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.

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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. book reviews, obituaries and the records of (www.jlms.oxfordjournals.org) the Nominating Committee for potential Students will benefit from free member- proceedings of meetings. candidates for the 2007 elections is also ship of the Society and consequently enjoy We are currently publishing about 4,300 Bulletin of the LMS included; members will also be invited to access to a range of services that will benefit new pages per year, and these will be (www.blms.oxfordjournals.org) make nominations directly in the May their further professional development. In added to the archive as they appear. For the Newsletter next year. particular, participation in events (confer- first six months of publication, the newly We are sorry that the articles will not be ences, networks, etc) and keeping more published material is freely available for available as a part of the membership sub- ANNUAL GENERAL closely in touch with activities in the mathe- anyone to search and download the full scription, in view of the great value of this matics community. text of the articles. This is a reverse ‘moving archive. Please check your librarian is aware MEETING The EPSRC hopes this will strengthen links wall’ policy, and is proving successful in of the move to OUP and your library is The Annual General Meeting of the Society with the students it sponsors and enable it to ensuring people have as much access to the taking a full subscription, including electron- will be held at 3.15 pm on Friday 17 November conduct a long-term evaluation of how its journals as possible, while retaining the ic access, to the journals for 2007. We will 2006 at the Chemistry Auditorium, University students have developed their careers major source of income to the Society for its be continuing with our reverse ‘moving wall’ College London, 20 Gordon Street, London beyond their first destinations. The LMS other activities. policy described above, so access to the WC1. The business shall be: and EPSRC will also benefit from closer The journals archive includes papers from newest material will continue to be freely (i) elections to Council and Nominating collaboration. all the most important British mathemati- available. Committee; Further details of the scheme are available cians over the last 150 years and in recent If you have any questions concerning how (ii) the adoption of the Annual Report for on the EPSRC website (www.epsrc.ac.uk). The years the journals fully reflect the interna- to access the journals, please contact the LMS 2005-06; membership application form for the Society tional nature of research with over 70% of Publisher Susan Hezlet at [email protected]. (iii) the report of the Treasurer; has an additional section to obtain the infor- recently published articles coming from Here are some highlights: (iv) appointment of Auditors; mation required. Email membership@ mathematicians outside of the UK. (v) presentation of certificates to Prize winners. lms.ac.uk for an application form or down- Unseen before in electronic form, there are •G H Hardy and J E Littlewood Contributions I hope that as many members as possible load one from the LMS website the classic papers of Turing, Hardy, to the arithmetic theory of series, Proc. will be able to attend. (www.lms.ac.uk/contact/membership.html). Littlewood and many others that can now be London Math. Soc (2) 11 (1913) Peter Cooper Members are encouraged to make their stu- accessed from your desktop. Coming further •S Ramanujan Highly composite numbers, Executive Secretary dents aware of, and sign up, for this scheme. up to date, the archive will include our recent Proc. London Math. Soc. (2) 14 (1915)

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NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

• W V D Hodge Harmonic integrals associat- WILLIAM PARRY ed with algebraic varieties, Proc. London Math. Soc. (2) 39 (1935) William Parry, FRS, who was elected a mem- • Alan M Turing On computable numbers, ber of the London Mathematical Society on with an application to the 16 May 1963, died on 20 August, aged 72. He Entscheidungsproblem, Proc. London was born in Coventry on 3 July 1934, the sixth Math. Soc. (2) 40 1937 of seven children. An undergraduate at •G Higman, B H Neumann, H Neumann University College London, he completed Embedding theorems for groups, J. London an MSc in Liverpool, and obtained his PhD Math. Soc. 24 (1949) at Imperial College in 1960 under the • Klaus F Roth On certain sets of integers, supervision of Yael Dowker. After posts at J. London Math. Soc. 28 (1953) Birmingham University and Sussex University •P Hall, G Higman On the p-length of he was appointed as a Reader at Warwick p-soluble groups and reduction theorems University (in 1968) and promoted to for Burnside's problem Proc. London Math. Professor in 1970. In that year he also gave Soc. (3) 6 (1956) an address at the ICM. He was elected • Michael F Atiyah Vector bundles over an a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984. After elliptic curve, Proc. London Math. Soc. (3) his retirement in 1999 he became an 6 7 (1957) Emeritus Professor. 7 • Alan Baker The Diophantine equation Bill Parry made many important contribu- y2=ax3+bx2+cx+d, J. London Math. Soc. tions to Ergodic Theory. He published over 43 (1968) 80 original papers and four books (including • John H Conway A group of order LMS Lecture Note Series 67, jointly with 8,315,553,613,086,720,000, Bull. London S. Tuncel). His early work on beta-expansions Math. Soc. 1 (1969) and his later work on dynamical zeta func- • Lipman Bers Uniformization, moduli, and tions reflected his keen interest in number Kleinian groups, Bull. London Math. Soc. theory. In between, he made significant con- 4 (1972) tributions to the theory of entropy, nilflows • Peter G Scott Compact submanifolds of and the classification of subshifts of finite 3-manifolds, J. London Math. Soc. (2) 7 (1973) type. In addition, his work on entropy maxi- • Jim Eels and Luc Lemaire A report on mizing measures (the ‘Parry measure’) and harmonic maps, Bull. London Math. Soc. interval maps anticipated important develop- 11 (1978) ments in dynamical systems. During his career • John H Conway, S. P. Norton Monstrous he had 20 PhD students (of whom 17 went on moonshine, Bull. London Math. Soc. 12 to hold permanent university posts, including (1979) 10 in the UK). On his retirement he devoted • Michael F Atiyah Convexity and commut- more time to his other interests, including ing Hamiltonians, Bull. London Math. Soc. writing poetry. He is survived by his wife 14 (1982) Benita and daughter Rachel. • Simon Donaldson Anti self-dual Yang-Mills Mark Pollicott writes: I knew Bill as a connections over complex algebraic sur- teacher, supervisor, co-author, colleague and faces and stable vector bundles, Proc. friend. Professionally, his work was always London Math. Soc. (3) 50 (1985) meticulous, and usually far sighted. • Nigel Hitchin The self-duality equations on Personally, he was quite unpretentious and a Riemann surface, Proc. London Math. generous with his time and ideas. He will be Soc. (3) 55 (1987) greatly missed. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

RONALD T. ACKROYD Funding statistics for 2005-2006 Following the previous publication of data Ronald Ackroyd, who was elected a member of relating to research grant funding coming the London Mathematical Society on 15 June from EPSRC’s Mathematical Sciences 1950, died on 26 May 2006, aged 85. He held Programme, we have compiled a similar set posts at UKAEA and Imperial College London. of data for the financial year 2005-6. By mak- ing such data available, we hope to establish IRVING KAPLANSKY a greater degree of understanding about funding rates through the Programme. This Irving Kaplansky, who was elected an honorary information is also available to the whole member of the London Mathematical Society research community via the Grants on the in 1987, died on 25 June 2006, aged 89. Web panel finder. Remember to read the Kap was enormously influential in many accompanying notes before interpreting the fields of mathematics, through his papers, his data as there have been changes to coding books, and his 55 PhD students. He was the and costing methodologies during this peri- second Director of MSRI, Berkeley, from 1985 od. Details can be found on the Mathematical to 1992. His first paper appeared in 1939, and Sciences area of the EPSRC website. after stepping down as MSRI Director, he 8 went back to full-time research mathematics: 2007 Advanced Research Fellowships 9 his recent work, on integral quadratic forms, Applications are invited for the 2007 was published in 2003 when he was 86. Advanced Research Fellowships exercise. Advanced Research Fellowships are awarded EPSRC MATHEMATICAL to outstanding researchers with between 3-10 years of postdoctoral experience. SCIENCES PROGRAMME Fellows are expected to devote themselves to 2007 Senior Research Fellowships research for the period of the award (up to Applications are invited for the 2007 Senior 5 years), with the expectation that they will Research Fellowships exercise. Senior have established an independent research Research Fellowships are awarded to out- career of international standing by the end standing academic scientists and engineers of the award. Approximately 50 of these of international repute with a minimum of awards are made each year. Closing date: 10 years post doctoral experience. Fellows 4 pm on 9 November 2006. will be released from their current teaching and administration loads to devote them- Fundamentals of Complexity Science selves to research for the period of the award This call aims to build capacity in the underpin- (up to 5 years). The proposed research must ning the theory and generic tools and tech- be important, timely and should offer oppor- niques to address complex systems. While some tunities for major scientific advances. Only a tools and techniques already exist to cope with few of these most prestigious awards are complexity in specific application problem made each year. Closing date: 4 pm on domains, the theory required to address these 1 November 2006. problems is either non-existent or is only useful Please see a full list of current calls on the EPSRC in limited circumstances. £2.5 million of website: www.epsrc.ac.uk/CallsForProposals/. research funding is available to develop funda- For details on the Mathematical Sciences mental theory, tools and techniques that will be Programme see: www.epsrc.ac.uk/Research applicable across a wide range of complex sys- Funding/ Programmes/MathematicalSciences. tems. Closing date: 4 pm on 31 October 2006.

