December 2003

THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Forthcoming COUNCIL DIARY The Publisher had attended a 17 October 2003 workshop on Scenario Planning Society in Publishing, and reported to Meetings Already before the October Council on the issues under dis- Council meeting, members of cussion. There is a need for 2004 Council had been circulated some long term planning to Friday 9 January urgently by email for their deal with long term threats to AMS Meeting, individual responses to the publishing. The Society’s pub- Arizona HEFCE consultation on devel- lishing activities represent both G. van der Geer oping the funding method for a service to the mathematical [page X] teaching in English universi- community and a source of ties from 2004-5. The propos- income which together with Friday 20 February als suggest a 5.4% cut in the our investments funds our 1 London mathematics teaching budg- other activities; we need to D. Schleicher et. Council approved the maintain their health. S.M. Rees excellent document which the As Programme Secretary, (Mary Cartwright Education Secretary had sub- Stephen Huggett reported on Lecture) sequently put together. It has the impact that budget cuts are [page X] necessarily been a fast having on Programme response; it is now important Committee grants. Programme Wednesday 12 May that we find common cause Committee’s policy is to aim to Nottingham with as many others as possi- fund the parts which other Midlands Regional ble, that we target MPs, and grants cannot reach, in other Meeting talk to the Press. words, it tries to complement In this climate, the announce- other grant awarding bodies in Friday 18 June ment from the Treasurer that, the way it directs its funding. London although money is tight, our pro- Hence, for example, the Hardy Lecture posed Mathematics Promotion Committee is currently choos- Unit could go ahead was particu- ing to focus its conference Friday 2 July larly welcome. We shall run it as funding on smaller rather than Newcastle a trial for one year. This venture larger conferences. Council Northern Regional was proposed at the Retreat last approved this strategy. Meeting March, and has a wide ranging Programme Committee is remit which has already been dis- giving support, through its Friday 17 September cussed in this diary. In particular, Mathematics in Africa pro- Exeter with the new unit in place and gramme, to the African South West & South the part-time press officer it will Institute of Mathematical Wales Regional employ, we shall certainly be able Science (AIMS) in Cape Town, Meeting to use the media more effectively which brings in students from than we are able to at present. all over Africa. Malcolm Friday 19 November London Annual General Mti THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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MacCallum had visited, and reported to INTERNATIONAL REVIEW • Don Dawson, Carleton University, Canada. The panel members will also have many Council on what he had observed. Set in a • Robbert Dijkgraaf, University of Amsterdam, opportunities for discussions with both the former hotel in a seaside resort of Cape OF MATHEMATICS The Netherlands. senior members of our profession and some Town, the institute has good computing Report 9 • Ron Graham, University of California, San of our younger researchers. facilities and an excellent library, an inher- The Steering Group is confident that thanks Diego, USA. They will also be given background brief- itance from an accountant with a passion to the hard work by very many mathemati- • John Guckenheimer, Cornell University, USA. ings on way the Research and Funding for mathematics. The informal teaching cians and statisticians all over the country the • Peter Hall FRS, Australian National Councils, our three learned societies, the methods seem to be very successful, and review will have the best possible chance of University, Australia. Royal Society and research institutes all sup- students and lecturers (many of them achieving its aim of giving us an independent • Niels Keiding, University of Copenhagen, port mathematics, and will hear from various guests from overseas) are extremely enthu- assessment of the standing and potential of Denmark. users of mathematics research. siastic. It sounded like a very good venture research in mathematics and statistics in the • Susan Murphy, University of Michigan, USA. Finally, and importantly, the whole panel to support. UK. • Hans Othmer, University of Minnesota, USA. will have time at the end of the week to Stephen Huggett also reported to The international panel will see some of • Peter Sarnak FRS, Princeton University, USA. reflect on what they have seen and to work Council in his capacity as Scientific our most excellent research, and will be able • Margaret Wright, New York University, USA. together in preparing the first draft of their Secretary to the International Review of to place it in the context of the UK commu- They arrive in London on 1 December and report. Mathematics. Eight venues are being vis- nity in mathematics and statistics and its var- leave on the 6 December. During that week The CMS has already begun discussions with ited, and for some of these programmes ious structures and means of support. they will spend two days (split into four sub- EPSRC on the details of the consultation process have already been set up; there has been Perhaps most importantly, though, the inter- panels) with mathematicians at eight venues: surrounding the publication of the report and the 2 a good spirit of cooperation between national panel will be able to assess our Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, development of any action plans. 3 departments in each region. There is a potential for the future. Imperial College, Manchester, Oxford and Please monitor the website (www.cms.ac.uk/irm) lot of paperwork to prepare, landscape For convenience let us summarise, very Warwick. During these visits there will be for the latest developments; you can email com- documents and numerical data. The briefly, the plans for the review week here. presentations (given by people from a wider ments to me at [email protected]. panel will spend a week in the UK, split- The international panel is group of institutions) on the UK's strongest Stephen Huggett ting into four teams of three to visit two • Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, IHES, France. and most dynamic mathematics and statistics. Scientific Secretary to the Review venues each over a period of two days. • Michel Broué, Institut Henri Poincaré, Sarah Rees France. • Stephen Davis, Northwestern University, USA. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY MARY CARTWRIGHT LECTURE LMS Newsletter Friday 20 February 2004, University College London General Editor: Dr D.R.J. Chillingworth ([email protected]) Reports Editor: Dr S.A. Huggett ([email protected]) 3.30 – 4.30 Professor Dierk Schleicher (Bremen) Reviews Editor: Professor M.P.F. du Sautoy ([email protected]) Understanding Complex Dynamical Systems and their Administrative Editor: Miss S.M. Oakes ([email protected]) Parameter Spaces Editorial office address: London Mathematical Society, De Morgan House, 4.30 – 5.00 Tea 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS (tel: 020 7637 3686; fax: 020 7323 3655; 5.00 – 6.00 Mary Cartwright Lecture Professor Mary Rees (Liverpool) email: [email protected], web: www.lms.ac.uk) The Topographer's View of Parameter Spaces Designed by CHP Design (tel: 020 7240 0466, email: [email protected], web:www.chpdesign.com). Publication dates and deadlines: published monthly, except August. There are limited funds available to contribute in part to the expenses Items and advertisements by first day of the month prior to publication. of members of the Society or research students to attend the Society Information in the Newsletter is free to be used elsewhere unless otherwise stated; attribution is meeting. Requests for support, including an estimate of expenses, may requested when reproducing whole articles. The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy be addressed to the Programme Secretary at the Society (web: of information in the Newsletter. Nor do views expressed necessarily represent the views or policy www.lms.ac.uk; email: [email protected]). of the London Mathematical Society. Charity registration number: 252660. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

2004 LONDON Kingdom on 1st January of year X. The only grounds for the award of the Medal are the MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY candidate's contributions to mathematics. PRIZES The Senior Berwick Prize is named after Announcement and Call for Professor W. E. H. Berwick, a former Vice- Nominations President of the Society, and is awarded in even-numbered years. The Senior Berwick A Prizes Committee has now been appointed Prize for year X can only be awarded to a for 2004. The membership is: mathematician who is a member of the • Chair: Professor Frances Kirwan Society on 1st January of year X; it is award- • Dr Kevin Buzzard ed in recognition of an outstanding piece of • Professor Edward Corrigan mathematical research actually published by • Professor Robert Curtis the Society during the eight years ending on • Professor Angus Macintyre 31st December of year X-1; and it may not be • Professor Mary Rees awarded to any person who has previously • Professor Miles Reid received the De Morgan Medal, Polya Prize, • Professor David Sloan Senior Whitehead Prize or Naylor Prize. In 2004, Council expects to award the De The Naylor Prize and Lectureship in 4 Morgan Medal, the Senior Berwick Prize, the Applied Mathematics is awarded in even- 5 Naylor Prize, the Fröhlich Prize and up to numbered years, in memory of Dr V. D. four Whitehead Prizes. Naylor. The Naylor Prize for year X can only Members wishing to nominate candidates be awarded to a mathematician who is nor- should use the designated form, which is mally resident in the United Kingdom on 1st available to download from the LMS website January of year X. The grounds for the (www.lms.ac.uk) or can be obtained by con- award may include work in, and influence tacting the Secretary to the Committee, on, and contributions to applied mathemat- Isabelle Robinson, at London Mathematical ics and/or the applications of mathematics, Society (tel: 020 7927 0800, email: robin- and lecturing gifts. The Naylor Prize may not [email protected]). Nominations should be be awarded to any person who has previous- received no later than Friday 16 January ly received the De Morgan Medal, the Polya 2004. Prize, the Senior Berwick Prize or the Senior Brief descriptions of the criteria for each Whitehead Prize. The winner of the Naylor Prize are given below. Council reserves the Prize for year X is normally invited to give the right not to make an award of any particular Naylor Lecture at a Society meeting in the Prize in the event that no candidate of suffi- year X+1. cient merit is recommended by the Prizes The Fröhlich Prize is awarded in even num- Committee. The full regulations for each bered years in memory of Professor Albrecht prize can be obtained from Isabelle Robinson Fröhlich (De Morgan Medallist 1992). The (contact details above). Fröhlich Fund for this purpose was based on The De Morgan Medal, the Society's pre- a generous donation from Mrs Fröhlich, mier award, is awarded every third year (in reflecting Professor Fröhlich's great enthusi- years numbered by a multiple of 3), in mem- asm for, and gratitude to, the London ory of Professor A. De Morgan, the Society's Mathematical Society. No person shall be first President. The De Morgan Medal for awarded a Fröhlich Prize more than once. A year X can only be awarded to a mathemati- Fröhlich Prize may not be awarded to any cian who is normally resident in the United person who has received the De Morgan THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Medal or the Polya Prize. The Prize shall be ture by Christopher Deninger (Münster) on restricted to mathematicians who, on 1st Elliptic curves over finite fields and transverse January of the year of the award, are either index theory. Starting with a very accessible (i) normally resident in the United Kingdom introduction to the Riemann zeta function, of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or (ii) its functional equation, and the connection members of the Society mainly educated in with distribution of the prime numbers, he the United Kingdom. The Prize shall only be moved on to consider analogues over alge- awarded to a mathematician who on the 1st braic number fields, and their applications. January of the year of its award is under 40 The second talk, by Volker Remmert years old except that this age restriction may (Mainz) was a scholarly survey of the turbu- be relaxed when it appears desirable to do so lent early history of Compositio. It was in order to take fair account of a broken founded by L.E.J. Brouwer following his career pattern. The Prize shall be awarded expulsion from the editorial board of Math. for original and extremely innovative work in Annalen after falling out with Hilbert. From any branch of mathematics. the start, Brouwer emphasised the interna- The Whitehead Prizes are awarded to tional character of the new journal (in delib- mathematicians who on 1 January 2003 are erate contrast to the narrowly nationalistic normally resident in the United Kingdom or nature of the German journals of the 1930s). 6 members of the Society mainly educated in He appointed a huge editorial board of 49 7 the United Kingdom, who are not already members from all over the world, and a Frans Oort, Joseph Steenbrink, Gerard van der Geer and Bas Edixhoven Fellows of the Royal Society, and who are under panel of five managing editors, one of whom Compositio Editors since 1961 the age of forty years (except that this age restric- was Bieberbach. But almost before the first tion may be relaxed when it appears desirable to issue of the journal appeared, in 1934, do so in order to take fair account of broken career Bieberbach wrote to Brouwer demanding patterns). Grounds for the award may include work that he should dismiss all the Jewish mem- LMS AT THE AMS, PHOENIX in and influence on mathematics. This Prize may bers of the editorial board. When Brouwer not be awarded to anyone who has won any of the refused, Bieberbach resigned, and by 1937 all Society's other Prizes. Members are reminded that ten German members of the Compositio The London Mathematical Society will be holding a Meeting and Reception during the scope of the Whitehead Prizes includes all board had either resigned or emigrated. the American Mathematical Society Meeting at Phoenix, Arizona which runs from 7- aspects of mathematics, and Council has empha- Publication of the journal was halted alto- 10 January 2004. sised that this includes applied mathematics, math- gether after the German occupation of the ematical physics and mathematical aspects of com- Netherlands in 1940, and did not resume The Society Meeting will be held at 3.30 pm on Friday 9 January at which Professor puter science. until about ten years later. Gerard van der Geer (KdV Institute, UWA) will give a lecture on Curves over finite In 1935 Wiener wrote in a letter to Struik, fields and congruences between modular forms. The meeting is to celebrate the COMPOSITIO LAUNCH "Now that my friend Bieberbach is off the relaunch of Compositio Mathematica under a not-for-profit publishing collabora- Compositio, I am sending some of my stuff tion, and a consequent drop in the price. Gerard van der Geer is the Managing The first issue of Compositio Mathematica as there." Other prominent mathematicians Editor of Compositio Mathematica. LMS members who have not already done so an LMS partner journal will be in January such as von Neumann followed his example. will have the opportunity to sign the Membership Book which dates back to 1865. 2004. Two meetings are being held to publi- In these more tranquil times, now that the cise the launch. One will be at the AMS meet- LMS is associated with Compositio, we trust The Meeting will then be followed by a reception at 5.00 pm. Members who wish ing in Phoenix, Arizona, in January (see the that it will continue to publish the very best to attend the reception should apply for their free ticket to the Administrator, item on p. X of this Newsletter). The other mathematics from around the world. Make London Mathematical Society, De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London took place in the Korteweg-de Vries Institute sure that your library subscribes to it! WC1B 4HS (email: [email protected]) no later than 18 December. The Society hopes of Mathematics at the University of Christopher Lance to entertain as many as possible of its members who are attending the AMS Meeting, Amsterdam on 7 November, beginning on an Publications Secretary but numbers are limited by the capacity of the room. appropriately mathematical note with a lec- THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

