Oxford Mathematician Philip Maini has been awarded the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications (IMA) Gold Medal 2022 in recognition of his profound contributions to mathematics in biology and medicine, for the sustained role he has played in supporting and mentoring researchers in the early stages of their careers, and for the leadership he has shown in the biological mathematics community and the Wolfson Centre for Mathematical Biology in Oxford Mathematics where he is the Director.
Philip has made major contributions to the understanding of developmental biology, wound healing, host-pathogen interactions, tumour growth and intestinal crypt morphology. He has developed the art of mathematical modelling in biological and medical settings, including models of multi-scale structure and spatiotemporal structure more generally.
Philip was educated at Rainey Endowed School in Northern Ireland and Balliol College, Oxford where his supervisor was Jim Murray. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015 and has been the recipient of many prizes and fellowships including Fellowships of the IMA, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), the Royal Society of Biology, the Indian National Science Academy, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
IMA Gold Medals are awarded in recognition of outstanding contributions to mathematics and its applications over a period of years, with nominations being considered every two years.
Oxford Mathematician Coralia Cartis is among the newly selected Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Fellows for 2023. SIAM is an international community of over 14,000 individual members whose mission is to build cooperation between mathematics and the worlds of science and technology. Cora was recognised for theoretical and practical developments in continuous optimisation.
Coras was also recently selected an EUROPT Fellow 2023. EUROPT promotes communication links among researchers working in areas of continuous optimisation. Cora is a Professor in Numerical Optimisation.
Fermat's Last Tango, written in 2000 by Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum, tells the story, in words and music, of a 300 hundred-year-old mathematical mystery and the man who spent seven years trying to solve it.
This version was performed in early March 2023 by Oxford Mathematics students and fellow students from across the University. The venue was a lecture theatre in the Andrew Wiles Building, home to Oxford Mathematics and named after the mathematician who is the subject of the story.
Oxford Mathematician Arkady Wey has won the Gold Medal for mathematical sciences at the 2023 STEM for BRITAIN poster competition held in the House of Commons on March 6th. Arkady was among 20 researchers presenting their work to dozens of politicians and a panel of expert judges. Oxford Mathematician Oliver Bond was also shortlisted.
Arkady’s poster focused on his research in to the mathematical modelling of the filtration of harmful contaminants from liquids and gases. Polluted air is thought to be responsible for up to 10% of deaths worldwide, and as many as two billion people still do not have access to decontaminated drinking water.
Arkady, who is about to complete his DPhil (PhD) said: "As an industrial and applied mathematician, I have a passion for raising awareness about what we do, and the importance of our research. I’m less interested in maths for maths’ sake, and I want to produce something with real world, social impact. Today feels like a great success.”
STEM for BRITAIN aims to help politicians understand more about the UK’s thriving science and engineering base and rewards some of the strongest scientific and engineering research being undertaken in the UK. The gold medallist receives £1500 (and the medal, of course).
We were very sorry to hear of the death, at the age of 78, of architect Rafael Viñoly. Among Rafael's vast portfolio of work is our own Andrew Wiles Building which opened almost ten years ago in October 2013 and which has been an integral part of our work in making mathematics accessible and enjoyable for our faculty, researchers, students, support staff and the wider general public.
From the outset Rafael rapidly dispelled any initial concern that an international superstar with many visually striking buildings to his credit would not focus on the mundane interests of the eventual users of the building. He gave us a huge amount of his time and spent many hours in meetings developing his ideas and quizzing us on ours. As he himself has put it, he went 'beyond the decorative approach', setting out really to improve the experience of the occupants, and in turn, the wider public who have subsequently visited the building for talks, theatre and exhibitions. And it was a bonus that Rafael came from a mathematical family, and had no difficulty in understanding the nature of our work.
We were also very fortunate in having the support of Lavinia and Landon Clay. Lavinia Clay joined the project sponsor group, and gave it the benefit of her considerable experience and architectural insight without ever trying to impose her own vision, or even to put the family name on the building. In her and Rafael Viñoly we had the ideal combination of donor and architect.
As a result we have a building that is both welcoming and inspiring. If you are passing, come and have a look.
You can read a letter about Rafael written to the Guardian newspaper this week from former Head of the Mathematical Institute, Sam Howison.
Whether a mathematician or an artist, when you begin you often don't know where you'll end up.
This Thursday, watch the online edition of our recent, very well-received Public Lecture where artist Conrad Shawcross and mathematicians Martin Bridson and James Sparks explore connections between mathematics and art, and discuss the exhibition of Conrad's work currently showing in the Andrew Wiles Building, home to Oxford Mathematics.
And you also get a look at the exhibition.
Thursday 9 March, 5-6pm (and any time afterwards). Just follow this link to our YouTube Channel (It will be the featured video - no need to register).
Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures and the Conrad Shawcross Exhibition are generously supported by XTX Markets.
Our YouTube student lectures elicit all sorts of comments:
- What's with the crazy rolling boards?
- I knew this stuff at high school
- Didn't understand a thing
17 million views later, here's our latest: the Heat Equation with Philip Maini.
The heat equation, also known as the diffusion equation, is central to many areas in applied mathematics. In this series of four lectures, forming part of the first year undergraduate mathematics course, 'Fourier Series and PDEs', the heat equation is derived and the boundary value problem is solved using the method of separation of variables.
Students are then shown how they can use the theory of Fourier series, taught in the preceding lectures, to solve the initial value problem. The behaviour of the solutions is discussed mathematically and in the context of physical applications. Some of the accompanying materials (slides and problem sheets) are publicly available via this link: https://courses.maths.ox.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=614
Here is the first of four lectures. The next three are also available via the playlist
The second series of our short films, Me and My Maths, is now up and running on our social media channels and you can watch a compilation of the first four films via the video below. Me and My Maths: short films about people who also do maths.
Starring in order of appearance: Kylie and Chloe, Andrea, Doyne, and Kate Wenqi.
After the main course of student and public lectures, our YouTube Channel has a tasty dessert menu in the shape of 'Research Stories' where our researchers (including Solveig, pictured) talk about their latest work. Whatever your mathematical palate, there's something for you in the three series.
You can also get a further taste of our research and our people with our 'Me and My Maths' films (link below). The new episodes are already airing on our social media channels and will be on YouTube soon.
The 'Introduction to University Mathematics' course is taken in the first two weeks of the first year of the Oxford Mathematics degree. It introduces the concepts and ways of mathematical thinking that students need in the years ahead. Much of the context will be familiar from high school but the way we think and write about it, and construct arguments and proofs, is more rigorous.
In summary it is a recap and a pointer to what is to come for our students. We are making the whole course of eight lectures available to anyone who is soon to start mathematics at university or who is pondering whether they should. And anyone else, of course.
In addition to this course, there are another 70 Oxford Mathematics students lectures on our YouTube Channel (including three full courses) giving an insight in to all four years of our degree. You are very welcome to dip in.