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Feasibility Studies in Systems Biology tarians on the Information Technology implica- This is a call for research proposals in the tions of the issues arising. The award holder form of speculative feasibility studies in sys- offered the placement will receive a three tems biology at the interface between month fully funded extension to their PhD Control & Systems Engineering and the Life award. There is one placement available this Sciences. Proposals must demonstrate the year. The placement will start at an agreed adventure and novelty of the research as well date after 5 March 2007. The closing date for as the direct relevance to systems biology. this initiative is 16 October 2006. A total of £2 million has been earmarked for this call by the EPSRC's Engineering and Life Senior Media Fellowships Sciences Interface programmes. Closing date: The Public Engagement Programme invites 4 pm on 15 November 2006. applications for Senior Media Fellowships. These enable leading researchers to devote The numerical analysis/high performance time to develop a higher media profile. The computing interface aim is to advance public engagement with The International Reviews of both the physical sciences, mathematics and engi- Mathematics and High Performance Comp- neering via the broadcast and written media. uting highlight the importance of the inter- Senior Media Fellowships are intended to be 10 face between numerical analysis and high used for active development of media oppor- 11 performance computing to both disciplines, tunities (not research, scholarship or teach- yet it is an area in which very few proposals ing). Closing date: 4 pm on 8 November 2006. are received in responsive mode. We are look- ing for feedback from the community to assist in answering the following questions: ADVERTISING IN THE • Are there reasons for the lack of applications and can we facilitate this interaction in any way? LMS NEWSLETTER • Do you already collaborate with computa- The LMS Newsletter is circulated to its tional scientists or are you a member of any 2,500 members (1,650 UK, 350 Europe, of the Collaborative Computational Projects 500 rest of the world). The advertising (CCPs) managed by CCLRC at Daresbury? prices are: Anne Farrow ([email protected]) Non would welcome to hear the views of the Commercial Commercial Mathematical Sciences community (and espe- cially the numerical analysts). Centre fold £660 £550 Double page £630 £520 Joint EPSRC and POST Postgraduate Full page £300 £250 Initiative 2007 Half page £160 £130 This joint initiative between EPSRC and the Half page £160 £130 Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Quarter page £90 £70 (POST) is an opportunity for an EPSRC PhD A discount is offered for six bookings or award holder in their 2nd or 3rd year to under- more (within a one year period). There take a three month placement at POST working is no agency commission. Please note on issues of public policy interest. During their the LMS does not sell or rent the mail- time at Parliament, EPSRC/POST Fellows will ing list. For further information contact work on a policy topic grounded in science and Susan Oakes ([email protected]). technology, focussing on informing parliamen- THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

INSTITUT DES HAUTES ÉTUDES SCIENTIFIQUES L’Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, located in Bures-sur-Yvette (France), welcomes up to 250 mathematicians and theoretical physicists each year from all over the world for various periods going from two to three weeks up to one to two years. Created in 1958, IHÉS is an international research institute, registered as a Foundation in the Public Interest since 1980, whose purpose is to support and develop theoretical research in the mathematical sciences, physics and, more recently, in molecular biology. IHÉS is financed by different institutions, such as: the French Research Ministry, several European research agencies among which the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Commission, the US National Science Foundation, and also some private foundations and corporations. The EPSRC has now been supporting IHÉS for a number of years. In doing so, its aim is to foster closer links between British and French mathematical research centres. British mathematicians and theoretical physicists are invited to apply to IHÉS for visits (for more information, consult the website www.ihes.fr). They can use their stay to work with researchers from other research groups in the Paris area. Director: Jean-Pierre Bourguignon Permanent Professors: Thibault Damour, Mikhael Gromov, Maxim Kontsevich, Laurent Lafforgue, Nikita Nekrasov 12 Honorary Professor: David Ruelle, 13 Léon Motchane Chair: Alain Connes Louis Michel Chairs: Michael Douglas, Jürg Fröhlich, Samson Shatashvili Long term CNRS visitors: Christophe Breuil, Ofer Gabber, Dirk Kreimer, Christophe Soulé External Members of the Curtis Callan, Michael Green, Stanislas Leibler, George Papanicolaou, Scientific Committee: Marc Mézard, Gerd Faltings

WILLIAM HODGE FELLOWSHIPS 2007/2008 In 2000 the EPSRC committee reviewing IHÉS suggested that the EPSRC and IHÉS offer each year two one-year fellowships bearing the name of Sir William Hodge, the eminent British mathematician. The fellowships enable outstanding young mathematicians and theoretical physicists to spend time at IHÉS. At the next review in 2005, it was suggested that each fellow be encouraged to have a UK-based mentor. Conditions for application: PhD in the Mathematical Sciences or Theoretical Physics obtained in 2005, 2006 or in early 2007. One of the two grants awarded will go to an applicant who is a UK citizen or has spent at least the preceding nine months at a UK academic institute, e.g. to get his/her PhD. Selection of applicants: Applications will be reviewed and selection made based on the sole criterion of excellence in research by IHÉS Scientific Committee on 16 December 2006. The Committee consists of the Permanent Professors, the Director, and the external members whose list can be found above. Fellowship starting date: Autumn 2007. How to apply: An application file should be sent through the IHÉS website (www.ihes.fr) and should include: a covering letter, a CV, a publication list, a research project, two or three letters of recommendation, and a proposal for a UK mentor. Deadline for applications: 4 December 2006. Information: IHÉS, 35, route de Chartres, F-91440 Bures-sur-Yvette, France (tel: +33 1 6092 6605, fax: +33 1 6092 6609, email: [email protected], web: www.ihes.fr). THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