INTRODUCING THE EPSRC have also joined the team as Associate Programme MATHEMATICAL WHO’S NATIONAL E-SCIENCE Managers. Our areas of responsibility and contacts MATHEMATICS are summarised below. All of the team are keen to WHERE CENTRE 2003 Edition Forthcoming Events PROGRAMME TEAM visit Universities to get to know you better, to answer queries relating to EPSRC’s strategic priori- The Mathematical Who’s Where Integrated Care Records: Problems and The last six months have seen a complete change of ties and to disseminate information about the United Kingdom Directory contains Solutions Workshop - 11-12 December staffing in the EPSRC Mathematics Programme Mathematics Programme. Please do get in touch information about mathematicians The focus of this workshop is electronic health team. Alasdair Rose and Carol McAnally have with any of us to arrange such a visit. and mathematics departments in records: problems and solutions. The enormous departed for new positions within the organisa- universities in the UK. A copy was growth in the use of computers to store and access tion, whilst Allison McCaig leaves us for the South- enclosed with the mailing of the patient records present healthcare professionals West Regional Development Agency. We wish all GCE AND GCSE STATISTICS October Newsletter to each member (and their clients) with a wide range of opportuni- of them the very best in their new posts and thank with an address in the area covered ties and challenges in the delivery of healthcare. them for all the hard work they have done on The annual statistics for 2001, 2002 and 2003 by the directory. Copies are avail- www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/324/ behalf of mathematics in the UK. can be found at the website of the Joint able for purchase at a price of £7.00 Requirements Capture for Collaboration in The team is now made up of new faces, and one Council for General Qualifications; go to or US$14.00 per copy inclusive of e-Science - 14-15 January that may be familiar to some of you. Anne Farrow www.jcgq.org.uk and look under postage, from the London This two day workshop aims to uncover the social has rejoined the Mathematics Programme after a Examination Results. Mathematical Society. Cheques and technical conditions that are most conducive to spell in Chemistry and we are very pleased to have W.B. Stewart should be made payable to the the achievement of e-Science goals. Specifically, it will 8 her on board. Rachel Woolley and Helen Carter Education Secretary ‘London Mathematical Society’. seek to define methods for e-Science applications 9 requirements capture that are capable of addressing socio-technical factors. www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/320/ Name Telephone/e-mail Responsibility ROYAL SOCIETY RESEARCH For a full listing of all forthcoming events visit: www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/esi.html. The Annette Bramley 01793 444304 Programme Manager FELLOWSHIPS November NeSC Newsletter is now online at: [email protected] The Royal Society’s University www.nesc.ac.uk/news/newsletter/November0 Research Fellowship Scheme enables 3.pdf. Helen Carter 01793 444162 Responsive mode - Pure about 300 of the best postdoctoral [email protected] Mathematics researchers to devote up to ten years GAZA LIBRARY PROJECT Faraday, Industrial Mathematics to research. On 1 October 2003 a Networks number of new fellows were The Gaza Library Project (GLP) is a UK charity sponsored Public engagement appointed, including three mathe- by (among others) Sir Michael Atiyah and Sir Eric Ash. maticians: Its purpose is the collection of books and long runs of Rachel Woolley 01793 444183 Responsive mode - Applied Dr Charles Eaton to work in the periodicals for distribution to Palestinian universities [email protected] and Mathematical Physics Department of Mathematics, UMIST, and other institutions. Publications at all levels and in Contact for LSI/Healthcare on local determination of represen- most subjects are needed and members of the LMS are Novel Computation tations of finite groups. urged to participate in the organization of collections. Environmental Mathematics Dr Alan Lauder to work in the Mathematics books ranging from O-level to research and Statistics Mathematical Institute, University of level are badly needed. Some institutions and publish- Oxford, on zeta functions of vari- ers have made generous donations (e.g. the Royal Anne Farrow 01793 444110 Responsive mode - Statistics eties over finite fields. Society, Manchester University Library, the [email protected] and OR Dr David Tong to work in the Mathematics Institute at Warwick, Macmillans) and Responsive mode - small Department of Applied Mathematics individual mathematicians have collected from their grants scheme and Theoretical Physics, University colleagues. This is an appeal to LMS members to collect Review of OR of Cambridge, on string theory, soli- from their various departments. The process is quite Studentships tons, and quantum gauge dynamics simple: contact your colleagues and ask them to pack- (deferred to 1 September 2004). age books in manageable strong cardboard boxes THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

marked Gaza Library Project. Contact either: M. Payne PhD TRAINING IN BLOC geometrical, physical and numerical (Secretary to the Trustees) email: 106141.2003@com- approximations in mathematical model- puserve.com or Rosemarie and Tony Zahlan (trustees) MATHEMATICS IN THE UK BLOC (Bristol Leicester Oxford Colloquium) will ling of flow processes with complex email: [email protected]. They will arrange for In the USA the Carnegie Foundation recently hold its 25th meeting on Friday 9 January 2004 at boundaries collection and shipment. The GLP webpage is: commissioned a collection of essays as part of Oxford. The speakers will be Vlastimil Dlab • C. Rogers (Cambridge) One for all: the www.brunel.ac.uk/~emstksh/gaza. the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID) (Ottawa), Steffen König (Leicester) and Jon potential approach to pricing and hedging Bill Parry — a series of prizeworthy punditry about Brundan (Eugene/Bristol). BLOC is funded by an • C. Rossow (Braunschweig) The MEGAFLOW Warwick University educational training at the PhD level. The LMS Scheme 3 grant. For more details of the pro- Project: Numerical flow simulation of com- invited contributions represent six intellectu- gramme and the venue, as well as general infor- plete transport aircraft PROGRESS ON THE al disciplines: Chemistry, Education, English, mation about BLOC, visit the website • F. Ruggeri (Milano) On the reliability of History, Mathematics and Neuroscience. (www.mcs.le.ac.uk/~nsnashall//BLOC/). repairable systems: methods and applica- BOLOGNA AGREEMENT I would like to bring the UK mathematical com- tions On 19 September, Ministers of Education, meeting munity’s attention to an article, commissioned by MATHEMATICS FOR • B. Schrefler (Padova) A multiphase model in Berlin, issued a communiqué on the latest posi- no one, entitled ‘PhD Training in Mathematics in for concrete: numerical solutions and tion of the Bologna process. In 1999, in the Bologna the UK’ which is to be found as a pdf file at INDUSTRY industrial applications agreement, the UK signed up to the creation of a www.maths.soton.ac.uk/staff/Snaith/Bass2.pdf. The 13th European Conference on • B. Trowbridge (Oxford) Fields, focussing common model for Higher Education in Europe. This essay is an attempt to see whether CID has Mathematics for Industry will take place in and aberration of charged particle beams This will include a three or four-year first Bachelor unearthed any lessons which might be useful in the Eindhoven between 21-25 June 2004. This in electrostatic accelerators 10 degree, a second stage leading to a Masters UK context. For reasons explained in the essay, it conference is co-organised by ECMI • M. Waterman (Los Angeles, CA) Charting 11 degree, and a third stage leading to a Doctoral concentrates exclusively upon mathematics, which (European Consortium for Mathematics in common ancestry in human chromosomes degree. merited two CID essays written by Hyman Bass and Industry) and ENBIS (European Network for For further details consult the website Many of the forty countries now party to the agree- Tony Chan (Notice of the American Mathematics Business and Industrial Statistics). The con- www.ecmi2004.tue.nl. ment have taken steps to institute a three-year first Society Vol.50 (2003) No.7 pp.767-776 and No.8 ference will be devoted to mathematical and degree. In Berlin, ministers decided to specify degrees pp.896-903). statistical modelling, analysis and simulation (Bachelor and Master) in terms of learning outcomes, I promise that this essay is not just of problems arising in a practical context. In rather than simply number of hours of study. another whining lament about lack of particular the following areas have been cho- "[Member states are encouraged to] elaborate a resources. Rather it attempts to address, sen: framework of comparable and compatible qualifica- following Bass in particular, the ques- • Aerospace tions for their higher education systems which should tion of whether we are training the • Electronic industry seek to describe qualifications in terms of workload, right sort of PhDs and, if so, whether we • Chemical technology level, learning outcomes, competencies, and profiles." are doing it in the right way. For exam- • Life sciences Co-ordination will be undertaken by a European ple, does our PhD training dovetail sen- • Materials Qualifications agency and there will be an "overarch- sibly into the sort of 21st century math- • Geophysics ing framework of qualifications". ematical profession which exists out • Financial mathematics Where this leaves the path of a UK student to a there? • Water flow PhD is unclear. The model is not that of an under- The appearance of this article in the The Plenary Speakers are: graduate MMath followed by a PhD, still less that Newsletter should in no way be taken to pre- • S. Bisgaard (Amherst, MA & Amsterdam) of a PhD following immediately after a three year sume that my views in ‘PhD Training in Statistics as a catalyst for process and BSc. The communiqué clearly intends that a sub- Mathematics in the UK’ in any way reflect the product innovation and improvement stantial Masters degree should be the qualification London Mathematical Society’s official point • R. Helmig (Stuttgart) Multiphase and to become a research student. For the full text, see of view. In fact, now I come to think of it, I do multicomponent flow in porous media www.bologna-berlin.de. not know of any evidence that an official in industrial and environmental applica- David Salinger point of view exists. tions Publicity Officer Victor Snaith • J. Hinch (Cambridge) On problems in European Mathematical Society University of Southampton glass industry • J. Hunt (London) Trade-offs between © Sidney Harris THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

