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OCIAM student Rosemary Dyson has won a prize in the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Graduate Student Prize Symposium for her presentation, "The Mathematics of Curtain Coating".

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The RI and Five are delighted to announce details of leading Mathematician and best-selling author, Marcus du Sautoy's 2006 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

The lectures, which serve as a forum for presenting scientific issues to young people and are sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, will be shown during peak-time as part of Five's Christmas schedule for the second year running.

Du Sautoy's lectures promise a grand tour of the fascinating world of mathematics. From numbers to shapes and from codes to chaos, the num8er my5teries will tell some of the great stories of mathematics.

At the heart of every lecture is a conundrum that has stumped mathematicians and for which a million dollar reward has been offered for a solution. So, today's audience might even be tomorrow's mathematical millionaires.

Du Sautoy, who is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Wadham College, said: "I became a mathematician because I attended the first Christmas Lectures dedicated to mathematics in 1978 and saw, for the first time, what mathematics is really about".

"It thrives as much on the enigmas we haven't explained as on the things we know. I hope that this year's lectures will inspire the next generation of mathematicians who will crack the mathematical mysteries that still remain unsolved".

Aimed at capturing the imagination of children in their early teens, the lectures will show how a small amount of maths can bring alive some of the most exciting mysteries of the universe.

Many adults might be surprised to find that there is much more to a subject they thought was just a load of long division and fractions. In the lectures, Marcus reveals how mathematics has helped build the modern world.

Every time we download a song from i-tunes, take a flight across the Atlantic or talk on our mobile phones, we are relying on the great inventions of mathematics.

In The curious incident of the never-ending numbers, Marcus looks at the most fundamental numbers in mathematics: the primes. These indivisible numbers aren't just important for mathematicians. They are also the key to Real Madrid's success, secrets on the Internet and the survival of insects in the Forests of North America.

In The story of the elusive shapes, Marcus explains how to use mathematics to fake a Jackson Pollock, how to work out whether or not the universe has a hole in the middle and how to make the world's roundest football. Marcus will even show us how to see shapes in four dimensions.

In The secret of the winning streak, find out how maths provides the best strategy for optimising your success in game shows and gambling. We also discover why mathematics is behind some of the best magic tricks and can give you the edge in many strategy games.

In The case of the uncrackable code, Marcus reveals how mathematicians have been making and breaking codes ever since we've been trying to communicate secretly. In a reconstruction of the dark days of World War II, Marcus will challenge a team at Bletchley Park to crack a code that many thought impenetrable.

The final lecture of the series is The quest to predict the future. From the flight of asteroids to an impending storm, from bending a ball like Beckham to predicting population growth, maths can help sort out what's going to happen next. But not everything is as predictable, as Marcus will illustrate.

The 2006 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures air on Five from 25-29 December at 7.15pm.

In an article in New Scientist Marcus du Sautoy talks about prime numbers.

The 2006 Alan Tayler Lecture will be on 20 November in the Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre at St Catherine's College. Tea will be available in the foyer of the theatre from 4.15pm.

This years speaker is Henri Berestycki (l'

The IMA Gold Medal is awarded in alternate years in recognition of outstanding contributions to mathematics and its applications over a period of years. This year the medal was awarded to John Ockendon. John will be the guest lecturer at the IMA 2007 Summer Lecture on 27 June 2007, when he will be presented with his gold medal.

Professor Bryan Birch and Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer will be participating in a conference at the University of Bristol held in honour of Professor Birch’s 75th birthday.

When it comes to mathematics James Oliver, formerly a graduate student at the Mathematical Institute, really enjoys a challenging problem. And they don’t come much more challenging than his work at the Centre for Mathematical Medicine at the University of Nottingham into developing new mathematical models to describe cell motility. This project ties in nicely with a study of cell motility on the surfaces of biomaterials – or ‘biologically compatible materials’ – that he’s undertaking as part of a complementary non-stipendiary Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851 which he holds in the Bioengineering Group at University of Nottingham. The aim in both fellowships is to develop mathematical models to describe how mammalian cells travel over the surface of the biomaterials used for medical implants.

Further information is available in the EPSRC Newsline Issue 37.

James Oliver returned to the Mathematical Institute in October 2007.

We are please to announce the following awards:

Individual achievement

• Prof. Jon Chapman
• Dr Janet Dyson
• Dr Karin Erdmann
• Dr Ben Hambly
• Dr Keith Hannabuss
• Prof. Roger Heath-Brown
• Dr Peter Howell
• Dr Sam Howison
• Prof. Marc Lackenby
• Prof. Hilary Priestley
• Prof. Terry Lyons
• Prof. Alex Wilkie

Course development

• Integration (Prof. Alison Etheridge)
• Maple
• Organisation by subject of past examination questions (small pilot)

Congratulations to Professor Victor Flynn, Professor Marc Lackenby, Professor Hilary Priestley, and Professor Alex Scott on the award of the title of Professor, and to Dr John Lennox on the award of the title of Reader.

Prof. Sir John Ball Receives Royal Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Further information