IMU GENERAL ASSEMBLY • Chinese Mathematical Society 75th Anniversary Conference Every four years, just before each Most recently, there has been a huge effort International Congress of Mathematicians, to help bring mathematicians from develop- the General Assembly of the International ing countries to the ICM: there were 1,100 Mathematical Union has a weekend meeting. applicants for 208 awards. The GA is the governing body of IMU, and Herb Clemens concluded his report by pro- this meeting is to review the last four years, posing that the CDE and DCSG now merge to to elect the Executive Committee (among form a new Commission for Developing others), to agree the financial statements, Countries. budget, and dues, and to pass resolutions Next, Ragni Piene gave a brief report on guiding the work of the EC for the next the electronic newsletter of the IMU, called four years. IMU-Net. This is very useful, but could do with This year the GA was held in Santiago de being more widely known: see www. Compostela, Spain, from 19-20 August, just mathunion.org/Publications/Newsletter/. before the ICM in Madrid. The LMS delega- Various members of the IMU Committee tion consisted of John Toland (who was on Electronic Information and Communica- promptly elected to the GA's Resolutions tion (CEIC) described their work. There have 14 Committee), Tim Gowers, Jim Howie, been some failures and some successes, but it 15 Stephen Huggett and Elmer Rees. was clear that overall this is an important Review of IMU activities part of the work of the IMU: see The review of the activities of the IMU started www.ceic.math.ca. with a very interesting presentation by Herb Financial report, budget, and dues Clemens on the Commission on Development The IMU Secretary, Phillip Griffiths, presented and Exchanges (CDE) and Developing the financial reports for the years 2002-2005, Countries Strategy Group (DCSG), whose and proposed the budget for 2007-2010, web pages are at: www.ictp.it/~cde and which the GA agreed. He also made a pro- http://users.ictp.it/~dcsg/. posal for a significant increase in the dues With a small budget, the CDE has been (especially for Mathematical Societies from able to give only limited support to confer- rich countries): this was also agreed. ences and research travel, but the 2002 GA Statutes initiated the setting up of the DCSG to A number of changes were proposed to the expand these activities and find new sources statutes and the procedures for elections. of funding. This has been successful, with Some of these were significant, and stimulat- donors including the Abel Memorial Fund, ed lively discussion. One which was not con- the LMS, the AMS, the US National troversial was a proposal for a new category Committee for Mathematics, and the of membership of the IMU: Associate Nuffield Trust and Leverhulme Foundation. Membership, designed to help countries not These funds have been used in a variety of currently in the Union to join, with the inten- ways, to support activities such as: tion that within a few years they would • CIMPA Cambodia project become full members. • African Mathematics Millennium Science After the 2002 GA the EC adopted an ad Initiative hoc process for preparing the 2007-2010 • ICMI African Mathematics Education slates for the elections to the various IMU • Clearinghouse of African Mathematics committees. This process involved setting up • ICTP Ramanujan Prize (annual) a Nominating Committee and was intended

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as a dry run for the process to be adopted future Program Committees. One difficulty is formally in future. In general the 2006 defining what it means for a given mathe- GA was very pleased with what had been matician to come from a given country. done, but there was a considerable debate Resolutions over the effect of the proposed new There was also some quite intense discussion arrangements for the International of some of the resolutions. That on the free Commission on Mathematical Instruction, movement of scientists was not controversial, with many delegates fearing that this would although it was improved by some wording be the beginning of a split between IMU changes. As noted above, the GA had already and ICMI. However, the proposal was indicated its real concern that the IMU and eventually agreed. the ICMI may drift apart, and a resolution on Elections increased collaboration with ICMI was dis- The slates themselves were then agreed: cussed next. It proved difficult to reach these were for the IMU Executive Committee, agreement until the resolution was rather the Commission on Development and substantially redrafted. Exchanges, the International Commission on Finally, there was concern over the resolu- the History of Mathematics, and the tion proposing that the EC explore stable International Commission on Mathematical sources of funding for the secretariat for the 16 Instruction. The results of the elections can be IMU. Some delegations, including ours, were 17 found at: www.mathunion.org/Organization/ rather reluctant to put the IMU on to a slip- GA/2006/Slides/IMU-Leadership.pdf. pery slope leading to a permanent office, In particular, from the UK, Peter Neumann and again the discussion was passionate! was elected to the International Commission Eventually a modified resolution was agreed, on the History of Mathematics, and Celia asking the EC to come back to the 2010 GA Hoyles to the International Commission on with proposals (note the s). Mathematical Instruction. ICM2010 The members of the new EC are: The Executive Committee recommended President: László Lovász (Hungary) that ICM2010 be held in Hyderabad Secretary: Martin Grötschel (Germany) (19-27 August), and following a presentation Vice Presidents: Zhi-Ming Ma (China), by the Indian Local Organizing Committee Claudio Procesi (Italy) this was agreed by acclaim. (The 2010 GA will Members at Large: M. Salah Baouendi (USA), be in Bangalore.) Manuel de León (Spain), Ragni Piene Membership (Norway), Cheryl E. Praeger (Australia), Victor Finally, the GA was very happy to agree to A. Vassiliev (Russia), Marcelo Viana (Brazil) the applications from the Czech Republic and Ex Officio: John M. Ball, Past President Poland that they should each move up a (United Kingdom) group: see www.mathunion.org/Members/ For more information, and links to the web groups. html. pages of these people, see: www.math At the end of the meeting the GA thanked union.org/Organization/EC/2007-2010.html. the local organizers and the Executive ICM2006 Committee, especially those who were retir- The ICM 2006 Program Committee Report ing from office. In particular, the incoming was given by its Chair, Noga Alon. This report President László Lovász thanked John Ball provoked a passionate discussion over the for all of his work during his Presidency. apparent lack of geographical balance, in S.A. Huggett spite of the new guidelines adopted for Chair, International Affairs Committee THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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POSTCARD FROM MADRID The Opening Ceremony was followed by an by individuals not all unconnected with the LMS. excellent buffet lunch with efficient drinks However, readers can be reassured that the LMS The ICM2006 organisers certainly saved on ing – but then, what else do kings do nowa- service and trays of delicious nibbles on what contingent left reasonably early in order to be in postage by handing the full ICM Proceedings days? The video link camera was aimed at was essentially the roof of Amphitheatre A good shape for start of business the next day. to participants as they registered – all 6kg, in speakers rather than the screen above the but nevertheless still indoors. The Palacio was While mathematics was going on inside the a handy but arm-stretching carrier bag. At heads of the platform party, on which the A a building within a building, having the many Palacio on laptop, OHP and table napkin, there least it would allow anyone to spend the audience could see translations of Spanish smaller lecture rooms around the outer shell. was also some going on outside with pneu- entire ten days under a shady tree in speeches as well as a short video about the The connectivity was curiously complicated, matic drills and heavy lifting equipment: the Madrid’s delightful Retiro park reading the mathematics of the newly-adopted and at the end of the ten days many of us had Japanese sculptor Keizo Ushio was splitting a talks rather than attending them. Borromean rings logo of the still not quite figured out all the topology. granite solid torus along a pair of 1:1 curves. It Participants arriving for the Opening IMU: the B participants were Lest colleagues have some notion of the took all week, and the finished work was final- Ceremony were unexpectedly greeted by deprived of these diversions. ICM as an excuse for a Spanish holiday, we ly displayed before the Congress ended. long queues outside the Palacio Municipal de However, the platform party should emphasise that the Programme ran Mathematically-inspired works of this artist Congresos: all bags and ICM backpacks were in A could not properly see from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm on most days (includ- occupy prominent public positions in cities X-rayed as the Ceremony was to be presided the screen either, so those of ing Saturday), with not much space in the mid- worldwide, although alas none yet in the UK. over by King Juan Carlos himself. There were us in B at least had the consolation of watch- dle. You can't go to everything, however, and separate queues for Amphitheatre A (where ing even His Majesty having to crane his neck few participants will have resisted the tempta- the action was to be) and B (with video link) for a view. tions of trips to El Escorial monastery (which 18 but no clues as to this code, so by the time we Newsletter readers can find elsewhere the holds the Codex Vigilanus containing the ear- 19 had (a) found the end of a queue and then details of the Fields Medallists and other liest known (976) written record of a new-fan- (b) discovered it was the wrong one for our Prize winners, and the now much reported gled Indian number system and notation ticket and walked around the building to non-acceptance of his Medal and absence which is reported as being rather successful), find the end of the other queue, we had had from the ICM by the publicity-shy Grigori or to Toledo, Avila or Segovia. Then there was a good chance to greet many old friends and Perelman. The stories behind the scenes Madrid itself, of course: warm and comfort- colleagues. It was another week before we would, we are told, fill several volumes: it able in the evenings, not the stifling heat that bumped into some of them again in the cannot be long before these start to appear. guide-books led us to expect. With restaurants more random medium of the Congress itself. At least it gets the general public interested just beginning to open up around 9:00 pm it His Majesty did a proficient job of presid- in the Poincaré Conjecture. could be a challenge to make it for next day's first Plenary Lecture. So what about the lectures at the ICM? The The LMS held a joint meeting with its Spanish standard of those Plenary and Invited Lectures counterpart RSME which will be reported on that the Newsletter attended was on the elsewhere; it is enough to say here that the two whole very high. The Short Communications talks (Robert Bryant on closed geodesics and were more of a mixed bag, but were general- Godfried Toussaint on musical rhythm) were ly carefully prepared and delivered. Overall, both excellent examples of how to keep an what do we gain from attending an ICM? audience engaged, informed and entertained: Some new insight into technical matters for would that there could be more talks like these. our own research, perhaps, but mainly an As if this were not enough, there followed a exciting view of mathematics as an ongoing congenial reception hosted by the LMS, with yet worldwide enterprise, together with (we more of the ICM high-quality food and drinks. hope) inspiration from those speakers who This service came into its own once again at opened our eyes to new questions and new the ICM Party, held in the Botanical Gardens at links and ways of thinking. For details see the the Universidad Complutense across the city. Proceedings, of course. Like many others, Here was seen some 5* grade dancing (can PhD I mailed my copy back home: it was worth the students count it generic skills training?) as well cost not to have to lug it to the airport. King Juan Carlos presiding at the Opening Ceremony as more questionable dancefloor skills displayed David Chillingworth THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