FOLDING PATTERNS IN • A. Wadee (Department Civil Engineering, MATHEMATICAL MODEL- and a practical viewpoint. This first day-long Imperial College London) meeting will consist of five talks by invited STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY, • M. Peletier (CWI, Amsterdam) LING AND APPLICATIONS speakers, as well as time for discussion. THEORY AND EXPERI- • D. Waltham (Department Geology, Royal The 12th International Conference on The Invited Speakers are: Holloway College London) Mathematical Modelling and Applications • Emmanuel Dufraine (University of MENTS • M. Casey (School of Earth Sciences, University of (ICTMA12) will be held from 10-14 July 2005 Warwick) Pseudo-Anosov maps and two- A meeting on Folding Patterns in Structural Geology, Leeds) at the City University, London. ICTMA12’s dimensional Euler fluids (after P. Boyland) Theory and Experiments will be held on 15 December • R. Crouch (Department Civil Engineering, purpose is the research, teaching and prac- • Peter Haynes (University of Cambridge) at the University of Bath. Geologists have long been University of Sheffield) tice of mathematical modelling and this Mathematical models for transport and fascinated by the rich variety of patterns observed in For more information contact Professor C.J. meeting will have a strong focus on transi- mixing in the atmosphere folded (multi-layer) rock. These can include smooth Budd ([email protected]) or Professor G.W. Hunt tions from the real world to the mathemati- • Greg King (University of Warwick) Progress parallel folds, kink bands, chevron folds and more dis- ([email protected]) or visit the website cal model. Mathematicians, engineers and on connecting Eulerian and Lagrangian ordered folding patterns on both small and large www.bath.ac.uk/cnm/centre.shtml. The meeting is scientists, modellers in industry, government measures of transport in wavy Taylor vor- length scales. Until recently, all studies of such patterns supported by an LMS conference grant. and finance and teachers and researchers in tex flow were observational and qualitative. However, there schools, colleges and universities will be • Stephen Otto (University of Birmingham) has been recently considerable progress in applying WILL LIGHT MEMORIAL attracted by the conference themes. The first Feeding choanoflagellates and other ani- mathematical and engineering based methods to give announcement is now available on the mals with mixing a quantitative analysis of the possible patterns. This CONFERENCE ICTMA12 website: www.city.ac.uk/conted • Mark Pollicott (University of Manchester) 12 meeting aims to bring together those mathematicians, Professor Will Light, of the University of Leicester, /research/ictma12/index.htm Mixing in ergodic theory 13 engineers and geologists who are interested in the died on 8 December 2002. The Will Light Memorial The Organising Committee are: Andrew analysis, computation and experimental study of fold- Conference, on 18-19 December, brings together a APPLICATIONS OF K-THEO- Gilbert (University of Exeter), Peter Haynes ing (and related) patterns with the aim of stimulating number of Will’s collaborators and friends, in a con- (University of Cambridge), Jean-Luc future mathematical research into more advanced ference to celebrate Will’s life and work. RY AND COHOMOLOGY Thiffeault (Imperial College London), geological formations and also of comparing theoret- On 18 December, Jeremy Levesley, friend and Jacek Brodzki, Bernhard Koeck and Ian Leary Stephen Wiggins (University of Bristol). ical predictions with those observed in the field. The colleague of Will’s at Leicester, will talk about Will’s are organising a meeting entitled There is no registration fee for the meet- meeting will have talks on theory, recent experimental contribution to approximation theory, while 19 ‘Applications of K-theory and Cohomology’ ing. However, owing to limited funds, the work and on practical geology. The emphasis will be a December sees the main part of the conference. from 30 March - 2 April 2004 at the University organisers are unable to provide support for strong interchange of ideas between the different The following speakers will talk on topics that were of Southampton. It is intended that this accommodation and travel except for invited communities. Topics to be covered: dear to Will’s heart: meeting will consist of a London speakers. For further details or to register • Models of deformable rock: experiments and • Rick Beatson (Canterbury, New Zealand) Mathematical Society Spitalfields Day (30 your attendance, please contact Jean-Luc field observations • Rob Brownlee (Leicester, England) March 2004) and will include a special day to Thiffeault ([email protected]) or visit • Parallel rock folding • Manfred Von Golitschek (Würzburg, mark the 60th birthday of Victor Snaith. www.ma.imperial.ac.uk/~jeanluc/lms-mix- • Kink banding: theory Germany) Further details may be found at ing.html. • Kink banding: experiment • Tim Goodman (Dundee, Scotland) www.maths.soton.ac/staff/Brodzki /AKC. • Multi-layer folding patterns and the formation • George Phillips (St Andrews, Scotland) HOWARD HOARE of singularities • Robert Schaback (Göttingen, Germany). MIXING AND ITS • Computational techniques (including level set There will be a £10 registration fee, and there is SYMPOSIUM methods) money available to support travel for UK PhD students. APPLICATIONS The School of Mathematics and Statistics, • Separation (delamination) of rock layers To register for the conference, or to get more infor- The first of a series of three LMS-sponsored University of Birmingham, intends to mount • Discussion: what can geologists learn from math- mation, contact Jeremy Levesley ([email protected], meetings on ‘Mixing and its Applications’ will this Symposium on 16-17 April 2004 in hon- ematicians/engineers and vice-versa. 0116 252 3897) or go to the conference website at take place at the Department of our of Dr A.H. (Howard) M. Hoare, Reader in The confirmed speakers are: www.mcs.le.ac.uk/~jlevesley/willconf/willconf.htm. The Mathematics, Imperial College London, on 8 Algebra in the University of Birmingham. • J. Mackenzie (Department Mathematics, conference is jointly sponsored by the London January 2004. The meetings aim to bring The symposium is to be held to honour Dr University of Strathclyde) Mathematical Society, and the Department of together mathematicians and physicists A.H.M. Hoare on the occasion of his retirement • J. Cosgrove (Department Earth Science and Mathematics and the Centre for Mathematical interested in mixing of passive and active from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Engineering, Imperial College London) Modelling at the University of Leicester. tracers in fluids, both from a mathematical University of Birmingham, and to recognise his THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

mathematical achievements in combinatorial • Lowell Beineke (Indiana University - Purdue UK-JAPAN WINTER CROATIAN CONGRESS OF group theory. Howard Hoare has served for more University) than 40 years on the academic staff of the • Peter Cameron (Queen Mary College, SCHOOL MATHEMATICS University of Birmingham; he was made a Reader London) The UK-Japan Winter Schools have been held since The Croatian Mathematical Society is pleased to in Algebra in 1980. He has been a member of the • Ken Gray (University of Queensland) 1999. Ever year the focus is on a special topic. For announce The Third Croatian Congress of London Mathematical Society since 1960; he was a • Donald Keedwell (University of Surrey) the next Winter School the topic will be "Geometry Mathematics, to be held in Split, Croatia, from 16-18 member of the American Mathematical Society for • Jozef _iráò (Slovak University of Technology, and Analysis Towards Quantum Theory". The aim June 2004. The Congress will have a strong interna- many years. Bratislava) of the School is to bring together Japanese and UK tional component, and it is open to all areas of math- The following colleagues of Howard Hoare Titles of talks, timetable and abstracts will be scientists, in particular also young researchers and ematics. The programme includes Plenary Lectures, have agreed to lecture at the Symposium: available in due course. For further details see students from mathematics and mathematical parallel sessions, and CMS award lecture. The parallel • I.M. Chiswell (Queen Mary, University of mcs.open.ac.uk/puremaths/combin. There is no physics, in a relaxing and stimulating atmosphere. sessions include invited lectures and contributed talks London) official registration for this meeting, but if you plan It will be held from 6-9 January 2004 at Durham (15 minutes) selected by the Scientific Committee. • D.J. Collins (Queen Mary, University of to come, please confirm this by emailing Mike University. Lectures will be given by Alexander Plenary Lecturers: London) Grannell ([email protected]). For further Veselov, Ed Corrigan, John Rawnsley, Simon • Mladen Bestvina (Utah, USA) • W.N. Everitt, FRSE (University of Birmingham) information contact Mike Grannell (email above), Salamon, Mark Gross. For further information con- • Jak_a Cvitani_ (Southern California, USA) • A.M. MacBeath, FRSE (University of Warwick) or Terry Griggs ([email protected]). The organ- tact John Bolton, Department of Mathematical • Zlatko Drma_ (Zagreb, Croatia) • W. Parry, FRS (University of Warwick) isers gratefully acknowledge the support of the Sciences, University of Durham • Lars-Erik Persson (Lulea, Sweden) • D. Singerman (University of Southampton) British Combinatorial Committee. ([email protected]) or • Marko Tadi_ (Zagreb, Croatia) 14 The London Mathematical Society has Martin Guest, Department of • Guido Weiss (Washington, St Louis, USA) 15 agreed to support the Symposium financially MATHEMATICS IN THE Mathematics, Tokyo Metropolitan University For further information contact Vlasta Matijevi_, under Scheme 1. There will be grants avail- ([email protected]) or visit the website Department of Mathematics, University of Split, able to support up to six research students to METROPOLIS www.hull.ac.uk/php/masjb/wshome.html. Croatia ([email protected]) or visit the website attend the symposium; these grants will www.pmfst.hr/congress/print_en.htm. cover subsistence costs and part of the travel Survey of Victorian London costs in visiting the University of Birmingham. A lecture on ‘The Mathematics in the Application for this financial support should Metropolis: A Survey of Victorian London’ be addressed to Professor W.N. Everitt will be held on Monday 19 January 2004 at ([email protected]). 6.00 pm (refreshments from 5.30 pm) at Full details of Symposium programme and Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall, arrangements for accommodation at the Holborn, London EC1N 2HH. This is a joint University, and an application form to attend British Society for the History of Mathematics this meeting, will be available on the website and Gresham College lecture at which the web.mat.bham.ac.uk/symposium in the near admission is free. The speaker is Adrian Rice future. from Randolph-Macon College, Virginia, USA. The Victorian period was a time of mas- COMBINATORICS MEETING sive change for London, not least in the development and availability of university- The 2004 Open University Winter level mathematics. This talk investigates the Combinatorics Meeting will be held on changes that took place, highlighting some Wednesday 21 January 2004 in the of the famous mathematicians involved, and Christodoulou Meeting Room 15 (CMR 15) at comparing their teaching styles and the the Open University campus in Milton courses they offered at a wide variety of Keynes. All are welcome and coffee will be teaching establishments across the capital available from 10:00 am. between 1837 and 1901. For further infor- The speakers will be: mation contact June Barrow-Green (j.e.bar- • Dan Archdeacon (University of Vermont) [email protected]). THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

