Latest news

The London Mathematical Society Popular Lectures for 2003 were given, in Manchester and London, by David Acheson ('Mathematics, Magic and the Electric Guitar') and Marcus du Sautoy ('The Music of the Primes').

Professor Frances Kirwan, FRS, has been named as President Designate of the London Mathematical Society. When she takes over from the current President, Professor Peter Goddard, in November, she will be the second youngest holder of the office in the Society's history. She will be third Oxford President in recent years (Professor Nigel Hitchin held the presidency from 1994 to 1996; Professor John Ball from 1996 to 1998).

Dr Leonard Smith has been awarded the Fitzroy Prize of the Royal Meteorological Society for 2003. The award is made for `Distinguished work in applied meteorology' and is aptly named. Captain Fitzroy is most often remembered as the Commander of HMS Beagle, and this award was earned by the work of both current and former department members including Mark Roulston, David Orrell, Jim Hansen and Isla Gilmour. Fitzroy also founded the Met Office in 1854 to provide meteorological and sea current information to mariners while Mark now downloads weather forecasts every night and dresses them to make them more useful for our industrial Faraday partners.

Professor John Wilson will be taking up a part-time position in the department in October, following his retirement from the University of Birmingham. John is a leading international figure in group theory. His appointment brings new strength to the algebra group and will help to sustain the quality of undergraduate teaching in algebra.

Professor John Allen has been selected to receive the 2003 von Engl prize for his achievements in the field of physics and technology of plasmas and ionized gases.

Jeanette Woerner has been awarded a Sofia Kovalevskaja Visiting-Professorship at Kaiserslautern in 2003/04. She will spend two periods of six weeks each there, giving some lecture courses and meeting their large finance group.

Patrick McSharry has been awarded a five year Research Fellowship by the Royal Academy of Engineering and EPSRC to investigate the applications of nonlinear time series analysis tools for facilitating medical diagnosis from biomedical signals.

Peter Neumann has been appointed the Asprey Lecturer at Vassar College this spring.

The lecture series is in honor of Winifred Asprey '38, a Vassar graduate who taught mathematics and computer science at Vassar for 38 years before her retirement in 1982. Professor Asprey was one of the most admired members of the Vassar faculty and was nationally recognized as a spokesperson for mathematics and computer science. She founded Vassar's Computer Center in the mid 1960's - one of the first such at a liberal arts college. Professor Asprey continues to live in the Poughkeepsie area.

Previous Asprey lecturers from Britain have been Angus Macintyre, Roger Penrose and Michael Atiyah.

Dr J A Stedall

Dr J A Stedall has been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Queen's from October 2003 to September 2006. Her work is in history of algebra, particularly early modern algebra (i.e. the algebra of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). Her first book, "A Discourse Concerning Algebra: English algebra to 1685", was published by OUP in December 2002. This is to be followed by "The Greate Invention of Algebra: Thomas Harriot's Treatise on equations" which should appear in July 2003 and a translation of and commentary on John Wallis's "Arithmetica infinitorum" which is now in press.

Dr E. Crane

Merton elected Edward Crane to a Junior Research Fellowship . He is currently a Cambridge analyst.

Richard Earl has been appointed as the new Schools Liaison and Access Officer. Richard's main duties and responsibilities will be:

• To promote the study of Mathematics at secondary school level and to encourage able students from many backgrounds to continue their studies in mathematical sciences at tertiary level.
• To encourage, and enable, students to study mathematical sciences at Oxford, particularly those from under-represented groups or from schools that do not normally send students to Oxford.
• To assist the Admissions Secretary with all aspects of the organisation and administration associated with the admissions exercise for undergraduates in mathematical sciences, including supervising the production and marking of the mathematics test, organising Open Days, producing publicity materials, and responding to queries from potential applicants and teachers.
• To deliver popular lectures and master-classes to secondary school students and their teachers.
• To attend subject fairs, visit schools and provide information to promote applications to read one of the degrees in the mathematical sciences.
• To provide teaching at 'bridging' level for students when they first arrive at Oxford.
• To liaise with other Schools' officers in the Division and at other universities with strong mathematical science departments.
• To assist in the design and write material for a website to help bridge the gap between the study of mathematics as a single A-level and the first year at university.

He will take up his appointment on 1 August 2003.