ICM2006 AWARDS impact shows how it can be a long and com- Maxwell Prize Peter Deuflhard (ZIB, Berlin) The prize is open to any person who, on plex route from real-world phenomena to The Maxwell Prize, established to provide 31 October 2006, will hold an appointment in The Fields Medals, Nevanlinna Prize and the their abstract mathematical description and international recognition to a mathematician the UK, either in a university or in some other Gauss Prize were awarded on 22 August 2006 back again to applications. who has demonstrated originality in applied institution; and who is under 40 (in exception- during the opening ceremony of the mathematics. It was created on the initiative al circumstances the Adjudicators may relax International Congress of Mathematicians ICIAM PRIZES of ICIAM member society IMA (with the this age limit). The value of the prize is expect- in Madrid. support of the J.C. Maxwell Society), and ed to be approximately £13,000; of which one Professor Ian Sloan, President of the first awarded in 1999. The Maxwell Prize is third is awarded to the prize-winner on Fields Medals International Council for Industrial and currently funded by IMA. announcement of the prize, one third is pro- • Andrei Okounkov for his contributions Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), has vided to the prize-winner’s institution (for bridging probability, representation theory announced the winners of the five ICIAM Su Buchin Prize Gilbert Strang (MIT) research expenses of the prize-winner) and and algebraic geometry. prizes. The prize winners are: The Su Buchin Prize, established to provide one third is awarded to the prize-winner on • Grigori Perelman for his contributions to international recognition of an outstanding acceptance for publication in an international- geometry and his revolutionary insights Pioneer Prize Ingrid Daubechies (Princeton) contribution by an individual in the applica- ly recognised journal of a substantial (normal- into the analytical and geometric structure and Heinz Engl (Linz) – joint winners tion of mathematics to emerging economies ly at least 25 printed pages) original article, of of the Ricci flow. The Pioneer Prize, established for pioneering and human development, in particular at the which the prize-winner is an author, surveying • Terence Tao for his contributions to partial work introducing applied mathematical economic and cultural level in developing a significant part of the winner’s field. differential equations, combinatorics, har- methods and scientific computing techniques countries. It was created on the initiative of Applications (seven copies), comprising a 20 monic analysis and additive number theory. to an industrial problem area or a new scien- ICIAM member society CSIAM, and is being CV, a list of publications, the work or works 21 • Wendelin Werner for his contributions to tific field of applications. The prize commem- awarded for the first time. The Su Buchin (published or unpublished) to be considered, the development of stochastic Loewner orates the spirit and impact of the American Prize is currently funded by CSIAM. and a brief non-technical summary of the evolution, the geometry of two-dimen- pioneers. It was created on the initiative most significant new results of these works sional Brownian motion, and conformal of ICIAM member society SIAM, and was Prize citations and presentation (designed for mathematicians not working in field theory. first awarded in 1999. The Pioneer Prize is For the six ICIAM prize citations, and other the subject area) should be sent to: The currently funded by SIAM. information about the prize winners, refer to Secretary of the Adams Prize Adjudicators, Nevanlinna Prize for mathematics the ICIAM website (www.iciam.org). The prizes Faculty Office, Centre for Mathematical in the Information Society Collatz Prize Felix Otto (Bonn) will be awarded at the Opening Ceremony of Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 Jon Kleinberg's work has brought theoretical The Collatz Prize, established to provide the International Congress for Industrial and 0WA (enquiries may be emailed to: insights to bear on important practical ques- international recognition to individual scien- Applied Mathematics, to be held in Zürich from [email protected]). The deadline for tions that have become central to under- tists under 42 years of age for outstanding July 16 – 20 July 2007 (www.iciam07.ch). The receipt of applications is 31 October 2006. standing and managing our increasingly net- work on industrial and applied mathematics. four-yearly ICIAM Congress is a major interna- worked world. He has worked in a wide It was created on the initiative of ICIAM tional celebration of mathematics in action, range of areas, from network analysis and member society GAMM, and was first award- and the main event in the applied mathemat- routing, to data mining, to comparative ed in 1999. The Collatz Prize is currently ical calendar. The International Council for genomics and protein structure analysis. In funded by GAMM. Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) is a addition to making fundamental contribu- world body which brings together all the tions to research, Kleinberg has thought Lagrange Prize Joseph Keller (Stanford) national associations of professional mathe- deeply about the impact of technology in The Lagrange Prize, established to provide maticians concerned with applications. social, economic, and political spheres. international recognition to individual math- ematicians who have made an exceptional ADAMS PRIZE Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize for contribution to applied mathematics applications of mathematics throughout their careers. It was created on The Chairman of the Adjudicators for the The first laureate of the newly-created Gauss the initiative of ICIAM member society SMAI, Adams Prize invites applications. The Prize Prize is the Japanese mathematician Kiyoshi and first awarded in 1999. The Lagrange will be awarded this year for research

