country’s best
young researchers.
“These
early career engineers, mathematicians and scientists are the architects of our
future and SET for Britain is politicians’ best opportunity to meet them and
understand their work.”
Christian’s
research has been entered into the Mathematics session of the competition,
which will end in a gold, silver and bronze prize-giving ceremony. Judged
by leading academics, the gold medallist receives £3,000, while silver and
bronze receive £2,000 and £1,000 respectively.
Professor Bryce McLeod was one of Oxford's most well-known mathematicians, and an international authority on linear and nonlinear differential equations. In this interview with John Ball, he reflects on his career.
This interview is the first in a series of interviews with distinguished Oxford Mathematicians, intended to shine a light on the work they do and the beauty and power of their subject.
On Monday 24 March Oxford University will host The UK Mathematics Trust 's Regional Final. 48 teams consisting of four children aged from
12 to 14 and one teacher will take part in this search for the best young
mathematical brains in the region. The
competition starts at 10.30am and consists of four rounds, finishing in time
for the prize-presentation ceremony at
2.45pm. A tough schedule but also a day of fun and a chance to share ideas and
meet fellow mathematicians of the present and the future. The Event will be
held in the inspiring surroundings of the Examination Schools on High Street
where perhaps some of the participants may one day be taking even more
demanding examinations.
In September 2013, as Oxford Mathematics moved in to its new building, Marcus Du Sautoy gave four public lectures covering a range of topics from symmetry to prime numbers, music to the mathematical limits of knowledge. All four lectures were broadcast on Japanese television and are now available to watch online.
The Nomura lecture 2014 will take place at The Mathematical Institute on Thursday 5th June 2014. The speaker is Edward Prescott (Nobel laureate in economics 2004).
Title: Time Inconsistency with Application to the Design of a Sustainable Financial System
Abstract:
The most valuable asset that people in a sovereign state can have is good, sustainable governance. Setting up a system of good, sustainable governance is not easy. The big and well-known problem is time inconsistency of optimal policies. A mechanism that has proven valuable in mitigating the time inconsistency problem is rule by law. The too-big-to-fail problem in banking is the result of the time inconsistency problem. In this lecture I will argue there is an alternative financial system that is not subject to the too-big-to-fail problem. The alternative arrangement I propose is a pure transaction banking system. Transaction banks are required to hold 100% interest bearing reserves and can pay tax-free interest on demand deposits. With this system, there cannot be a bank run as there is no place to run to. Mutual arrangements would finance all business investment, which is not currently the case.
Sir Michael Atiyah OM, FRS, FRSE is one of the great mathematicians of the last hundred years and to celebrate his 85th birthday a one-day meeting will be
held here in Oxford in the Mathematical Institute on 22 April 2014. The meeting will also see the publication by Oxford University Press of a seventh volume of his collected works. Please contact Frances
Kirwan (@email) if you would like to attend the meeting.
Timetable and speakers:
9.30 Nigel Hitchin - Surfaces, geodesics and hyperkahler geometry
10.30 Coffee
11.00Graeme Segal - Solitons and inverse scattering
2.30Sergei Gukov - The Atiyah-Segal-Singer equivariant index theorem for the Hitchin moduli space
