Siddharth Unnithan Kumar

I feel a deep love and interest in many areas of mathematics. The realms of algebraic and differential topology and geometry have been especially beautiful to explore, though I also often find myself delighted by mathematics from any area. Encompassing and nourishing this love is a deep and bodily connection I feel with the more-than-human world - its mountains and forests, deserts and valleys, and their many inhabitants.

My PhD project then involves a navigation and adventure between these two loves, studying and exploring mathematical insights into problems from ecology and wildlife conservation. I am journeying through this research with both the Oxford Mathematical Institute and also the university's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), the latter of whom are part of the department of Zoology. My supervisors are Sam Cushman and Philip Maini.

I have also been deeply moved by the writings of luminous folk like David Abram, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Thich Nhat Hanh, who in their own beautiful ways explore the felt, sensorial, embodied and experiential dimensions of relating to the world, touching things which lie beyond the realm of the quantifiable. Within me, this has given rise to a profound desire to bodily understand and experience how these two ways of being in the world may be woven together, how they may nourish each other, and what mysteries, wonders and adventures are to be found when they lie in balance with one another.