SOUTH WEST & SOUTH field of Life Sciences — that is, systems RECORDS OF PROCEEDINGS AT WALES REGIONAL connected with MEETING biological organ- MEETINGS isms, including pop- The University of Southampton Mathematics ulation dynamics, REGIONAL ORDINARY MEETING Department was the venue for a pair of meetings held neural networks, held on Friday 24 October 2003 at the University of Southampton. over the last weekend of October. First the South West epidemiology and and South Wales branch of the London Mathematical physiology. Various At least 50 members and visitors were present for all or part of Society held its annual meeting on Nonlinear Dynamics different aspects of the meeting. on Friday 24 October. This was followed on Saturday the difficulty of and Sunday by an LMS-funded Workshop on modelling neural The meeting began at 3:30 pm, with Professor A.J. SCHOLL, Vice- Nonlinear Dynamics and Life Sciences. Both meetings behaviour were dis- President, in the Chair. Fourteen people were elected to Ordinary were well attended, with participants coming both cussed at this work- Membership: A.A. Adams, M.J. Bright, R.A. Earl, M. Farber, K.R. from the southwest region and from further afield, shop, including syn- Khusnutdinova, D. Lesnic, S.J. Norton, N.C. Ovenden, B. Sandstede, including Glasgow, Portugal, Brazil, USA and Japan. chronisation of The regional meeting began at an extremely neural activity, J. Schroer, B. Sheppard, A. Veretnnikov, S. Willerton and J.M. civilised hour (possibly to ensure full attendance from modelling spiking neurons with stochastic equations, 16 Woolf; and five people were elected to Associate Membership: R.T. PhD students?), and after well-orchestrated applause detection of nonlinear interactions and the effects of 17 Bayley, M.R. Brimicombe, J.S.F. Duffy, N. Tsangarides and B. Winn. had welcomed new LMS members, the ancient and different inhibitory and electrical couplings, in talks by noble rite of signing the LMS Book of Mathematicians Roman Borisyuk, Tomas Gedeon, Tim Lewis, Pietro- The Records of the Proceedings of the Society Meetings held on took place. The new LMS members performed their Luciano Buono, John Terry and Philip Holmes. 20 June and 22 July 2003 were signed as a correct record. role with due dignity and deference, in a ceremony Dynamical systems theory was well represented here surely identical to that involving the likes of Cayley 150 too, with contributions by Stefano Luzzato, Ian Two members signed the book and were admitted to the Society. years ago. The formalities over, the mathematical part Stewart, Marcelo Viana and Tsuyoshi Chawanya, on of the proceedings began. This meeting consisted of stability under different perturbations, a groupoid for- DR D.R.J. CHILLINGWORTH introduced a lecture given by M. Viana two talks, from opposite ends of the dynamics spec- malism for synchrony in symmetric networks, equilibri- trum. The opening talk by Marcelo Viana represented um states in statistical mechanics and exotic attractors on ‘Multiplying Matrices’. the pure mathematics face of dynamical systems. His in dynamical systems with invariant subspaces. The title of ‘Multiplying matrices’ lulled everyone into a meeting closed with a talk by David Rand on the After tea, Dr D.R.J. Chillingworth introduced a lecture given by P. false sense of security, and all those who assumed they designs behind internal Circadian clocks, which served Holmes on ‘Piecewise-Holonomic Mechanics, Hybrid Dynamical knew all about matrix multiplication discovered they to remind us to be very thankful for the extra hour Systems and Escaping Cockroaches’. had much to learn, especially about random matrices. gained from the clocks going back! This was followed by an applied talk, the first talk of All in all this was an excellently organised meet- Professor Scholl expressed the thanks of the Society to the the weekend on cockroaches (and not the last!), by ing, drawing a diverse and interesting selection of University of Southampton and the speakers for putting on such Philip Holmes. Several compelling, yet revolting, videos speakers, and was useful both in terms of intro- an excellent meeting. (and much excellent modelling) later, we dispersed to ducing the audience to new applications in the life the University Staff Social Centre for an excellent din- sciences, and reporting new advances in dynamical After the meeting a reception and dinner were held in the Blue ner. All thoughts of cockroaches had happily gone, systems theory. replaced by duck, followed by dessert and cheese, leav- Rob Sturman Room at the Staff Social Centre, University of Southampton. ing the mainland Europeans perturbed by the deca- University of leeds dence of the British. A large proportion of those pres- .M. Kubow & R.J. Full, The role of the ent ensured the continuation of Portuguese as the mechanical system in control: a hypothesis unofficial language of dynamical systems. of self-stabilization in hexapedal runners, Of all the real-world applications of nonlinear Phil. Trans. Roy Soc. Lond. B, 354, pp 849- dynamics, many of the most popular belong to the 861, 1999 THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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WOMEN AND THE RAE Apart from UoA 25 (where the figure is 44%) every other UoA shows that over 50% of the female mathematicians submitted were under 40 years of age. The age profile for the male Although RAE 2001 was the third such exercise it was the first time the gender of selected mathematicians is much more evenly distributed. staff was noted. This provides us with some interesting statistics which comment on the gen- Contracts der equality of the UK mathematical community. The Units of Assessment considered are: On fixed term contract 22 23 24 25 22-25 22 - Pure Mathematics 23 - Applied Mathematics % of Female Staff 47 27 20 14 21 24 - Statistics and Operational Research 25 - Computer Science. % of Male Staff 15 13 13 11 13 We are indebted to Richard Puttock of HEFCE for providing us with the statistics. The fig- ures are for category A, A* and C staff submitted for assessment, i.e. only those eligible to Table 3: Gender and fixed term contract distribution of selected. include outputs in the assessment.

Female Participation We note that the percentage of staff on fixed term contracts is higher for women in every UoA. UofA 22 23 24 25 22-24 22-25 Ratings 18 Female Staff of selected staff 7 10 16 13 10 12 19 Rating of department 1 2 3a 3b 4 5 5* Table 1: Gender distribution of selected staff % of Female Staff 0 2 16 5 25 32 20 First to note is the low percentage of women being submitted to the RAE. However, does this just reflect the UK mathematical community? We can compare the statistics with HE’s fig- % of Male Staff 0 1 11 4 26 39 20 ures for mathematical academic positions held in 2000/2001 in the UK. Of the 3208 mathe- matical positions held in the UK (this includes permanent and fixed term positions but Table 4: Gender and rating distribution of selected staff in UoA 22-25. excludes hourly paid/casual staff) 518 positions were held by women, which represents approximately 16% of the total. This implies that female mathematicians are under repre- It appears that the male and female researchers selected are distributed similarly between sented in the RAE. the differently rated departments. This also holds when individual UoAs are considered.