Itô aged 90. His theoretical work in stochastic Prize is currently funded by the three achievement in the field of Statistics, inter- © Sidney Harris analysis that has had such an enormous member societies SMAI, SEMA and SIMAI. preted in the broadest sense. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Prize Fund MATHEMATICS EDUCATION tions and a poster session. The conference The money for the Prize Fund is offered by IN A GLOBAL COMMUNITY should be of interest to anyone interested in FOR TEN EMS PRIZES the Foundation Compositio Mathematica. theoretical, computational or experimental Principal guidelines The ninth international conference of The fluid dynamics. Some financial assistance is Any European mathematician who has not Deadline for submission Mathematics Education into the 21st Century available to support the attendance by reached his/her 35th birthday on 30 June Nominations for the prize must reach the Project on Mathematics Education in a Global UK graduate students. Confirmed plenary 2008, and who has not previously received chairman of the Prize Committee at the fol- Community will take place from 7-12 speakers include: the prize, is eligible for an EMS Prize at Fifth lowing address, not later than 1 November September 2007 at the University of North • T. Akylas (MIT) European Congress of Mathematics. A total 2007: 5ECM Prize Committee, Professor Carolina, Charlotte, USA. • H. Aref (Virginia Tech / DTU) of 10 prizes will be awarded. The maximum R. Tijdeman, Mathematical Institute, Leiden The Mathematics Education into the 21st • L. E. Fraenkel (Bath) age may be increased by up to three years in University, Postbus 9512, 2300 RA Leiden, The Century Project has just completed its eighth • R. Kelly (UCLA) the case of an individual with a ‘broken Netherlands (email: tijdeman@math. successful international conference in • R. Kerswell (Bristol) career pattern’. Mathematicians are defined leidenuniv.nl, fax: +31715277101, phone: Malaysia, following conferences in Egypt, • S. Lele (Stanford) to be ‘European’ if they are of European +31715277138). Jordan, Poland, Australia, Sicily, Czech • J. Liu (Brown) nationality or their normal place of work is Republic and Poland. The Chairman of the • T. Mullin (Manchester) within Europe. ‘Europe’ is defined to be the REPRESENTATION THEORY Local Organising Committee is Associate • N. Peake (Cambridge) union of any country or part of a country Professor David Pugalee. Plenary speakers will • N. Sandham (Southampton) which is geographically within Europe or that AND PHYSICS include Professor Azlan Zanzali and Douglas Anybody interested in attending should contact 22 has a corporate member of the EMS based in A conference on representation theory and Butler. The conference will open with a wel- the organizers D. Crowdy ([email protected]) 23 that country. Prizes are to be awarded for physics will be held at City University, coming reception on Friday 7 September and or X. Wu ([email protected]). For more details: work published before 31 December 2007. London, from 11-15 December. The meeting conclude after lunch on 12 September. Papers www.imperial.ac.uk/mathematics/stuartmeeting. is intended to bring together researchers in are invited on all innovative aspects of Nominations of the award representation theory, computational statis- Mathematics Education. There will be an ALGEBRAIC STRUCTURES The Prize Committee is responsible for solici- tical mechanics, integrable quantum field additional social programme for accompany- tation and evaluation of nominations. theory, and string theory, to consider recent ing persons. For further conference details AND INTEGRABLE SYSTEMS Nominations can be made by anyone, includ- progress at the interface between these email [email protected] or visit There will be a workshop at the University of ing members of the Prize Committee and can- disciplines. Invited lecturers include: http://math.unipa.it/~grim/convegni.htm. Edinburgh on Algebraic Structures and didates themselves. It is the responsibility of Integrable Systems on Friday 27 – Saturday 28 the nominator to provide all relevant infor- • Philippe Di Francesco (Saclay) THEORETICAL FLUID October. The speakers are: mation to the Prize Committee, including a • Benjamin Doyon (Oxford) • Y. Berest (Cornell) résumé and documentation. The nomination • Stephen Doty (Chicago) DYNAMICS IN THE • G. Heckman (Nijmegen) for each award must be accompanied by a • Iain Gordon (Edinburgh) 21ST CENTURY • E.M. Opdam (Amsterdam) written justification and a citation of about • Richard Green (Colorado) • A.P. Veselov (Loughborough) A meeting in honour of 100 words that can be read at the award • Chris Hull (Imperial) There will also be a pair of introductory lec- Professor J.T. Stuart, FRS ceremony. The prizes cannot be shared. • Christian Korff (Glasgow) tures for post-graduate students on What is a • Jean Michel Maillet (Lyon) A special research conference is to be held at root system? and What is an integrable system? Description of the award • Tetsuji Miwa (Kyoto) Imperial College London on 15-16 December to This is a joint meeting of the Scheme 3 fund- The award comprises a certificate including • Pavel Pyatov (Dubna) celebrate the contributions both to fluid dynam- ed groups ARTIN and Classical and Quantum the citation and a cash prize of
5,000. • Vladimir Rittenberg (Bonn) ics and to the Department of Mathematics at Integrability. There are limited funds available • Hubert Saleur (Saclay) Imperial College of Professor J.T. Stuart. to contribute to the travel expenses of research Award presentation • Anatoly Vershik (St Petersburg) The theme of the conference is to survey students to attend the workshop. Further The prizes will be presented at the Fifth the role played by theoretical fluid dynamics details can be found at www.maths.gla.ac.uk/ European Congress of Mathematics by the Anyone interested is welcome. Further infor- over the last few decades and to speculate on ~iabs/LMSworkshops/workshopArtin.htm. President of the European Mathematical mation is available from the conference web- how the subject will evolve in decades to The workshop is supported by grants from Society. The recipients will be invited to present page: www.staff.city.ac.uk/~ra359/MEETINGS/ come. The conference will feature invited the LMS, the Edinburgh Mathematical Society their work at the congress (see www.5ecm.nl). conf06.html. plenary lectures, a series of shorter presenta- and the Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

VISIT OF PROFESSOR with Professor H.G. Dales and Dr D. Strauss. employment sectors and the main SET disci- dimension the random Schrödinger operator He will subsequently visit Dr N. Laustsen plines. These will focus on the areas which the has dense point spectrum for large enough P. D'ANCONA at the University of Lancaster from survey’s sponsors and supporters will influence, disorder. Some open mathematical problems Professor Piero D'Ancona (University of 8-9 December and Professor C-H. Chu at which employers can control, and where of major importance are: the question of exis- Rome, La Sapienza) will be visiting the UK Queen Mary College from 9-12 December. change can make a difference. Further informa- tence of absolutely continuous spectrum, the from 11-25 October. He will give lectures at: He will give the following seminar talks: tion on ASSET 2006 is available the Athena web- expected spectral phase transition (Anderson • London Analysis Seminar, 12 October • Oxford: Tuesday 28 November site www.athenaproject.org.uk. By supporting delocalization), as well as clarification of the • Imperial College London, 13 October • Leeds: Tuesday 5 December the survey you will be eligible to receive a full nature of the spectrum at the critical point • University of Edinburgh, 16 October • Lancaster: Friday 8 December copy of the report and any sub-reports you (presumably singular continuous). • University of Bristol, 17 October • Queen Mary College: Monday 11 December would like looking at your sector or industry. The goal of the programme is to bring Professor D'Ancona is an internationally For further in information contact Dona ASSET 2006 is made possible by core funding together the world leaders in spectral theory leading expert on nonlinear PDEs and weak- Strauss ([email protected]). from the UK Resource Centre for Women in of random Schrödinger operators and theo- ly hyperbolic equations. His visit is supported SET, support from the University of East Anglia retical physicists successfully working on the by an LMS Scheme 2 grant. For further ATHENA SURVEY OF Survey Office, Bristol On Line Surveys, and the problem of Anderson localization. Among information contact Michael Ruzhansky Science Council. The Athena Project is based at the topics that will be addressed during the ([email protected]). SCIENCE ENGINEERING and supported by The Royal Society. Athena’s programme are: The nature of critical phe- AND TECHNOLOGY other supporters include BP, Equality Challenge nomena associated with localization-delocal- VISIT OF PROFESSOR Unit, Institute of Physics, Opportunity Now, ization transitions; The existence and statisti- 24 ASSET 2006, the third Athena Survey of Pfizer, Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal cal properties of extended states for D > 2 25 D. ANOSOV Science Engineering and Technology, runs for Society of Chemistry and The Wellcome Trust. and the behaviour in the critical dimension Professor D. Anosov (Steklov Mathematical six weeks from 5 September to 20 October. D = 2; Rigorous version of super symmetric Institute and Moscow State University) will Athena’s purpose in running the survey is to ISAAC NEWTON INSTITUTE methods and of the nonlinear s-model tech- visit the UK from 13 October to 3 November. provide a firm basis from which to understand niques; The localization-delocalization phe- Programme Announcement His visit is supported by an LMS Scheme 2 and address the barriers to women’s progres- nomena associated with the Integer grant. Professor Anosov is renowned for his sion in scientific careers. The survey questions, Mathematics and Physics of Anderson Quantum Hall effect; Rigorous mathematical contributions to the theory of hyperbolic based on those in the 2003 and 2004 surveys, Localization: 50 Years After understanding of the relation between mag- dynamical systems. Professor Anosov’s itiner- address the areas identified by Athena as key 14 July – 19 December 2008 netic Schrödinger operators and network ary is as follows: to the differences between men’s and In his seminal paper Absence of diffusion models, and the connection with quantum • Cambridge: 13-18 October. Lecture on women’s progression through and enjoy- in certain random lattices (1958) Philip percolation; Localization in the presence of a 16 October, contact Yurii Suhov ment of a career in science and engineering. W. Anderson discovered one of the most strik- random magnetic field; Behaviour of prod- ([email protected]) for details. The survey is open to all male and female ing quantum interference phenomena: parti- ucts of random matrices and associated • Warwick: 18-23 October. Lecture on UK based scientists, engineers and medics, cle localization due to disorder. Cited in 1977 Lyapunov exponents; Localization and delo- 20 October at 2 pm, contact Mark Pollicott whether in industry, public or private sector for the Nobel Prize in physics, that paper was calization in disordered systems characterised ([email protected]) for details. research, research and development organi- fundamental for many subsequent develop- by non-selfadjoint operators; Dynamical • Liverpool: 23 October – 3 November. sations, in education including higher and ments in condensed matter theory. In particu- localization in Quantum Chaotic systems; Lecture on 27 October at 4 pm, contact further education, the NHS or other public lar, in the last 25 years the phenomenon of Localization in systems with a periodic poten- Toby Hall ([email protected]) for details. sector employment. Scientists working in cor- localization proved to be crucial for the under- tial, as well as in models with correlated or porate policy and management functions, standing of the Quantum Hall Effect, meso- long-ranged disorder; Localization in systems VISIT OF PROFESSOR and in operational, manufacturing, field and scopic fluctuations in small conductors as well with nonlinearities, and localization-delocal- service posts, as well as in teaching and as some aspects of quantum chaotic behaviour. ization phenomena in disordered systems of A.T-M. LAU research are included. Understanding the Random Schrödinger operators are an area interacting quantum particles. Professor A.T-M. Lau (University of Alberta) career experiences, perceptions and ambi- of very active research in mathematical physics The organisers are: Y.V. Fyodorov will be visiting the UK from 20 November to tions of all these groups is important. and mathematics. Here the main effort is to (Nottingham), I. Goldshied (Queen Mary, 12 December, supported by an LMS Scheme 2 A report on the headline findings from the clarify the nature of the underlying spectrum. London), T. Spencer (Princeton), M.R. Zirnbauer grant. He will visit the University of Leeds survey will be published in Spring 2007. In particular, it has been proved that in dimen- (Cologne). Further information can be found from 20 November – 7 December to work Comparisons will be made across the main SET sion one all states are localized, and in any at www.newton.cam.ac.uk/programmes/MPA/. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

