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Congratulations to Sam Howison on the award of the title of Professor.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Luise Tillmann, has been elected the recipient of a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award.

This award is conferred in recognition of lifetime achievements in research. The awardee is invited to carry out research projects of her own choice in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany, promoting international scientific cooperation.

See the letter written by Frances Kirwan introducing herself to the EWM.

An article in the January 5th issue (number 2637) of the New Scientist highlights the recent paper Triadophilia, A Special Corner of the Landscape by Philip Candelas, Xenia de la Ossa, Yang-Hui He, and Balazs Szendroi.

Peter Neumann has been awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours list.

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, has awarded Mason Porter the 2008 Young Investigator Award in the physical sciences and engineering. The award is to be accepted at the 2008 Sigma Xi Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference that will take place November 20-23, 2008 in Washington, D.C..

The Award includes an honorarium of $5,000, a Certificate of Recognition, and the opportunity to present the 2008 Young Investigator Award Lecture at the Society’s Annual Meeting to an audience of distinguished scientists and engineers as well as 200-250 undergraduate and graduate students participating in the Student Research Conference.

This selection marks the eleventh presentation of the Young Investigator Award. The Society’s Board of Directors established the Award in 1996 “to recognize researchers in the early stages of their careers whose outstanding contributions best exemplify the ideals of Sigma Xi.” The Award recognizes individuals within 10 years of earning their highest graduate degree for their scientific achievements, interdisciplinary research, and the ability to communicate the significance of their achievements to the public. The Award recognizes the physical sciences and engineering in even numbered years and the life and social sciences in odd numbered years.

The national championship of U.S. college football is decided at the end of the season in a climactic game that is supposed to match the top two NCAA Division I (FBS) teams. Year after year, controversy has dogged the selection of those two teams.

Mathematically and computationally inclined football fans have proposed a variety of alternative ranking schemes. One interesting contender is a scheme developed by Thomas Callaghan, now a graduate student at Stanford University, Peter J. Mucha of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Mason A. Porter of the University of Oxford.

In 2005 Mason Porter looked at some interesting issues relating to US politics. Further information can be found in articles in Science Now and New Scientist.

BBC News has published an article on the use of computer graphics cards to rapidly perform calculations. The article includes comments from Mike Giles of the Mathematical Institute on how he uses this new approach to computation for financial modelling.

Courses began at the new graduate taught course centre this week.

The taught course centre is a collaboration between the Mathematics Departments at the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Imperial, Oxford and Warwick. The centre is supported by a grant from the EPSRC.

The Centre aims to offer approximately 25 graduate level courses over the academic year, starting in October 2007. Access Grid technology will be used so that audiences in all five universities can participate in the lectures.

Terry Lyons (pictured), Wallis Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, has been appointed as Director of the Wales Institute for Mathematical and Computational Sciences (WIMCS).

Professor Lyons will undertake the role in addition to his post at the University of Oxford’s Mathematical Institute.

The £5million WIMCS was launched at Swansea University in December 2006. Swansea is leading the collaborative venture to develop the research institute, which draws together existing mathematical and computational science excellence in Wales, to improve the competitiveness of Welsh research in these areas both in the UK and internationally.

The Institute involves a diverse range of departments in Swansea University, Cardiff University, Aberystwyth University, and Bangor University, and is supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales’ Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund.

Professor Lyons said: "It can be difficult to grasp the full scale of the contribution mathematics makes to our daily lives. For instance, the newest generations of mobile telephones rely on statistical averaging techniques to work; sophisticated mathematical analysis is required in order to turn the data from hospital body scanners into information doctors can use."

"I am very excited that the Welsh Assembly Government and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, together with the Welsh universities, have realised the importance of these contributions and the need to build and develop on the excellence that already exists within the Welsh mathematical and computational community, and to ensure that mathematicians collaborate across Wales."

"I believe WIMCS can make an important contribution to creating an environment where researchers in Wales can flourish and carry out research at an international level. We can produce a steady stream of highly qualified individuals, who will contribute to the development of the disciplines, their applications, and the Welsh industrial base. I very much look forward to leading it in this direction."

Swansea University's Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Nigel Weatherill, said: "We are delighted to have attracted such an eminent mathematician as Professor Lyons to lead the work of WIMCS. His appointment is confirmation of how the institute has already established itself as a world-class centre of research in the mathematical and computational sciences."