Age Distribution Comment As Table 3 illustrates many of the female mathematicians being submitted to the RAE are Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+ not on permanent contracts. This leads us to ask a couple of questions: Are women with per- manent positions being submitted to the RAE? What happens to the women on temporary % of Female Staff 8 52 20 17 3 contracts? We begin by analysing further statistics relating to the first question. HESA’s figures tell us % of Male Staff 4 30 26 26 15 that 278 women held permanent mathematical academic positions in the UK in 2000/2001. This represents 13% of the total 2154 positions available. If we now consider the RAE statis- Table 2(a): Age distribution of selected staff in UoAs 22-24. tics we see that of the 180 female researchers submitted to the RAE for UoAs 22-24 this includes 51 on temporary contracts. Corresponding results for male researchers show that Age 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+ 1563 male researchers were submitted of which 216 were on temporary contracts. Thus less than 50% (129/278) of women in permanent positions were submitted to the RAE in compar- % of Female Staff 6 46 30 16 2 ison with over 70% (1347/1876) of men in permanent positions. That less than 50% of women in permanent positions are being submitted to the RAE needs % of Male Staff 4 32 29 25 10 consideration. One explanation could be that many women are in Institutions not submitting to the RAE. This needs investigating but seems possible, as many women take into considera- Table 2(b): Age distribution of selected staff in UoAs 22-25. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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tion where their partner is working when applying for jobs. We should also note that the RAE LMS PROGRAMME AND then the application must be countersigned assesses research and that is only one part of the varied work of an academic. Do the statis- by an LMS member. For Scheme 4, only LMS tics reflect that female academics tend to become overburdened with other duties such as CONFERENCE FUND members working in the UK are eligible. administration and teaching? Even if this isn’t intentional, that women are in general more The Programme and Conference Fund is used conscientious about their teaching than their male counterparts is commonly acknowledged to give financial support for mathematical When to Apply and can be harmful to womens’ research output. Also the desire to have women on commit- research in the UK. The fund is administered Please note that applications will not be considered tees can mean that the few women in mathematics departments can end up with more than by the LMS Programme Committee, which between mid-June and mid-September. The main their fair share of administrative duties. distributes as grants some of the funds that meetings of the Committee are held in February Tables 2(a) and 2(b) offer us insight into the second question. Certainly the women being the Society receives from its investments and and September. Additional meetings are held in submitted to the RAE are younger than the men and consequently more likely to be on tem- publishing activities. This is one of the mech- between, but time at these is very limited and it porary contracts. This could be viewed positively - it is the beginning of a trend and soon anisms through which the Society achieves its cannot be guaranteed that your application will be many more women will be in permanent academic posts and being submitted to the RAE. central purpose, namely to ‘promote and considered. For the date of the next meeting However, we are hesitant about this interpretation. We suggest that a large number of extend mathematical knowledge’. The please contact Sylvia Daly ([email protected]), but women are dropping out of the ‘academic race’ between the ages of 30-40. This has now Society operates as a charity and does not above all please note that some of the individual become the age in which to secure a permanent position, however for many women it is also receive any public funding. Thus Programme schemes have their own deadlines: these are the time to have children. Committee has different opportunities and detailed under the headings for each scheme. Finally we look again at Table 1 and note the discrepancies between different UoAs in the works within a different regulatory frame- inclusion of female staff. Do these differences indicate that women prefer certain types of work from other funding bodies, such as the Assistance 20 mathematics to others, i.e. statistics as opposed to pure mathematics, or is it a comment on EPSRC. Grants are made under six schemes Queries regarding applications can be addressed to 21 the culture of different mathematical communities, some cultures being more female-friend- which are described below. the Programme Secretary, Stephen Huggett (tel: ly than others? Please note that the Society’s income has 01752 232710) or Sylvia Daly (tel: 020 7291 9971), Rachel Camina & Cathy Hobbs fallen, and Programme Committee is not able who will be pleased to discuss proposals informally (LMS Committee on Women in Mathematics) to make awards as often or as fully as it with potential applicants and give advice on the would like. submission of an application. For general informa- tion on completing your application please refer to How to Apply the Notes for Guidance. For assistance please email For Schemes 1-5 application forms may be [email protected]. obtained from the Society’s Office or may be downloaded as rich text files from the LMS Multiple Applications website (www.lms.ac.uk). For Scheme 6 appli- The Society does not like to receive sequential cations should be made by letter. All applica- applications for grants to support the same or tions should be sent in hard copy to the closely related events, and will not allow its limits Programme Secretary at De Morgan House. for individual schemes to be exceeded by artificial- Grants must be claimed in a specified ly sub-dividing an application into a number of sep- financial year from 1 September to 31 arate requests under different headings. August. Please ensure that you state in your In the case of satellite conferences, organisers application in which year you intend to claim of the main meeting are asked to give brief the grant, bearing in mind that grants should details of any planned satellites as part of their normally be claimed not earlier than 3 application for a conference grant. Applications months before, and not later than 3 months for support for satellite meetings should make after, the event for which the grant is made. clear the financial and organisational connec- tion with the main meeting. This is particularly Who may Apply important in cases where the expenses of speak- For Schemes 1,2,3,5 and 6 any mathematician ers could be shared between the two meetings. working in the UK is eligible to apply for a Special arrangements apply to the BMC and its grant, but if the applicant is not a member satellites. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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Notes for Guidance rounds; nor should it be assumed that a account the length of the conference, the These additional grants are intended to Applicants should keep in mind the follow- grant, for example under Scheme 3 or for a number of UK participants and the number help widen participation in a meeting. The ing points: regular collaboration under Scheme 4, will be of research students taking part. The basic committee does not expect that all of these 1. The committee does not normally meet renewed repeatedly. grant shall not normally exceed £3,000, with sums will necessarily be spent; any surplus the full cost of an activity. Rather it aims to 7. The limits mentioned in the various additional support available for research stu- must be returned to the Society and may not give added value to an event largely funded schemes are upper bounds, not standard dents (up to £1,000) and ‘Scheme 5’ partici- be used for other purposes. Academic and by other means, or to bridge the gap awards. Grants are made to meet actual pants (up to £1,000). The basic grant is pri- financial reports of the conference are between cost and the resources that might expenditure on items in the application, and marily intended to cover the expenses of required. reasonably be made available by a university any surplus must be returned to the Society, principal speakers. Applications are considered at the department. rather than retained for related purposes or Please note: September, February and June meetings of 2. The grants do not cover departmental carried forward to another year. 1. The Committee will often find it difficult Programme Committee. Deadlines for overheads. The committee will generally not 8. Applications should be brief and self- to fund the full amount asked for. receipt of applications for these meetings allow items such as secretarial costs, which contained. Please do not append substantial 2. Reasonable registration fees of between are 31 August, 31 January and 31 May. could be seen as part of normal departmen- documents that contain irrelevant detail or £10 and £20 should be charged; the tal provision, or entertainment. refer to websites for key information. Committee seldom supports meetings with a Scheme 2 - Visitors 3. Applicants should note that our mileage 9. The task of collating applications, for- registration fee of more than £50 per day. Some financial support is provided for visitors rate is 23p. warding them to the committee, recording 3. The Committee will support only mathe- to the UK who give lectures in at least three 4. Each of the schemes has a particular aim decisions, and preparing and checking notifi- matical meetings or the mathematical com- separate institutions. 22 as well as its own financial limits. It is helpful cation letters is nontrivial and time-consum- ponent of wider meetings. The LMS contribution under this scheme is 23 if applicants consider carefully how their pro- ing. Please apply well in advance and bear in Applicants should note that conference towards actual expenses for travel (interna- posal fits the particular scheme in question, mind that you may not hear the outcome of attendance will not be funded, except for tional and within the UK), accommodation and its detailed rules (which change from an application immediately. principal speakers, research students, and and subsistence, up to a maximum of £1,200. time to time). Thus the academic justification ‘Scheme 5’ participants. Support here is The grant is only intended as a partial contri- for a Scheme 2 grant should focus on the Scheme 1 - Conference Grants intended to contribute to travel, accommo- bution and applicants are expected to benefit to UK mathematics that the proposed Grants are made to the organisers of confer- dation and subsistence costs, but not regis- approach the host institutions for funding to visit would bring, while that for a Scheme 5 ences to be held in the United Kingdom. tration fees. cover the remainder of these costs. grant should focus on the benefits in the Programme Committee tends to give priority The Society will not make grants to cover Applicants are responsible for making all the Scheme 5 country. In neither case should it be to the support of meetings where an LMS the cost of secretarial help, excessive room arrangements for a visit under this scheme assumed that the distinction of the visitor grant can be expected to make a significant charges, publicity, or conference dinners and and are expected to make economical travel renders further justification unnecessary. contribution to the viability and success of entertainment: it expects such items to be arrangements where possible, e.g. Apex air 5. The committee is made up of mathe- the meeting. The Society expects that the covered by contributions in kind from the fare and 2nd class rail fare. A maximum of maticians with a wide spread of research meetings which it supports will be open to all host department, or by registration charges, £50 a day is allowable for accommodation interests, but it should not be assumed that members of the Society, and will only support or by income from other sources. and subsistence according to the formula: they are familiar with the technical details of a closed meeting if an exceptional case is The Society wishes to support UK based actual accommodation costs up to £35 per any particular area of mathematics. Proposals made. Support of larger meetings of high research students, and applications should day, £15 per day for other subsistence costs. are judged by the committee itself: although quality is not ruled out but for such meetings include details of the extent to which such Academic and financial reports of the visit it may seek advice, it does not normally send an LMS grant will normally cover only a mod- research students will be involved in the con- are required. proposals to referees. It is therefore impor- est part of the total cost. Potential applicants ference. Up to £1,000 may be awarded to There are no specific deadlines but nor- tant that the case for a grant should be writ- should note that the Society is reluctant to support participants who are research stu- mally an application should be submitted at ten for the general mathematician and not award grants to conferences which clash with dents at UK universities. (In this context least three months before the date of the for the specialist. other significant mathematical meetings in ‘research student’ means ‘research student of proposed visit to allow for consideration by 6. The committee judges each application Britain such as the British Mathematical any nationality studying at a UK university’.) the LMS Programme Committee and an on its merits. Since its membership changes Colloquium or the British Applied The Society also wishes to encourage overseas announcement of the visit in the Society’s from year to year, it should not be assumed Mathematical Colloquium. participants from countries within the scope of Newsletter. Applications will not be consid- that it is familiar with the details of previous The current upper limit for grants is Scheme 5 (see below); a further £1,000 may be ered between mid-June and mid-September. applications and correspondence from earlier £5,000, the size of the grant to take into awarded to support such participants. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Scheme 3 - Support of joint research In both cases, the application form should Applications for a grant under this scheme should be made by mathematicians at UK groups be completed by a nominated ‘grant-holder’, may only be made by LMS members working institutions, both for visits to the UK and for The scheme is to provide support for groups who will be responsible for the use of the in the UK. Applications are considered at the visits to the countries concerned. of mathematicians, working in at least three grant, and countersigned by a ‘supporter’ September, February and June meetings of Applications are considered at the different locations in the United Kingdom, from each of at least two further institutions. Programme Committee. Deadlines for receipt September and February meetings of who have a common research interest, who (If none of the applicants is a member of the of applications for these meetings are 31 Programme Committee. Deadlines for receipt wish to engage in collaborative activities and Society, the application must be counter- August, 31 January and 31 May. Normally of applications for these meetings are 31 whose geographical locations are such that signed by a member of the Society.) only one grant will be made per collabora- August and 31 January. reasonably frequent regular meetings—sev- New and renewal applications are consid- tion in any financial year (September to eral per year—are a realistic possibility. ered at the September meeting of August) and in the event of over-subscription Scheme 6 - Connectivity Grants The maximum grant awarded is currently Programme Committee. The deadline for in any particular round, applicants who Up to £500 may be awarded towards the cost £1,200; this is awarded where four meetings receipt of applications for this meeting is 31 received an award in the previous financial of exploring potential new collaborations per year are held, or there is an equivalent August. Renewal applications will also be year will not be considered. between mathematicians and non-mathe- level of activity. Meetings should be open, considered at meetings between September maticians on new applications of mathemat- and have at least two formal talks on the and December, and should be submitted as Scheme 5 - International Short Visits ics. The use of the grants is not restricted but programme. The grant is made for the aca- soon as final reports can be completed. This scheme, originally to support mathemat- might include the costs of a small-scale meet- demic year and the Society requires academ- ics in the countries of the former Soviet ing to identify problems or travel costs to ic and financial reports. Scheme 4 - Collaborative small grants Union, has been extended to other countries. bring in external experts. The intention is to 24 A grant may be used for a variety of pur- The aim of the scheme is to provide small It excludes the countries of Western Europe, help the applicants do the preparatory work 25 poses associated with the group’s activities, grants to individual LMS members within North America, and Australia. The status of prior to a larger scale application to EPSRC. such as expenses for speakers at common the United Kingdom to help support a other countries will be determined by The application should be by short letter giv- seminars, travel for group members between visit for collaborative research, either by Programme Committee case by case. For vis- ing: institutions either for research visits, seminars the grantee to another institution within its to Britain, the maximum grant shall be 1. the names of at least two co-applicants, or study groups, or support for TMR net- the UK or abroad, or by a named mathe- £1400, and up to £500 for actual travel costs. one a member of a mathematical science works (on items ineligible for EU grants). The matician from within the UK or abroad to A maximum of £50 a day is allowable for department and one a member of a non- Society wishes to support research students the home base of the grantee. Each accommodation and subsistence according to mathematical department; and young postdoctoral mathematicians, and application should be for one visit only. the formula: actual accommodation costs up 2. outline CVs of the two applicants; applications should indicate details of the The time available for joint research aris- to £35 per day, £15 per day for other subsis- 3. a description of how the grant would be extent to which they will be involved in the ing from the grant is expected to be at tence costs. For visits from Britain, the maxi- used; programme. No strict criteria will be laid least several working days. The maximum mum grant is £1200. 4. the financial year (starting 1 September) down as to the use of the money but the sum available is £500 or £250 if the visits Success of an application will depend in which you would wish to claim the grant. Society reserves the right to judge whether are between UK institutions and, where mainly and crucially on the likelihood of Preference will be given to novel areas of the activities proposed in an application are necessary, grantees will have to cover potential benefit to mathematics in the application. Support for existing collabora- appropriate for a grant. further costs from other sources such as country concerned. Grants will not be tions is not eligible. A brief report on the use departmental or personal funds. The made solely for attendance at conferences. of the grant is required: this should describe Renewals intention is to provide sufficient funds so Where a visit to or from the UK includes a the academic outcome of the work and give Applications for renewal should be made that the call on other sources is held conference, it should also include other financial details. using an application form and be accompa- within manageable bounds. academic activities which in themselves If none of the applicants is a member of nied by full financial and academic reports. Applicants should bear in mind that the would justify the grant, and should be for the Society then the application must be Programme Committee will normally either: purpose of the Scheme is to support specific a total period of not less than 14 days. For countersigned by a member. Applications are a) renew at some appropriate level, or projects with named collaborators and not, visits to the UK, any expenses during the considered at the September, February and b) give notice of termination at the end of for example, simply to contribute to the costs period of a conference should be met by June meetings of Programme Committee. the calendar year, in which case a sum equal to of a sabbatical visit. A brief report on the use the conference organisers (see ‘Conference Deadlines for receipt of applications for not more than one third of the previous year’s of the grant is required: this should describe Grants’ above). Academic and financial these meetings are 31 August, 31 January grant can be claimed to cover actual expendi- the academic outcome of the visit and give reports of the visit are required. and 31 May. ture in the residual period. financial details. Applications for a grant under this scheme THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Grants awarded since June 2003 Scheme 1 Scheme 2