Thorbjørnsen and others on the existence of on the problem of approximating elements invariant subspaces in II1 factors and applica- in a Banach space by linear combinations of RECORDS OF PROCEEDINGS tions to extension semigroups and K-theory, elements from a given subset (eg, a basis) for example, is particularly spectacular. Such with all coefficients being integral multiples AT MEETINGS themes were presented by Uffe and expand- of a fixed positive number, and showed how ed on in the Workshop on Functional Analysis the existence of such approximations is which followed the regional meeting. expressed in the geometry of the Banach REGIONAL ORDINARY MEETING Nigel Kalton’s influence in the realm of space. Michel Crouzeix introduced a simple Banach space theory has been similarly inequality, with a deep proof, relating the held on Monday 3 July 2006 at the University of Leeds. About 75 members and profound. His talk, introduced by Jonathan operator norm of a polynomial in a square visitors were present for all or part of the meeting. Partington, on an application of classical matrix to the supremum norm of the polyno- The meeting began at 3:00 pm, with the President, Professor J.F. TOLAND, FRS, Banach space theory to partial differential mial over the numerical range of the matrix. FRSE, in the Chair. equations traced an intriguing path from the In spite of its innocent appearance, this maximal regularity of sectorial operators, via inequality had applications in several differ- Eight members signed the book and were admitted to the Society. UMD spaces, block basic sequences and ent areas of mathematics, including operator Dr N.J. LAUSTSEN introduced a lecture given by Uffe Haagerup on Random unconditional bases, to the Generalised Brezis theory and differential equations. matrices and operator algebras. Conjecture. Nigel also outlined Functional The eighteen talks of the workshop were Calculus methods for sectorial operators, spread over three and a half days – a low After tea Professor J.R. PARTINGTON introduced a lecture given by Nigel Kalton a theme which was taken further in the density format which allowed plenty of time 26 on An application of classical Banach space theory to partial differential equations. 27 workshop by both Nigel and Lutz Weiss. for much interaction and reflection between Professor Toland expressed the thanks of the Society to the local organiser and A particularly stimulating reception and the 75 or so participants, which included a the speakers for putting on such an excellent meeting. dinner at the Great Woodhouse Room, heartening number of graduate students. A dinner was then held in the Great Woodhouse Room, University House. University House, provided an effective tran- Stephen Power sition from the Regional Meeting to the Lancaster University Workshop in Functional Analysis which followed the next morning. The Workshop, INVERSE PROBLEMS organised principally by Professor Garth LMS REGIONAL MEETING talk on Random Matrices and Operator Dales, included detailed developments of a The British Inverse Problems Society is hold- Algebras began with a brief chronology of number of related themes in free probability, ing a one-day workshop hosted by the School AND WORKSHOP 2006 random matrices and their emergence in operator algebra, Banach space methods, of Computer Science, University of Cardiff on A Regional Meeting of the London Statistics (Wishart, from 1929), Nuclear Physics invariant subspaces, and functional calculus. Wednesday 1 November. The meeting will Mathematical Society was held on Monday (Wigner, Dyson, Mehta, from 1955), Analytic All the speakers fully confirmed their renown take place in Room C/2.07 in the School of 3 July 2006 at the University of Leeds. Number Theory (Montgomery conjecture on in exposition and the talks were very well Computer Science, Queen's Buildings, 5 The Following the opening of the meeting by the the roots of the Riemann zeta function), received. Parade, Roath, Cardiff CF24 3AA. The President, Professor John Toland, several new Banach Spaces and Concentration Tom Ransford’s elegant lectures on shift- programme is as follows: members were admitted to the Society. The Pheneomena (Gluskin, Milman, Maurey, invariant subspaces ascended from the famil- • M. Jais (Cardiff) to be announced Vice Chancellor, Professor Michael Arthur, Gowers, from 1981) and Operator Algebra iarities of Hardy space to the extraordinary • S. Kurylev (Loughborough) Rigidity of then warmly welcomed participants and and Free Probability (Voiculescu, Ge, from subtleties of the iterated log functions in broken geodesics and inverse problems speakers to the University and commented 1991). While it may be that a primary motiva- Dirichlet space. In his talks on free semigroup • R. Davies (Cardiff) Inverse Problems in on local plans for a significant visitor centre tion for Voiculescu’s development of free algebras Ken Davidson surveyed the parallel materials characterisation at Leeds. There followed lectures by Uffe probability was von Neumann’s longstanding world of freely noncommuting shifts and • S. Chandler-Wilde (Reading) to be announced Haagerup of Odense University and Nigel (and still open) free group factor isomor- their invariant subspaces and operator alge- For further details contact the organiser Kalton of the University of Missouri. phism problem, it has become clear that free bras. Alexander Ya. Helemskii outlined how Professor Malcolm Brown (Malcolm.Brown@ Uffe Haagerup was introduced by Niels probability techniques have widespread tensor products can be used to give an ele- cs.cardiff.ac.uk) or visit the website Laustsen who outlined Uffe’s many extraordi- applications in operator algebra. The recent gant, matrix-free approach to the theory of www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/~bl/ukipws/ nary achievements in operator algebra. Uffe’s progress of Haagerup, Schulz and operator spaces. Thomas Schlumprecht spoke pr20061.html. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

