October 2006
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THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006 Forthcoming DAVID CRIGHTON and administration. The Medal is awarded triennially to an emi- Society MEDAL 2006 nent mathematician for services Meetings It is with great pleasure that the both to mathematics and to the Councils of the London mathematical community. 2006 Mathematical Society and the Sir Christopher Zeeman’s Friday 17 November Institute of Mathematics and its research falls into two main peri- AGM, London Applications announce the ods. His early work was mostly in Geometric Analysis award of the 2006 David Piecewise Linear Topology, R. Hamilton Crighton Medal to Professor Sir where he proved a number of P. Topping Christopher Zeeman, FRS, major theorems, notably the [page 3] Honorary Fellow and formerly unknotting of spheres of codi- Principal of Hertford College, mension three in 1960, and the 1 2007 Oxford, in recognition of his topological Poincaré Conjecture Friday 20 April long and distinguished service in dimension 5 in 1962. Much of Midlands Regional to mathematics and to the his later work was in dynamical Meeting mathematical community in all systems and singularity theory Loughborough areas – in research, to mathe- (particularly catastrophe theory) Y. Colin de Verdière matics in higher education, to following the pioneering ideas F. Kirwan the mathematical societies, and of René Thom. He contributed O. Viro in outreach activities with to the theoretical side of the schools and the public. subject, but his most influential Wednesday 30 May The David Crighton Award work was in applications. In par- SW and South Wales was instituted by the IMA and ticular, he argued that the quali- Regional Meeting, LMS in memory of Professor tative theory of singularities Cardiff David George Crighton, FRS could be applied to the social (15 November 1942 – 12 April and biological sciences, which he Friday 22 June 2000), a former President of the hoped would lead to more spe- London IMA and President-Designate of cific quantitative models as the the LMS at the time of his topic developed. His ideas have Thursday 25 October death. David was Master of made their way into many areas Northern Regional Jesus College, Cambridge, and of science and mathematics. Meeting Professor of Applied Modern bifurcation theory has Sheffield Mathematics at Cambridge been revolutionised by singular- University; he was a leader in ity-theoretic techniques; recent- Friday 23 November the fields of Fluid Mechanics ly catastrophe theory has been AGM, London and Applied Mathematics, influ- ‘rediscovered’ in major papers Presidential Address encing their progress nationally in Science and Nature on and internationally through his ecology and molecular structure, contributions both to research for example. cont’d THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006 He has played important roles in almost all ogy. He delivered the 1978 Royal Institution activities of the mathematical community. Christmas Lectures on BBC television – the first In 1964 he created the Department of time in the 150-year history of these lectures, Mathematics and the Mathematics Research founded by Michael Faraday, that the topic Centre at the University of Warwick as its was mathematics. These lectures led Sir LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Foundation Professor. His vision and leader- Christopher to start the Royal Institution ship were key to the department’s long-term Mathematics Masterclasses for talented young success. As chair of the Mathematics people. He was Gresham Professor of Committee of the Science and Engineering Geometry from 1988 to 1994, delivering an Annual General Meeting Research Council he created the Nonlinear annual series of public lectures. For his work in Systems Initiative which went on to become the public understanding of science he the Applied Nonlinear Systems Initiative. He received the prestigious Royal Society Faraday Friday 17 November 2006 created the committee of Heads of Medal in 1988. He served as the President of Departments of Mathematical Sciences the Mathematical Association in 2003/04, a (HoDoMS). He chaired the inaugural post to which he brought his customary Scientific Committee of the Newton Institute enthusiasm and ideas, ensuring that the 3.15 – 3.30 Annual General Meeting (details page 4) that oversaw its creation and chose the pro- power and beauty of mathematics is at the grammes during its first ten years. He is a heart of mathematics education, and that the 3.30 – 4.30 Professor R. Hamilton (Columbia) 2 past-President of the London Mathematical wider public should have inspirational oppor- 3 Society (1986–88) and received the Senior tunities to experience this for themselves. 