Three Oxford Mathematicians have won London Mathematical Society (LMS) Prizes for 2025. Nigel Hitchin has won the De Morgan Medal, Helen Byrne has won the Naylor Prize and Lectureship in Applied Mathematics and Vidit Nanda has won a Whitehead Prize.
An undergraduate in Oxford, Nigel Hitchin was Rouse Ball Professor in Cambridge until 1997 when he became Oxford's Savilian Professor of Geometry. He retired in 2016 after winning the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences that year. Nigel's work has covered many areas on the interface of differential geometry, algebraic geometry and the equations of theoretical physics. He is perhaps best known for the integrable system which bears his name, and his work on instantons and monopoles. His current interests include the geometry of the intersection of two quadrics, a classical object in algebraic geometry which now reveals in a concrete way some of the features of the geometric Langlands programme.
Helen Byrne is a leading expert in mathematical biology at the University of Oxford. With over 25 years of experience, she specialises in developing mathematical models for biomedical systems, particularly in the field of mathematical oncology. Her research focuses on using mathematical, computational, topological, and statistical modelling techniques to study tumour growth, immune evasion, and treatment response mechanisms. Helen holds a joint appointment at the University of Oxford’s Mathematical Institute and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and is a tutorial fellow of Keble College. She has won a number of awards including the Society of Mathematical Biology (SMB)’s Leah Edelstein-Keshet prize and was named an SMB Fellow in 2020.
Vidit Nanda is a Professor of Mathematics here in Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College. He works at the interface of algebraic topology, geometry and data science and is a member of the Data Science, Topology and Geometry groups in Oxford Mathematics. He previously worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the Turing Institute (as one of its first Research Fellows).
Image left to right: Nigel, Helen and Vidit