REVIEWS credit for either the special or general theory spirit of the original, while using language vincing. The presentation is not aimed prima- of relativity. It would not have been surpris- and images of his own. For example, he uses rily at mathematicians, who might chafe at Once Upon Einstein by Thibault Damour. ing to find Damour standing up for the language of elasticity to explain general oversimplifications in the exposition. The Trans. Eric Novak. Wellesley, Massachusets: Poincaré’s contributions, but his loyalty to relativity (after a quick introduction to portrayal of Einstein that emerges, however, A.K. Peters, Ltd, 2006, pp 199, £20.00, ISBN Einstein transcends his attachment to his fel- Hooke). This follows after illustrating the does not shirk historical complexities and 1-56881-289-2. low countryman. In particular, while he deformation of space-time by means of veal reminds the reader that piecing together There are different ways of bringing the admits that one can find the equations of in aspic. The juxtaposition of these two intellectual antecedents can be hard work ideas of a dead mathematician or scientist to special relativity in Poincaré, he quotes the approaches suggests the kind of challenge even for those with technical competence. life. One is to place them against an historical surrounding text to indicate that there is no which Damour has difficulty surmounting. Thomas Drucker background sufficiently vivid that the human sense of the conceptual leap that Einstein The ‘veal in aspic’ model is concrete, but it’s a University of Wisconsin–Whitewater characters act out the ideas. Another is to try had to make in order to distinguish his work little hard to stretch the model to get much to put them in terms and imagery that read- from that of ether-theorists. Subsequently, of the force of Einstein’s ideas across. The Anthology of Statistics in Sports edited by ers without a technical background can when general relativity is the topic, Damour notion of general relativity as a sort of elas- Jim Albert, Jay Bennett and James understand. Thibault Damour uses both in an claims that Poincaré had some of the ideas ticity does have mathematical bite, but J Cochrane, SIAM, 2005, pp 322, US$65, ISBN effort to pay homage to Einstein’s intellectu- behind the theory, but did not make it the Damour scarcely gets into the mathematical 0-898715-87-3 al accomplishment. The result is a continua- quantitative theory that Einstein worked content in the text. He has a certain number tion of the dialogue of recent decades about hard to create. It might seem as though the of footnotes for the ‘aficionados’ [sic], but Next June, the IMA will hold its first interna- what part of twentieth-century physics cards are stacked against Poincaré in such an I think the reader with less background is tional conference on sport. Topics include 28 Einstein created, but the attempt to simplify analysis, but Damour’s admiration for going to be puzzled by reference to ‘the measures of performance, tournament 29 the presentation of his contributions does Einstein is based on the latter’s ability to take most general linear relation … which can design and scheduling, competitive strategy, have an equal degree of success. leaps that could be expressed in exist between mathematical objects of the models for match outcomes, even what Damour is himself a physicist and French. mathematical terms. same type’. maths can contribute to the rules of sports. One of the battlegrounds of the history of The vividness of historical background is Outside the technical exposition, Damour Some UK journals have devoted sections and physics has been how far Poincaré deserves brought to the page by looking at a particu- pursues many of the connections of Einstein’s special issues to sport, and the benefits of lar setting for the start of each chapter. For thought with broader society. For example, example, the last chapter, which looks at the he points to the scholarship on Proust reveal- unified field theory, sets the stage by recreat- ing the influence of relativity on In Search of ing a particular lecture Einstein gave at Lost Time (perhaps still better known as Princeton shortly before his death and look- Remembrance of Things Past). The title of the ing at some of the physicists in the audience English version of Damour’s book brings up influenced by it. Similarly, the chapters on images from fairy tales, fittingly with a quantum mechanics open with the first French original of Si Einstein m’était conté. Solvay Conference and with Heisenberg’s In general, the translation reveals only coming to lecture in Berlin. An interesting sparingly its having originated in a different feature of the book is that, after the period language. during which Einstein is shown contributing Damour’s book is a serious effort on the actively to physical theory, the next genera- centenary of Einstein’s annus mirabilis to tion of physicists find inspiration for particu- examine his intellectual accomplishment, its lar aspects of their own work in the influence sources and its influence. He brings the dis- of specific remarks or attitudes of Einstein. In cussion up to the present by looking at the this respect, Einstein is contrasted with Niels recent scholarship on Gödel’s solution to Bohr, the influence of whose programme of Einstein’s field equations by Palle Yourgrau. complementarity is not described in Einstein’s creative years from 1905 to 1924 flattering terms. receive detailed examination, in which the As far as exposition of Einstein’s ideas is author’s consultation of primary and second- concerned, Damour tries to be faithful to the ary materials makes his argument more con- THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

using a sports background to motivate young In summary, this book is overwhelmingly people to study our subject are often touted. statistical, and offers a handy compilation of I believe that a mathematical way of think- the best articles published within the sources ing can enhance understanding and enjoy- selected. ment of many sports, for spectators as well as John Haigh participants. Sport generates copious data, so University of Sussex Postdoctoral positions in the Department of Mathematics it is not surprising that statisticians have for the academic year 2007-2008 sought to show how their ideas can be use- THE HALL-HIGMAN ful. The worldwide acceptance of the The Department of Mathematics at ETH Zürich invites applications for several postdoctoral positions beginning Duckworth-Lewis method in cricket is an THEOREMS on October 1, 2007. The positions are awarded for a period of one or two years. Applicants must have completed the PhD in Mathematics by the start of the appointment and within the last 5 years. They must show strong excellent example. Fifty years on promise in research. ETH Zürich specifically encourages female candidates to apply. This book contains reprints of 36 articles, all In 1956 the London Mathematical Society To be assured of full consideration, applications should be received by November 30, 2006; the selection process published in journals based in the USA, and published a seminal paper by Philip Hall and will begin shortly thereafter. Later applications are nevertheless welcome and will be considered for any positions reflecting the sports priorities of that country. Graham Higman entitled ‘On the p-length of remaining open at the time they are received. Fifteen of them originally appeared in p-soluble groups and reduction theorems for To apply, send a cover letter together with Chance, a magazine written to be accessible Burnside’s problem’. To mark its (approxi- – a curriculum vitae specifying citizenship, year of birth, academic degrees with institution and year awarded and, to students, ten in the more demanding mately) fiftieth anniversary, a conference will for the doctoral degree, the dissertation title, year of graduation and the name of the dissertation supervisor. Journal of the American Statistical be held at the Mathematical Institute, Oxford – a list of publications – a survey of past research activities and a description of current research interests 30 Association. The editors have chosen well: the on 5-6 January 2007. 31 field attracts a lot of dross, happily absent. The underlying principle of the paper, Three letters of recommendation supporting the application should be sent directly to us. Two initial chapters sketch the rise in inter- namely that of applying representation theo- Applications and letters of recommendation should be sent to Search Committee, Department of Mathematics, est in applying statistical notions to sport, ry to study the internal structure of a group, ETZ Zentrum/HG G33.3, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland (E-mail: [email protected]; Fax: +41446321085) and outline how sport has been successfully remains at the heart of the subject today, and used in teaching. The articles are then the theme of this conference will be to mark grouped into six sections, each introduced by what has been achieved and to look at cur- an excellent brief overview of the ideas to be rent trends across a breadth of interests with- discussed. The first four sections cover in group theory where this principle under- (American) football, baseball, basketball and pins ongoing research. The speakers will be: ice hockey, the other two roam more widely, • David Benson (Aberdeen) with golf the next most popular item, • Paul Flavell (Birmingham) followed by soccer and athletics. • Radha Kessar (Aberdeen) Teachers of statistics will find many ideas • Nikolay Nikolov (Oxford) here: applications of standard distributions; • Raphael Rouquier (Leeds/Oxford) hypothesis tests; estimation; regression; • Bernd Stellmacher (Kiel) experimental design; data transformations. • John Thompson (Cambridge/Florida) For other branches of mathematics, we have • Efim Zelmanov (UC San Diego) to search harder. The relation between dis- The conference is supported by an LMS crete and continuous models could be illus- conference grant, and graduate students trated by the use of Brownian motion to attending UK universities are invited to apply model a score difference: this works very well for financial support. The conference is also in the high-scoring game of basketball, but supported by University College, Oxford, and also surprisingly well in baseball. And when participants will be accommodated there. the predictions of a rank order in a league There will be a conference website table are compared with each other, or the www.maths.ox.ac.uk/arg/conferences/HH50. actual outcome, different lp metrics could html. Further information can be obtained be compared. also by e-mail to [email protected]. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