Applicant Title Grant Applicant Visitor To Visit Grant

J. Brodzki Applications of K-theory and Cohomology £4,000 J. Kellendonk J. Bellissard Cardiff, Oxford, Leicester £1,200

M. Dzamonja David Fremlin’s Retirement Meeting £1,510 J. Zacharias J.A. Kaminker Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow £1,078

M.M. Jones One Day Function Theory Meeting £590 B. Zilber M. Taitslin Oxford, Leeds, Manchester, £1,200 Edinburgh G. Robinson, Coxeter Groups, Hecke Algebras and related £2,000 G. Röhrle topics V.M. Rothos M. Feckan Leicester and two other institu- £1,170 tions P. Fleischmann, Modular Invariants and Representations of Finite £2,182 R.J. Shank Groups: Theory and Computation M. Berger A. Petrosyan UCL, St Andrews, Manchester, £1,200 Oxford J. Levesley Will Light Conference on Approximation Theory £1,650 and Applied Analysis G. Grimmett S. Janson Cambridge, Oxford, UCL £639 26 27 G. Shore Strings, Gauge Fields and Duality - conference to £3,000 D.G. Larman J.R. Alfonsin Oxford, UCL, Cambridge £164 mark the retirement of Professor David Olive, CBE, FRS D. Crisan J. Xiong Imperial, Oxford, Warwick £700

D. Lesnic 5th International Conference on Inverse R.V. Craster A. Shanin Imperial, Reading and one other £1,200 Problems in Engineering: Theory and Practice £1,000 institution

N. Riley Mathematical Modelling of the Global Ocean £1,000 D.E. Evans V.M. Manuilov Cardiff, Glasgow, Swansea £1,200

R.F. Bailey 15th Postgraduate Combinatorial Conference £1,648 K.R. Khusnutdinova, M.V. Pavlov Loughborough and two other £1,200 R.H.J. Grimshaw institutions B.M. Brown Differential and Integral Operators in Lp Space - £3,000 to mark the 65th birthday of Professor W.D. L.C.G. Rogers U. Cetin Cambridge, Imperial, Oxford £750 Evans C.J. Smyth D. Boyd Edinburgh, East Anglia, Royal £1,100 M. Lackenby Three dimensional geometry and topology £2,000 Holloway

C.J. Budd, Folding Patterns in Structural Geology, Theory £800 J. Gray J. Conway Open, Warwick, Greenwich £475 G.W. Hunt and Experiments A. Duncan V. Guirardel Newcastle, QMUL, UMIST £650 I. Graham 3rd International Conference on Boundary £2,000 Integral Methods: Theory and Applications THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Scheme 3 Scheme 4

Applicant Institution To Visit Grant Applicant Institution Collaborator Institution Grant

I.R. McIntosh York Yorkshire Differential Geometry Days £1,200 F.P.A. Coolen Durham T. Augustin, Ludwig Maximilians, £500 K. Weichselberger Munich J.M. Figueroa-O’Farrill Edinburgh North British Mathematical Physics £1,200 Seminar O.H. King Newcastle A. Cossidente Basilicata £500

A.F. Jarvis Sheffield North of England Algebraic £1,000 T. Ward East Anglia M. Einsiedler Washington £500 Number Theory Group M.G. Blyth East Anglia C. Pozrikidis California at San £500 Newcastle North British Functional Analysis £900 M. Dritschel Diego Seminar P. Ashwin Exeter O. Popovych NAS, Kiev £500 N. Snashall Leicester Bristol Leicester Oxford Colloquium £1,200 (BLOC) A.V. Mikhailov Leeds T. Wolf, J.P. Wang Brock, Ontario £500 I. Gordon Glasgow North British Algebra and £1,200 Representation Theory P. Fleischmann Kent A. Zalesski East Anglia £250 28 29 J.R. Terry Loughborough Mathematics in Medicine and £1,200 G. Röhrle Birmingham A. Premet Manchester £250 Biology J.P.C. Greenlees Sheffield R.R. Bruner Wayne State £365 T. Brzezinski Swansea Quantum Geometry of Hopf £600 Algebras and Hopf Algebroids C-H. Chu QMUL M. Mackey University College £480 Dublin J. Brodzki Southampton K-Theory and Analysis £1,200 J.R. Partington Leeds E. Gallardo Zaragoza £500 G.K. Sankaran Bath Algebraic Geometry Seminar (COW) £1,200 S. Whitehouse Sheffield F. Clarke, M. Swansea £250 A.D. Gilbert Exeter Scalar Mixing in Fluid Flows and £900 Crossley Mappings R. Twarock City V. Mazorchuk Uppsala £500 S. Rees Newcastle North Eastern Geometric Group £900 Theory Seminar A. Rucklidge Leeds V. Kirk Auckland £500 J.P.C. Greenlees Sheffield Transpennine Topology Triangle £1,200 J. Bolton Durham L. Vrancken Valenciennes £400 B.D. Mestel Stirling Scottish Network on Nonlinear £1,200 Dynamics, Fractals and Applications J.B. Fountain York G.M.S. Gomes Lisbon £500 (ScotDyn) A. Grigor’yan Imperial J. Hu Beijing £500 A.P. Fordy Leeds Classical and Quantum Integrability £1,200 A. Pushnitski Loughborough N. Filonov St Petersburg £500 S.D. Galbraith Royal Holloway Computational Number Theory (SECANTS) £600

J.S.W. Lamb Imperial London Dynamical Systems Group £1,200

R. Sharp Manchester Ergodic Theory £1,200 THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Scheme 5 and family life, and the significance of cof- INSTITUT DES HAUTES Applicant Visitor/Institution To Visit Grant fee for inspiration. The panel at the Royal Society event ÉTUDES SCIENTIFIQUES J-L. Wu, H. Zhao M-F. Chen Loughborough, Oxford, Hull, £1,350 involved two science diarists: Marcus du The Institut des Hautes Études (Beijing) Swansea Sautoy (mathematician) and Mark Lythgoe Scientifiques, located in Bures-sur- (neurophysiologist) along with two art Yvette (France), welcomes each year 200 E. Kissin Y. Turovskii London Metropolitan, Newcastle, £1,800 diarists: Shobana Jeyasingh (choreogra- to 250 mathematicians and theoretical (Azerbaijan) Leeds, Cambridge pher) and Lawrence Norfolk (novelist) and physicists from all over the world and was chaired by Sian Ede (the Arts director for various periods (2 or 3 weeks up to 1 M. Mathieu K. Klis (Krakow) Queen’s University Belfast £950 of the Gulbenkian Foundation). The discus- or 2 years). sion brought out the mutual understand- Created in 1958, the IHÉS is a private foun- J. Whiteman D. Reddy, J. Cape Town £1,200 ing of the significance of specialised lan- dation of international standing with the Lubuma (Pretoria) guages and narratives in each area of purpose of supporting and developing theo- expertise even though the details could retical research in pure mathematics, theo- J. Hubbuck N.H.V. Hung (Hanoi, Vietnam) £1,200 not easily be conveyed directly. retical physics and more recently, molecular For art and science diarists alike, the cre- biology. The IHÉS is financed by the French P.E. Kopp AIMS and Stellenbosch Institute £1,200 ative journey is clearly central, but the cre- Ministère de la Recherche, some European ativity is always rooted in the necessary research agencies such as the Engineering 30 REVIEW and seemingly endless grind of experi- and Physical Sciences Research Council 31 to be just as well received. The diaries reflect ments and everyday chores. The diaries (EPSRC) in the United Kingdom, the US Science, not Art - Ten Scientists’ Diaries ed much variety in the lives of each of these sci- appear to be an excellent way to engage a National Science Foundation, the Jon Turney, 2003, Calouste Gulbenkian entists as well as the variety in the different broader public audience without having to European Union, and several French and Foundation, ISBN 0903319985, 160 pp, £8.50 fields of work. Yet there are some strong explain what the sound of a triangle tastes foreign foundations and companies. In pbk. common themes that emerge. Most promi- like! February 2000, the European Commission "The taste of a triangle". This reference nent is the 'roller-coaster' existence of the sci- Chris (computer scientist) and Diane acknowledged the IHÉS as a Large European to the difficulty of explaining a synaesthe- entists with peaks of elation at revelations (paper artist) Reade Research Infrastructure centre. sia symptom was made by Mark Lythgoe as mixed with the frustration and despair of an apt analogy for the problem scientists rejection (usually of grant proposals) and the often face in describing their work to non- mundane work. There is also a sense of pas- scientists or even to other scientists work- sion about the science that each of these sci- ing in a different field of science. The entists is involved with, which explains how occasion was a panel discussion held at the they can survive the troughs. Royal Society on 30 September 2003 and The diarists consist of a mathematician, organised by the Gulbenkian Foundation a cosmologist, an ecologist and meteorolo- to mark the publication of the book com- gist, a neurophysiologist, a marine biolo- missioned by the foundation: ‘Science, not gist, a palaeopathologist, a biophysicist, a Art’. geneticist, a physical chemist, and a doctor This book of diaries kept by ten younger and space physiologist. Consequently the scientists over a six month period elegantly diaries cover a broad range of experiences avoids such difficulties of explanation by pro- from field trips (the rainforest and the viding insight into their work through their mid-ocean ridge), to the angst of defend- everyday activities. It should be accessible to ing a 20 million dollar grant proposal. The anyone, whether or not science is a part of diaries touch on the rivalry with other sci- their lives. The book is a companion to a very entists, collaborations with colleagues and well received book of artists’ diaries ‘Art, not PhD students, presenting and publishing Chance’ and this scientists’ version deserves concerns, the difficulties of juggling work Mark Lythgoe THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Director: Jean-Pierre Bourguignon his/her PhD from a UK University or has Permanent Professors: Thibault spent the last year in a UK university. Damour, Mikhael Gromov, Maxim UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM Kontsevich, Laurent Lafforgue, Selection of applicants Nikita Nekrasov Applications will be reviewed and selection LECTURERSHIPS IN PURE MATHEMATICS (Three Posts) Honorary Professor: David Ruelle made based only on the criterion of excel- Applications are invited from strong researchers in any branch of Pure Léon Motchane Chair: Alain Connes lence by the IHÉS Scientific Committee on 17 Mathematics, either from mathematicians whose work complements Louis Michel Chairs: Michael January 2004. This Committee consists of the existing strengths in the School, or from those whose expertise will add Douglas, permanent professors, the Director, and breadth to the Pure Mathematics Group. Jürg Fröhlich, Samson Shatashvili some external members (names are listed Long-term CNRS visitors: Ofer above). Starting salary on scale £22,191 - £33,679 a year depending on experience Gabber, and qualifications. A £9k ‘Golden Hello’ supplement may be available. All Dirk Kreimer, Christophe Soulé Starting date of the fellowships three posts are available from October 2004. External Members of the Scientific Autumn 2004. Committee: Alain Connes, Bernard Application forms (returnable by 12 December 2003) and further details Derrida, Curtis Callan, Michael How to apply from Personnel Services, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Green, Stanislas Leibler, George The application file should be sent Birmingham B15 2TT; tel: 0121 414 6486; web: Papanicolaou, Michael Rapoport through the IHÉS website (www.ihes.fr) www.punit.bham.ac.uk/vacancies. Please quote reference S36665. 32 and should include: a motivation letter, 33 WILLIAM HODGE FELLOWSHIPS: a CV, a publication list, a research proj- Working towards equal opportunities. 2004/2005 ect and two or three letters of recom- EPSRC has now been supporting the IHÉS mendation. The deadline is 31 for a number of years and decided in December 2003. 2000 to foster closer links between British institutions and French mathe- Information matical research centres of excellence. IHÉS, 35 route de Chartres, F-91440 Bures-sur- British mathematicians and theoretical Yvette, France. physicists are invited to apply to the Tel: +33 1 6092 6600, fax: +33 1 6092 6669, ROOMS IHÉS to visit and additionally to use the email: [email protected], website: www.ihes.fr opportunity to visit research groups in IN the Paris region. More information is given on the IHÉS website. In addition, BLOOMSBURY the EPSRC and the IHÉS are offering annually two 1-year fellowships under the name of Sir William Hodge, the emi- The 2004 LMS Invited Lectures will be given at the School of nent British mathematician whose main interests were in algebraic and differen- Mathematics, University of Southampton. This series is held tial geometry. The fellowships will annually: a single speaker gives a course of 10 expository enable outstanding young mathemati- lectures, examining an important topic in depth, over a five cians and theoretical physicists to spend day period. Further details will be announced later on. For time at the IHÉS. Conditions for application general enquiries contact the organiser Dr I. Leary PhD in Mathematics or Theoretical ([email protected]). Physics obtained in 2001 or later. One of the two grants will be exclusively award- ed to an applicant who has received THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

