Good News

Oxford Mathematician Torin Fastnedge has won the Gold Medal for Mathematical Sciences at the 2026 STEM for BRITAIN poster competition held in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Torin was among 20 researchers in mathematics presenting their work to politicians and a panel of expert judges.

December:

There was one but they have left.

January:

Mehrdad Kalantar, Senior Research Fellow, Functional Analysis: S1.11

Eric Pitchon-Pharabod, PDRA in Mathematical Physics: S1.52

Fanny Bergstom, PDRA in Infectious Disease Modelling, Mathematical Biology: S4.04

Ana Djurdjevac, Associate Professor in Numerical Analysis: S1.12

Benjamin Walker, PDRA in Rough Path Theory for Applications, Mathematical and Computational Finance: S1.47

Tessa Bonilha, Project Manager in Professional Services, has graduated as a Continuous Improvement Associate Practitioner. Associate Practitioners champion CI in their departments.

She joins a network of over 100 Associate Practitioners across the University.

The Academy for the Mathematical Sciences has announced its first cohort of fellows, 100 in total from across academia and teaching, science communication and business. Twelve of those fellows are from Oxford, spread across four departments, reflecting the reach and importance of mathematics. 

Alison (second from left), Professor of Probability in Oxford and President of the recently created Academy for the Mathematical Sciences, has been recognised with a Doctor of Science (DSc) from Heriot-Watt University.

Kira Patel, now a 4th year mathematics undergraduate, won the prize for the best Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Vacation Internships poster at the EPSRC Poster Event on November 6th. Kira's poster title was 'A viscous catenary in glass tube manufacture'. She was supervised by Peter Howell.

Image: Bertha Morisot - The Cheval Glass

The Knowledge Exchange (KE) Hub for Mathematical Sciences led by our own Chris Breward has been named Knowledge Exchange (KE) Team of the Year 2025 at the KE Awards held in Salford last week. 

More October starters

Vsevolod Chestnov, PDRA in Mathematical Physics, Research Group Mathematical Physics: N1.02

Martin Peev: PDRA in Stochastic Analysis, Research Group Stochastic Analysis: S3.24

November starters

Lukas Waas, PDRA in Topological Data Analysis, Topology: S3.12

Nemanja Draganic, PDRA in Combinatorics, Combinatorics: N3.21

Congratulations to Ulrike who has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Copenhagen.

Ulrike is a Professor of Mathematics here in Oxford specialising in algebraic topology and also Director of the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge.

Doing anything at 4 pm on 11 December?

Image: Unknown author - Christmas Tree Decoration