Analysis on Graphs and its Applications LMS/EPSRC Short Course Gregynog Hall, University of Wales, 10-15 January 2007 Organiser: Professor B.M. Brown The course will provide an introduction to the topics listed below. The course lecturers are: • Professor T. Sunada (Meiji, Japan) Spectral geometry of discrete Laplacians • Professors P. Kuchment (Texas A & M, USA) and P. Exner (Prague, Czech Republic) Quantum graphs and their applications • Professor A. Teplyaev (Connecticut, USA) Analysis on fractals 32 Two guest lectures will be given by: 33 • Professor A. Lubotzky (Hebrew University, Israel) – provisional Ramanujan Graphs and related topics • Professor U. Smilansky (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel) Spectral statistics The course is intended both as an introduction to the above topics focused on research students in mathematics and the physical sciences, and as a set of introductory lectures to the six month programme Analysis on Graphs and its Applications to be held in 2007 at the Isaac Newton Institute Cambridge. Postdocs and young scientists are welcome to attend. The registration fee to attend is £100. The accommodation costs for all UK-based research students are covered by EPSRC. Participants must pay their own travel costs. EPSRC-supported students can expect that their registration fees and travel costs will be met by their departments from the EPSRC Doctoral Training Account. Postdocs and non-UK students will be required to pay their own subsistence costs and the registration fee (£420 in total). There may be some funds available to help with the costs of those required to pay the full amount – further information will be available after the deadline for applications. Application forms may be obtained from Isabelle Robinson at the London Mathematical Society (email: [email protected]) or an online from the LMS website: www.lms.ac.uk/activities/research_meet_com/short_course/33_poster.html. Numbers will be limited and those interested are advised to make an early application. The closing date for applications is Friday 11 November 2006. All applicants will be contacted by the London Mathematical Society approximately one week after this deadline; we will not be able to give information about individual applications before then. Please do not send any money until we ask. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 352 October 2006

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 15 The 20th Century: Chaos, Codes and RUSSIAN ACADEMY of SCIENCES Colouring, Gresham College London (351) V.A. Steklov Institute of Mathematics This calendar lists Society meetings and 17 LMS AGM, London St. Petersburg Department other events publicised in the Newsletter. 20-24 Stochastic Computation Workshop, Further information can be obtained from INI, Cambridge (348) the appropriate LMS Newsletter whose num- 25 Belfast Functional Analysis Day, 27, Fontanka St. Petersburg 191023 Russia ber is given in brackets. A fuller list of meet- Queen’s University Belfast (351) Phone: +7(812) 312 4058 email: [email protected] ings and events is given on the Society’s web- 27-22 Dec Geophysical Fluid Dynamics and Fax: +7(812) 310 5377 URL: www.pdmi.ras.ru site (www.lms.ac.uk/meetings/calendar.html). Scalar Transport in the Tropics, Singapore (348) OCTOBER 2006 DECEMBER 2006 Euler International Mathematical Institute 3 Supporting Postgraduates who Teach 8 Edinburgh Mathematical Society Mathematics & Statistics Workshop, Meeting, Heriot-Watt (350) Birmingham (351) 11-15 Representation Theory and Physics 4 The 18th Century: Crossing Bridges, Conference, City University, London (352) e-mail: [email protected] URL: www.pdmi.ras.ru/EIMI Gresham College London (351) 15-16 Theoretical Fluid Dynamics in the phone/fax: +7 (812) 234 05 74 Pesochnaya nab. 10 St. Petersburg 197022 13 Edinburgh Mathematical Society 21st Century Conference, IC London (352) Meeting, Edinburgh (350) 18-22 Trends in Noncommutative 34 19 Supporting Postgraduates who Teach Geometry, INI, Cambridge (349) 35 Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg Scientific Centre of RAS, St Petersburg Department Mathematics & Statistics Workshop, of the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Institute and Euler International Mathematical Institute, Leeds (351) JANUARY 2007 St Petersburg State University and the Euler Foundation are organizing a special congress on 20 UK TeX Users Group, De Morgan House, 5-6 The Hall-Higman Theorems the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Leonhard Euler’s birth. The Congress is supported by London (348) Conference, Oxford (352) the Government of Russia and the local authorities of St Petersburg. 23 Supporting Postgraduates who Teach 8-31 Mar Interface Problems and The Congress will include the Euler Festival (10-12 June) and a series of satellite conferences Mathematics & Statistics Workshop, Applications in Fluid Dynamics, (see below for a tentative list). The main event (10-12 June) will comprise a celebration meet- London (351) Singapore (351) ing on 10 June, and several invited talks related to Euler’s tremendous scientific activity. 25 Supporting Postgraduates who Teach 10-15 Analysis on Graphs & its Applications The list of invited speakers will be announced in the near future. Mathematics & Statistics Workshop, LMS/EPSRC Short Course, Gregynog Hall, The Congress will be held at the St Petersburg Department of the V.A. Steklov Mathematical Glasgow (351) Wales (352) Institute and the Euler International Mathematical Institute in St Petersburg, Russia. 25 The 19th Century: Revolution or 19 Edinburgh Mathematical Society We ask our colleagues who are interested in attending the event to inform us about this. Evolution?, Gresham College London (351) Meeting, Edinburgh (350) Preliminary registrations should be made at: www.pdmi.ras.ru/EIMI/ Euler300/form1.html 27-28 Algebraic Structures and Integrable or by email: [email protected]. Systems Workshop, Edinburgh (352) FEBRUARY 2007 30-3 Nov Recent Advances in Monte Carlo 16 Edinburgh Mathematical Society The organizing committee Based Inference Workshop, INI, Meeting, Edinburgh (350) L.D. Faddeev, E.A. Tropp, I.A. Ibragimov, S.V. Kislyakov, G.A. Leonov, Yu.V. Matiyasevich, Yu.D. Burago, V.A. Gritsenko, G.A. Seregin, V.N. Tolstykh, Cambridge (348) A.M. Vershik, S.V. Vostokov. MARCH 2007 NOVEMBER 2006 16 Edinburgh Mathematical Society Preliminary list of conferences 1 Inverse Problems Workshop, Meeting, Dundee (350) • L. Euler and modern combinatorics (A.M. Vershik) 1-7 June Cardiff (352) 26-31 Geometric Flows and Related Topics • Euler equations and related topics (G.A. Seregin) 7-9 June 1 Supporting Postgraduates who Teach Symposium Workshop, Warwick, (350) • Euler Festival 10-12 June • Arithmetic Geometry (S.V. Vostokov) till 17 June Mathematics & Statistics Workshop, • A conference in Geometry (Yu.D. Burago) 18-23 June Bristol (351) APRIL 2007 • 17th Summer St Petersburg Conference in Analysis (N.K. Nikolski, S.V. Kislyakov) 25-30 June 6-10 Rankin Lectures 2006, Glasgow (351) 16-19 BMC, Swansea (352) • Modular forms and moduli spaces (V.A. Gritsenko) 3-7 July 10 Edinburgh Mathematical Society AGM, 20 LMS Midlands Regional Meeting, Strathclyde (350) Loughborough ROGER PENROSE DE MORGAN MEDALLIST 2004

Short citation: The De Morgan Medal is of black holes. His development of Twistor awarded to Professor Sir Roger Penrose, OM, Theory has produced a beautiful and FRS of the University of Oxford for his wide productive approach to the classical equa- and original contributions to mathematical tions of mathematical physics. His tilings physics. His deep work on General Relativity of the plane underlie the newly discovered has been a major factor in our understanding quasi-crystals.