MATHEMATICIANS VISITING THE UK IN 2003/2004 Masumune, J. (Japan Society of the Promotion of Science) Geometry & Analysis of the Dirac & Kohn Laplace Operators, 1 Feb ’03 – 1 Feb ’05 Aberdeen University Painov, D. (Ecole Polytechnique, France) Geometry, 1 Apr – 30 Jun ’04 Sassi, R. (Politécnico Milano) Fluid Mechanics & Biomechanics, 6 Oct – 19 Dec ’03 Lazar, A.J. (Tel Aviv University) Operator Algebras, 20 Oct – 23 Dec ’03 Sibini, P. (University of Southern Denmark) Mathematical Physics: Time Dependent Statistics Benn, I. (University of New South Wales) Relativity, Jul – Dec ‘04 in Complex Systems, Sep ’03 – Aug ’04 Sohn, S.Y. (Yonsel University Seoul, Korea) Statistics, Dec ’03 – Dec ’04 Bath University Zweimuller, R. (University of Salzburg, Austria) Dynamical Systems, 10 Sep ’03 – 31 Jan ’04 Gutierrez-Penna, E. (National University of Mexico) Bayesian Statistics, Aug ’03 – Aug ‘04 Kings College London Bristol University Dudulhava, R. (Academy of Sciences of Georgia) Integral Equations, Operator Theory, Brundan, J. (University of Oregon, USA) Pure Mathematics, 29 Sep – 30 Jan ’04 Partial Differential Equations, Mechanics of Solids, Nov ’03 – Feb ’04 Buchstaber, V. (Moscow State University, Russia) Pure Mathematics, 13 Oct – 13 Dec ’03 Leeds University (Pure Mathematics) Massar, S. (Univ Libre de Bruxelles) Applied Mathematics, 1 Sep – 31 Dec ’03 Callier, F. (Namur University, Belgium) Analysis & Control Theory, 26 Apr – 25 Jun ’04 Rudnick, Z. (Tel Aviv University) Applied Mathematics, 1 Oct ’03 – 30 Sep ’04 Leicester University Chester College Diracca, L. (University of Padova) Algebra, Sep ’03 – Sep ’04 34 Bocharov, G. (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) Mathematical Immunology, Sep – Dec Milstein, G.N. (Ural State University) Stochastic Numerics, Mar – Oct ’04 35 ’03 and Apr – Jul ’04 Sun, X. (University of Southwest Missouri, USA) Approximation Theory, Jun-Aug ’04

Durham University Liverpool University (Pure Mathematics) Guifloye, B. (IT Tralee, Ireland) Differential Geometry, 26 Apr – 25 May ’04 Bryden, J. (University of Southern Illionis, USA) Topology & Representation Theory, Jan – Jun ’04 Hillman. J.A. (University of Sydney) Applications of Algebra to Low Dimensional Topology and to Knots and Links in all Dimensions, Oct – Dec ’03 London School of Economics Beck, A. (University of Wisconsin) Search Games, Jan – Mar ’04 Exeter University Gal, S. (Haifa) Search Games, Apr – Jun ’04 Dear, K. (Australian National University) Statistics, Sep – 31 Dec ‘03 Emirsajlow, Z. (Technical University of Szczecin) Control Theory, 5 Oct ’03 – 31 Jan Loughborough University ‘04 Blagovestchenskii, A.S. (St Petersburg State University, Russia) Reconstruction of Interfaces Liao, X. (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China) Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, 1 Oct in Inhomogeneous Media, 3 Nov – 27 Nov ’03 ’03 – 1 Mar ‘04 Sutyrin, G.G. (Rhode Island University, USA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Oceanic and Maistrenko, Y. (Ukraine Academy of Sciences) Nonlinear Dynamics, Synchronization, until Jan ‘04 Atmospheric Vortices and Fronts, 20 Aug ’03 – 20 Apr ’04

Heriot-Watt University Manchester University Afrouzi, G. (Mazandaran University, Iran) Differential Equations, Functional Analysis, Oct Rafikul, A. (Guwchati, India) Numerical Linear Algebra, 25 Mar ’03 – Mar ’04 ’03 – Mar ’04 Taras, P. (Moscow State University) Algebraic Theory & Combinatorics, 1 Aug ’03 – 31 Jan ’04

Hull University Napier University Falkovich, G. (Weizmann Institute for Science, Israel) Mathematical Theory of Turbulence, Mar – Apr ’04 Kuzmin, G.A. (Institute of Thermophysics, Novosibirsk, Russia) Fluid Dynamics, Turbulence, 15 – 31 Mar ’04 McLeod, J. (Mount Holyoke College) Topological Algebra and Combinatorics, Sep ’03 - Jul ’04 Yudovich, V.I. (Rostov University, Russia) Mathematical Fluid Dynamics, 20 Sep – 20 Dec ’03 Newcastle University Agler, J. (University of California, San Diego) Operator Theory, 1 Jul – 31 Aug ’04 Imperial College London Kazatchkov, I. (Omsk University, Russia) Geometric Group Theory, 1 Oct – 21 Nov ’03 Barnea, Y. (University of Wisconsin, USA) Algebra, 1 Aug ’03 – 1 Mar ’04 Marcantognin, S. (Caracas University, Venezuela) Operator Theory, 1 Jul – 31 Dec ’04 Jaikin, A. (University of Madrid, Spain) Algebra, 29 Sep – 30 Nov ’03 Remeslennikov, V. (Omsk University, Russia) Geometric Group Theory, 1 Oct – 21 Nov ’03 THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

Nottingham University LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Ihara, Y. (Kyoto University) Number Theory, Mar ’04 Kato, K. (Kyoto University) Arithmetic Geometry, Spring – Summer ’04 in association with the Isaac Newton Institute Sato, K. (Nagoya University) Arithmetic Geometry, K-theory, Oct ’03 – Sep ’04 Saito, S. (Nagoya University) Arithmetic Geometry, Spring-Summer ’04 Spitalfields Day Stix, J. (University of Bonn) Arithmetic Geometry, Oct ’03 – Jan ’04 Monday 9 February 2004 Oxford University (Mathematical Institute) Carrillo, C. (Mexico) Mathematical Biology, 1 Oct ’03 – 1 Jul ’04 Random Matrix Theory and the Birch/Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture Johnston, A. (University College London) Mathematical Biology, 1 Oct ’03 – 30 Sep ’04 Korobkin, A. (Novosibirsk) Hydrodynamics, 8 Nov – 31 Dec ’03 Organisers: Brian Conrey (American Institute of Mathematics), David Farmer (American Institute of Mathematics), Francesco Mezzadri (University of Bristol) and Nina Snaith (University Kroner, H. (Kaiserslautern) Mathematical Finance, 6 Oct ’03 – 13 Mar ’04 of Bristol) Liu, R.T. (Taiwan) Mathematical Biology, 4 Aug ’03 – 31 Jul ’04 Mackey, M. (Montreal) Physiology, 10 Feb – 18 Mar ’04 10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Martinez, D. (Spain) Geometry, 1 Oct ’03 – 30 Sep ’04 11:00 – 11:45 Bryan Birch and Peter Swinnerton-Dyer (Oxford/Cambridge) Mena, F. (Portugal) General Relativity, 1 Oct ’03 – 30 Sep ’05 The origins of the Birch/Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture: some Meyer-Hermann, M. (Dresden) Mathematical Biology, 1 Oct ’03 – 30 Sep ’04 personal reminiscences Nakagaki, T. (Hokkaido University, Japan) Mathematical Biology, Feb – Nov ’04 36 12:00 – 12:45 Alice Silverberg (Ohio State University) Panovski, S. (Macedonia) Hydrodynamics, 6 Nov – 17 Dec ’03 37 Ranks of elliptic curves Scheerlinck, N. (Belgium) Mathematical Biology, 1 Sep ’04 – 28 Feb ’05 Tolev, D. (Bulgaria) Number Theory, 1 Oct – 31 Dec ’03 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Zheng, Z. (China) Scientific Comp/PDE, 1 Mar ’03 – 28 Feb ’05 14:30 – 15:15 Christophe Delaunay (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) Heuristics on Class groups and on Tate-Shafarevich groups Portsmouth University 15:30 – 16:15 Michael Rubinstein (University of Waterloo) Kuznetsov, S.P. (Institute of Radio-Engineering & Electronics and Russian Academy of Moments, L-values, and Ranks Sciences) Nonlinear Dynamics, Nov ’03