4.30 – 5.00 Tea Whitehead Prize of the Society in 1982. The presentation of the David Crighton He was a pioneer in the area of public Medal will take place at a joint meeting of 5.00 – 6.00 Dr P. Topping (Warwick) engagement with mathematics, and has a the IMA and the LMS in 2007 on a date to be strong involvement with school mathematics. announced, and will be followed by a lecture As early as 1967 he was speaking on the (then) from Sir Christopher. Further details will The meeting will be held in the Chemistry Auditorium, BBC Third Programme on topics such as topol- appear when they are available. Christopher Ingold Building, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1. Please note early start. LMS Newsletter There are limited funds available to contribute in part to General Editor: Dr D.R.J. Chillingworth ([email protected]) the expenses of members of the Society or research students Reports Editor: Dr S.A. Huggett ([email protected]) Reviews Editor: Mr A.J.S. Mann ([email protected]) to attend the meeting. Requests for support, including an Administrative Editor: Miss S.M. Oakes ([email protected]) estimate of expenses, may be addressed to the Programme Editorial office address: London Mathematical Society, De Morgan House, Secretary at the Society (web: www.lms.ac.uk; email: 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS (tel: 020 7637 3686; fax: 020 7323 3655; [email protected]). email: [email protected], web: www.lms.ac.uk) Designed by CHP Design (tel: 020 7240 0466, email: [email protected], web: www.chpdesign.com) The meeting will be followed by the Annual Dinner. Publication dates and deadlines: published monthly, except August. Items and advertisements by first day of the month prior to publication. For further details see the announcement in this Newsletter Information in the Newsletter is free to be used elsewhere unless otherwise stated; attribution is (page 4). All enquiries may be addressed to Susan Oakes requested when reproducing whole articles. The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy (tel: 020 7637 3686, email: [email protected]). of information in the Newsletter. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the views or policy of the London Mathematical Society. Charity registration number: 252660. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006 LMS 2006 ELECTIONS ANNUAL DINNER THE LONDON highly-cited papers and the Bulletin includes our excellent series of survey articles in addi- AND OFFICERS The Annual Dinner will be held after MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY tion to research papers. The ballot papers for the November elections the Annual General Meeting on Friday ELECTRONIC ARCHIVE The titles, authors and abstracts (where to Council and Nominating Committee are 17 November at 7.30 pm at The Bonnington they exist) will be freely available and being circulated with this copy of the Hotel, London WC1. The cost is £37.00 per From January 2007 the Proceedings, Journal searchable but, to view the papers, your uni- Newsletter. Eleven candidates for Members- person and members may book places for and Bulletin of the London Mathematical versity will need to have a fully paid current at-Large of Council were proposed by the guests. The booking form, enclosed with this Society will be moving from Cambridge institutional subscription to the electronic Nominating Committee for seven vacancies. Newsletter, should be returned together University Press to Oxford University Press. version of the journals. In case you do not Three Officers will be changing this year. with payment to the London Mathematical As a part of this move, the full archive of have access via your university’s subscrip- Martin Bridson has completed his term as a Society office by Monday 13 November. papers dating back to 1865 is being scanned tion, we have dropped the price of purchase Vice-President, and David Larman has been and will be added to the existing files that for a single article download and any papers nominated in his place. Norman Biggs is not EPSRC-FUNDED STUDENTS currently date back to 1997. Each journal in the archive can be bought via pay-per- standing for re-election as General Secretary will then have a seamless and complete elec- view. The web pages will be available from and Charles Goldie is nominated in his place. AND LMS MEMBERSHIP tronic version, dating from its inception to January, but add these new homepages to Kenneth Falconer has been nominated to The LMS is one of several learned societies the latest papers posted as they are pub- your ‘bookmarks’ now: replace Jim Howie as Publications Secretary. that are taking part in a scheme with EPSRC lished. In total, that amounts to about Please note that completed ballot to offer ‘free’ membership to EPSRC-funded 200,000 pages making up about 15,000 Proceedings of the LMS 4 papers must be returned by Thursday students. Under this scheme EPSRC will meet papers of original research and several (www.plms.oxfordjournals.org) 5 9 November 2006. the costs of students' subscriptions (but not thousand other types of articles, such as Journal of the LMS A separate form for suggesting names to journals) for up to five years.