Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures

There is a beautiful mathematical theory of how independent agents tend to synchronise their behaviour when weakly coupled. Examples include how audiences spontaneously rhythmically applause and how nearby pendulum clocks tend to move in sync. Another famous example is that of the London Millennium Bridge. On the day it opened, the bridge underwent unwanted lateral vibrations that are widely believed to be due to pedestrians synchronising their footsteps.

In this talk Alan will explain how this theory is in fact naive and there is a simpler mathematical theory that is more consistent with the facts and which explains how other bridges have behaved including Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge. He will also reflect on the nature of mathematical modelling and the interplay between mathematics, engineering and the real world. 

Alan Champneys is a Professor of Applied Non-linear Mathematics at the University of Bristol. 

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://twitter.com/OxUniMaths
https://www.facebook.com/OxfordMathematics/
https://livestream.com/oxuni/Champneys

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

This lecture is about mathematical visualization: how to make accurate, effective, and beautiful pictures, models, and experiences of mathematical concepts. What is it that makes a visualization compelling? 

Henry will show examples in the medium of 3D printing, as well as his work in virtual reality and spherical video. He will also discuss his experiences in teaching a project-based class on 3D printing for mathematics students.

Henry Segerman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Oklahoma State University.

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://www.facebook.com/OxfordMathematics/
https://livestream.com/oxuni/Segerman

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

How do you make a star-shaped Cheerio? How do they make the glass on your smartphone screen so flat? And how can you make a vacuum filter that removes the most dust before it blocks? All of these are very different challenges that fall under the umbrella of industrial mathematics. While each of these questions might seem very different, they all have a common theme: we know the final properties of the product we want to make and need to come up with a way of manufacturing this. In this talk we show how we can use mathematics to start with the final desired product and trace the fluid dynamics problem ‘back in time’ to enable us to manufacture products that would otherwise be impossible to produce.

Ian Griffiths is a Professor of Industrial Mathematics and a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. 

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://www.facebook.com/OxfordMathematics/
https://livestream.com/oxuni/Griffiths

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures 

Jon Chapman - Waves and resonance: from musical instruments to vacuum cleaners, via metamaterials and invisibility cloaks.

Friday 25 October 2019

5.30pm-6.30pm, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://facebook.com/OxfordMathematics
https://livestream.com/oxuni/chapman

Jon Chapman is Professor of Mathematics and its Applications in Oxford.

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures- The Roger Penrose Lecture

Carlo Rovelli  - Spin networks: the quantum structure of spacetime from Penrose's intuition to Loop Quantum Gravity

Monday 2 December 2019

In developing the mathematical description of quantum spacetime, Loop Quantum Gravity stumbled upon a curious mathematical structure: graphs labelled by spins. This turned out to be precisely the structure of quantum space suggested by Roger Penrose two decades earlier, just on the basis of his intuition. Today these graphs with spin, called "spin networks" have become a common tool to explore the quantum properties of gravity. In this talk Carlo will tell this beautiful story and illustrate the current role of spin networks in the efforts to understand quantum gravity.

Carlo Rovelli is a Professor in the Centre de Physique Théorique de Luminy of Aix-Marseille Université where he works mainly in the field of quantum gravity and  is a founder of loop quantum gravity theory. His popular-science book 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' has been translated into 41 languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide.

5.30pm-6.30pm, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://facebook.com/OxfordMathematics
https://livestream.com/oxuni/rovelli

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

Productive generalization: one reason we will never run out of interesting mathematical questions.

Tim Gowers is one of the world's leading mathematicians. He is a Royal Society Research Professor at the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at the University of Cambridge, where he also holds the Rouse Ball chair, and is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1998, he received the Fields Medal for research connecting the fields of functional analysis and combinatorics.

After his lecture Tim will be in conversation with Hannah Fry. Hannah is a lecturer in the Mathematics of Cities at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at UCL. She is also a well-respected broadcaster and the author of several books including the recently published 'Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine.'

This lecture is in partnership with the Science Museum in London where it will take place.  

Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://facebook.com/OxfordMathematics
https://livestream.com/oxuni/gowers

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

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Mathematics is the pursuit of truth. But it is a pursuit carried out by human beings with human emotions. Join Vicky as she travels the mathematical rollercoaster.

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Oxford Mathematics is delighted to announce that in partnership with Northumbria University we shall be hosting our first Newcastle Public Lecture on 13 November. Everybody is welcome as we demonstrate the range, beauty and challenges of mathematics. Vicky Neale, Whitehead Lecturer here in Oxford, will be our speaker. Vicky has given a range of Public Lectures in Oxford and beyond and has made numerous radio and television appearances.

5.00pm-6.00pm
Northumbria University
Lecture Theatre 002, Business & Law Building, City Campus East
Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2SU

Please email @email to register

Watch live:
https://facebook.com/OxfordMathematics
https://livestream.com/oxuni/neale

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

In this lecture John Bush will present seemingly disparate research topics which are in fact united by a common theme and underlaid by a common mathematical framework. 

First there is the ingenuity of the natural world where living creatures use surface tension to support themselves on the water surface and propel 
themselves along it. Then there is a system discovered by Yves Couder only fifteen years ago, in which a small droplet bounces along the surface of a vibrating liquid bath, guided or 'piloted’ by its own wave field. Its ability to reproduce many features previously thought to be exclusive to quantum systems has launched the field of hydrodynamic quantum analogs, and motivated a critical revisitation of the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics.

John Bush is a Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at MIT specialising in fluid dynamics. 

5.00pm-6.00pm, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

Please email @email to register

Watch live:
https://facebook.com/OxfordMathematics
https://livestream.com/oxuni/bush

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

For our popular Christmas lecture this year Chris Budd will give a seasonal talk with a number of light hearted applications of mathematics to the
festive season. 

Chris is currently Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath, and Professor of Geometry at Gresham College. He is a passionate populariser of mathematics and was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to science and maths education.

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:

https://www.facebook.com/OxfordMathematics/
https://livestream.com/oxuni/Budd

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures together with the Simonyi Science Show:

Will a computer ever compose a symphony, write a prize-winning novel, or paint a masterpiece? And if so, would we be able to tell the difference?

In The Creativity Code, Marcus du Sautoy examines the nature of creativity, as well as providing an essential guide into how algorithms work, and the mathematical rules underpinning them. He asks how much of our emotional response to art is a product of our brains reacting to pattern and structure. And might machines one day jolt us in to being more imaginative ourselves?

Marcus du Sautoy is Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science in Oxford.

6-7pm
Mathematical Institute
Oxford

Please email @email to register.

Watch live:
https://facebook.com/OxfordMathematics
https://livestream.com/oxuni/du-Sautoy2

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.