16:15 – 16:45 Tea Yaghoobi, M.A. (University of Kerman, Iran) Operational Research, 1 Nov ’03 – 1 Aug ’04 16:45 – 17:30 Chantal David (Concordia University) Queen Mary, University of London Vanishing of L-functions of elliptic curves over number fields Bae, J.S. (Chonnam National University, Korea) Statistics, 10 Feb ’03 – 31 Jan ’04 17:30 – 18:30 Wine Reception Filho, J. (Universidade Federal de Lavras, Brazil) Design of Experiments, 12 Jan - 9 Apr ’04 Zochi, S. (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil) Design of Experiments, 1 Mar ’04 – 28 Feb ’05 The London Mathematical Society Spitalfields Days are an opportunity for recent developments in specialist topics to be made known to the general mathematical community. This Spitalfields Day concerns the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, which describes a deep connection Royal Holloway between the rank of an elliptic curve and the order of vanishing of an L-function. Particular Schaathun, H.G. (Bergen, Norway) Fingerprinting, 3 Oct ’03 – March ’04 attention will be paid to recent work which uses random matrix theory to make precise Shin, S. (Sookmyung Women’s University, S. Korea) Cryptography, 2003-04 predictions for the ranks of families of elliptic curves. Shparlinski, I. (Macquarie University, Australia) Number Theory & Cryptography, until 19 Dec These lectures are linked to the Isaac Newton Institute programme on Random Matrix ’03 Approaches in Number Theory (26 January - 16 July 2004). Anyone interested is welcome to attend; talks will be aimed at a general mathematical audience. Please let Tracey Andrew at Salford University the Institute know by 23 January 2004 if you intend to come, to help us plan for lunch (tel: Krillova, I. (Saratov State University, Russia) Bio Mechanics, Sep ’03 – Sep ’04 01223 335984; fax: 01223 330508; email: [email protected]). Nolde, E.V. (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) Asymptotic Methods, Wave Propagation There are limited funds available to assist research students to attend, please apply by 23 in Solids and Structures, Oct ’03 – Oct ’04 January 2004 to Tracey Andrew by email ([email protected]) or post (Newton Perel, M. (St. Petersburg University, Russia) Wave Propagation in Inhomogeneous Media, Institute, 20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge CB3 0EH). Scientific enquiries may be addressed to Nov – Dec ’03 Nina Snaith ([email protected]). THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

St Andrews University Liu, Y. (Yangzhou University) PDEs & Nonlinear Dynamics, 25 Oct ’03 – 30 Oct ’04 Albert, M. (University of Otago, New Zealand) Combinatorics on Permutations, Sep ’03 – Jan Marden, A. (University of Minnesota) Kleinian Groups, 15 Mar – 15 May ’04 ’04 Moori, J. (University of Natal) Algebra, 30 Jul ’03 – 15 Jan ’04 Hornig, G. (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Magnetohydrodynamics, Feb – May ’04 Shen, Y. (Suzhou University) Geometric Analysis, 10 Jul ’03 – 10 Jan ’04 Zhugzhda, Y. (University of Moscow) Magnetohydrodynamics, Spring ’04 Vidal Lopez, A. (Universidad Computense de Madrid) Parabolic PDEs, 30 Sep – 30 Nov ’03

Strathclyde University Warwick University (Statistics) Athanasiadis, C. (University of Athens) Partial Differential Equations, Scattering Theory, Jayasekara, L. (University of Rumana, Sri Lanka) Contingency Tables, Tests on Contingency Wave Propagation, Chiral Materials, 13 Oct – 8 Dec ’03 Tables, 1 Oct ’03 – 31 Mar ’04 Belyakov, V.A. (Landau Institute of Theoretical Physics, Moscow) Nonlinear Optics in Chiral Liquid Crystals, Electromagnetic Waves in Periodic Media, Solid State Nuclear Physics, 1 Jun York University – 31 Aug ’04 Beresnevitch, V. (Minsk University, Belarus) Number Theory, Oct ’03 – Aug ’04 Skrigonov, M. (Steklov Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia) Number Theory, Nov – Dec ’03 Sussex University Skriganov, M. (Steklov Institute, St Petersburg, Russia) Spectral Theory, Combinatorics, 20 Sep – 1 Dec ’03

UMIST 38 Mendez, V. (Universitat International de Catalunya, Spain) Dynamical Properties of 39 Reaction-Diffusion Fronts, 1 Apr – 30 Jun ’04 Reisen, B.V. (Universidade Federal do Espirito, Brazil) Long Memory Models, 10 Nov ’03 – 30 Apr ’04 Yalcinkaya, S. (METU, Ankara, Turkey) Pure Mathematics, 25 Jul ’03 – 31 Jul ’04

University of Wales, Aberystwyth Ervin, V.J. (Clemson University, SC, USA) Viscoelastic Flow, Numerical Analysis, Jul - Aug ’04 Mullen, G.L. (Pennsylvania State University, USA) Design Theory, Finite Fields, Hypercubes, Jun - Jul ’04 Owens, R.G. (École Polytechnic Féderéle de Lausanne, Switzerland) Viscoelastic Flow, Spectral Methods, May ’04

University of Wales, Swansea Chen, M.F. (Beijing Normal University) Markov Processes & Ergodicity, Nov 14 – 22 ’03 Levendovskii, S. (University of Texas) Pseudo-differential Operators & Markov Processes, Applications to Finance, Mar - Apr ’04

Warwick University (Mathematics Institute) Brassesco, S. (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas) Stochastic Analysis, 21 Aug ’03 – 31 Aug ’04 Choi, Y. (Kyungpook National University) Hyperbolic Geometry, 16 Oct ’03 – 15 Oct ’04 Ghaffari-Saadat, M. (Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran) Dynamical Systems, 18 Sep – 21 Dec ’03 Ingallis, C. (University of New Brunswick) Noncommutative Algebra, Algebraic Geometry, 1 Sep ’03 – 31 Aug ’04 Lecuire, C. (UMPA, ENS-Lyon) Hyperbolic Geometry, 1 Feb – 3 May ’04 Li, M. (National Changhua University of Education) Dynamical Systems, 7 Jul – 31 Dec ’03 THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Popular Lecture Videos

The Popular Lectures aim to present interesting mathematical topics in an attractive way. The intended audience is post-16 level mathematics students and amateur mathematicians, but the videos would also provide good enrichment material for students and lecturers in university mathematics departments. The videos cost £10 each but can be obtained at the reduced price of £7.50 each if you buy two or more. • Mathematics, Magic and the Electric Guitar Dr D.J. Acheson • The Music of the Primes Professor M. du Sautoy • Our Dynamic Sun Dr H.E. Mason • Geometry Ancient and Modern Dr J.R. Silvester • Codes Professor P.J. Cameron • Simulating the World Professor C.J. Budd • Simplicity and Complexity Professor J. Barrow • Fractals the New Geometry Professor K.J. Falconer 40 • Floating, Spinning Tumbling Dr F. Berkshire 41 • Tangent Circles, Patterns and Packings Professor C.M. Series • Giraffe Blood Flow and Pattern forming Bacteria Professor T.J. Pedley • Marrying, Voting, Choosing Dr T.W. Körner Earlier videos can be hired at £5 per video. To place an order please contact Lee-Anne Taylor, London Mathematical Society, De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS (tel: 020 7637 3686 fax: 020 7323 3655, email: [email protected]) or visit the website www.lms.ac.uk.

LMS INVITED LECTURES 2004

Professor M.W. Davis (Ohio State University) The Geometry and Topology of Coxeter Groups Monday 5- Friday 9 July 2004

The 2004 LMS Invited Lectures will be given at the School of Mathematics, University of Southampton. This series is held annually: a single speaker gives a course of 10 expository lectures, examining an important topic in depth, over a five day period. Further details will be announced later on. For general enquiries contact the organiser Dr I. Leary ([email protected]). THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 321 December 2003

CALENDAR OF EVENTS MARCH 2004 29-1 Apr Modelling Permeable Rocks IV, IMA This calendar lists Society meetings and other Conference, Southampton University (319) events publicised in the Newsletter. Further 30-2 Apr Applications of K-theory and information can be obtained from the appro- Cohomology Meeting, Southampton University priate LMS Newsletter whose number is given (321) 31-2 Apr Quantitative Modelling in the in brackets. A fuller list of meetings and Management of Healthcare IV, IMA Conference, events is given on the Society’s website Salford University (319) (www.lms.ac.uk/meetings/diary.html). APRIL 2004 DECEMBER 2003 5-7 Modelling in Industrial Maintenance and 8-12 Stochastic Methods in Coagulation and Reliability V, IMA Conference, Salford University Fragmentation EuroWorkshop, INI, Cambridge (314) (319) 12 Patterns, Nonlinear Dynamics and Applications 5-8 British Mathematical Colloquium, Queen’s Meeting, Cambridge University (320) University, Belfast (315) 15 Folding Patterns in Structural Geology Meeting, 16-17 Howard Hoare Symposium, Birmingham Bath University (321) University (321) 16-18 Cryptography and Coding IX, IMA 19-22 British Applied Mathematics Colloquium, 42 Conference, Royal Agricultural College, East Anglia University (320) 43 40Cirencester (319) 18-19 Will Light Memorial Conference, Leicester MAY University (321) 12 LMS Midlands Regional Meeting, Nottingham 28-31 Meeting in Honour of Professor Wong, JANUARY 2004 City University, Hong Kong (319) 8 Mixing and Its Applications Meeting, Imperial College London (321) JUNE 2004 9 UK & Republic of Ireland SIAM Section Annual 16-18 Croatian Congress of Mathematics, Split Meeting, Sheffield University (316) University, Croatia (321) 9 Bristol Leicester Oxford Colloquium, Oxford 21-25 Mathematics for Industry European University (321) Conference, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (321) 10-11 New Frontiers in Computational Mathematics 27-2 Jul Fourth European Congress of Workshop, Manchester University (318) Mathematics, Stockholm (315) 19 Mathematics in the Metropolis Lecture, 28-30 Analysing Conflict and its Resolution, Gresham College London (321) IMA Conference, Oxford (319) 20 400 Years of British Mathematics Meeting, Open University (319) JULY 2004 20-23 Towards a Predictive Biology Conference, 2 LMS Northern Regional Meeting, Newcastle INI, Cambridge (316) University 21 Combinatorics Meeting, Open University (321) 4-11 ICME10 – International Congress of Mathematical Education, Denmark (308) FEBRUARY 2004 12-16 IWOTA – International Workshop in 9 Random Matric theory and the Operator Theory and Its Applications, Newcastle Birch/Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture Spitalfields University Day, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge (321) 20 LMS Mary Cartwright Lecture, London (321) SEPTEMBER 2004 1-6 Pan-African Congress of Mathematics, THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER

Tunisia (308) 14-18 Boundary Integral Methods III: Theory and Applications, IMA Conference, Reading University (319)

DECEMBER 2004 14-16 Mathematics in Signal Processing VI, IMA Conference, Cirencester (319)

APRIL 2005 4-7 BAMC/BMC, Liverpool University

JULY 2005 10-14 Mathematical Modelling and Applications Conference, City University, London (321) AUGUST 2006 22-30 International Congress of Mathematicians 2006, Madrid, Spain (320) 44 JOSEPH LARMOR DE MORGAN MEDALLIST 1914

Sir Joseph Larmor received the De Morgan tically, he did much to prepare the way for it. Medal on 12 November 1914. In the prime of Larmor anticipated Einstein in making his activity, Larmor was concerned with a pic- known the transformation later to become ture of the physical world as a unity. In his so famous generally under the term 'Lorentz- book Aether and Matter, he examined the Einstein' transformation. It is by this work, condition of a material body moving through largely paralleled by that of Lorentz, that the aether. Although he himself never Larmor was chiefly known. adopted the principle of relativity enthusias-