October 2012

LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 418 October 2012

Society LMS ANNOUNCES ed three European network Meetings projects that have helped to PRESIDEnt DESIGNATE build stochastic analysis across and Events The London Mathematical So- Europe. Professor Lyons was 2012 ciety is pleased to announce elected a Fellow of the Royal Professor Terry Lyons, FRS, Society in 2002. Monday 1 October Wallis Professor of Mathemat- Professor Lyons said, ‘It is SW & South Wales ics, University of Oxford, as a tremendous honour to be Regional Meeting, President-Designate. Professor asked to take over the pres- Bristol Lyons will take over from the tigious office of LMS Presi- Friday 16 November current President, Dr Graeme dent. These are challenging Annual General Segal, FRS, in November 2013. times for mathematics and Meeting, London Professor Lyons has been in particular for mathematics 1 page 9 at Oxford since 2000, having research and education. It is previously held positions at vitally important that we con- 2013 Imperial College London and tinue to promote and extend the University of Edinburgh. mathematical knowledge and Friday 1 March Mary Cartwright He is also a founding member ensure it continues to have an Lecture, London and current Director of the effective impact on our soci- Oxford-Man Institute of Quan- ety. I am looking forward to Monday 18 March titative Finance and previously working with LMS members Northern Regional the Director of the Wales In- and the wider mathemat- Meeting, Newcastle stitute of Mathematical and ics community to continue to 18-19 April Computational Science. Pro- build on the excellent work Women in Maths Day fessor Lyons researches in sto- towards this goal by Graeme Cambridge chastic analysis, the area of and his colleagues’. mathematics which focuses on Dr Graeme Segal, said, ‘I am Friday 5 July providing tools for describing delighted that Terry has ac- LMS Meeting high dimensional and inter- cepted the nomination to be- London acting random systems. His re- come the next LMS President. search has contributed to the He has forged a hugely suc- pure mathematical founda- cessful career in mathematics tions, and to applications, for and has been at the forefront example: providing efficient of developing several high new methods for numerical profile organisations. The calculation and novel ways to LMS is confident that his wide NEWSLETTER summarise vast data sets ef- knowledge, expertise and fectively. He is supported by leadership skills will help the ONLINE: European and UK research LMS to grow and continue Go to councils as well as by com- to benefit the mathematics newsletter.lms.ac.uk mercial funds. He coordinat- community’. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

ANNUAL GENERAL LMS ANNUAL DINNER 2012 ELECTIONS ANNUAL LMS

MEETING The 2012 LMS Annual Dinner will be TO COUNCIL AND SUBSCRIPTION 2012-13 The Annual General Meeting of the held on Friday 16 November 2012 NOMINATING COMMITTEE Members are reminded that their annu- Society will be held at 3.00 pm on Friday at 7.30 pm (for 8.00 pm start) at The al subscription, including payment for 16 November 2012 in the Jeffrey Hall at Russell Hotel, London WC1. The LMS This year, to facilitate an electronic voting op- publications, for the period November the Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Annual Dinner follows the Society’s tion, the LMS elections will be administered 2012-October 2013 is due on 8 Novem- Way, London WC1H 0AL. Annual General Meeting at the Insti- by the Electoral Reform Services (ERS). Unlike ber 2012 and should be paid no later tute of Education, and the Society’s in previous years, ballot papers are not being than 8 December 2012. The business shall be: wine reception at De Morgan House. enclosed with this edition of the Newsletter. In- Please note all members are asked to The cost for members and their stead, members will be contacted directly by the complete and return the subscription 1. Elections to Council and Nominating guests to attend the LMS Annual Din- ERS, who will send out the election material. form as it also requests permission to in- Committee ner is £45 per person, which is for a In advance of this an email will be sent by clude members’ details in the Members’ 2. Report of the President three-course meal and wine. Members the Society to all members who are regis- Handbook 2013. 3. Report of the Treasurer wishing to attend should make cheques tered for electronic communication informing A subscription form was included with a.adoption of the Trustees Report for payable to ‘London Mathematical Soci- them that they can expect to shortly receive the September edition of the Newslet- 2011/12 ety’ and send to: Leanne Marshall, Lon- some election correspondence from the ERS. ter for members to complete and return b.appointment of Auditors don Mathematical Society, De Morgan Those not registered to receive email corre- with payment in the enclosed envelope. House, 57-58 Russell Square, London spondence will receive all communications If you have not received a subscription It is hoped that as many members as WC1B 4HS. Please also indicate any in paper format, both from the Society and form, please email membership@lms. possible will be able to attend. dietary requirements. Payment should from the ERS. Members should check their ac.uk. 2 arrive by Monday 5 November 2012. post/email regularly in October for communica- Further information about subscrip- 3 Fiona Nixon Any queries should be sent to leanne. tions regarding the elections. tion rates for 2012-13 and a subscription Executive Secretary [email protected]. With respect to the election itself, there are form may also be found on the Soci- two candidates for the post of General Secre- ety’s website: www.lms.ac.uk/content/ tary and two for Education Secretary. Sixteen paying-your-subscription. LMS Newsletter http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk candidates are proposed for seven vacancies The Society encourages payment by Editorial office: [email protected]; London Mathematical Society, for Member-at-Large. Six candidates have been direct debit. If you do not already pay De Morgan House, 57–58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS (t: 020 7637 3686; f: 020 7323 3655) proposed for three vacancies in the member- by this method and would like to set up Articles: please send articles to [email protected] ship of Nominating Committee. The slates and a direct debit (this requires a UK bank candidate biographies for the election can be account), please visit the LMS website Events calendar: please send updates and corrections to [email protected] found on the LMS website at http://www.lms. to download the direct debit mandate Advertising: for rates and guidelines, see www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/ratecard.html ac.uk/content/lms-elections-2012. form: www.lms.ac.uk/sites/default/files/ General Editor: Mr A.J.S. Mann ([email protected]) For both electronic and postal voting the Membership/Direct%20Debit%20Form. Reports Editor: Professor R.A. Wilson ([email protected]) deadline for receipt of votes is 8 November. pdf Reviews Editor: Dr C.M. Roney-Dougal ([email protected]) Members may like to note that a The Society also accepts payment by Administrative Editor: S.M. Oakes ([email protected]) LMS Election blog, moderated by the cheque or credit/debit card. Typeset by the London Mathematical Society at De Morgan House; printed by Holbrooks Printers Scrutineers, can be found at: http://discussions. Ltd. lms.ac.uk/elections2012/. Elizabeth Fisher Publication dates and deadlines: published monthly, except August. Items and advertisements by Membership & Activities Officer the first day of the month prior to publication, or the closest preceding working day. Notices and Future elections advertisements are not accepted for events that occur in the first week of the publication month. Members are invited to make suggestions for News items and notices in the Newsletter may be freely used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, future nominees for election to Council. These LMS CONFERENCE FACILITIES although attribution is requested when reproducing whole articles. Contributions to the Newslet- should be addressed to the Nominating Com- Organising a conference in central London? ter are made under a non-exclusive licence; please contact the author or photographer for the mittee ([email protected]). Members Meeting rooms and catering are available rights to reproduce. The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information in the may also make direct nominations: details will in De Morgan House. For terms and avail- Newsletter. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the views or policy of the London Math- be published in the May 2013 Newsletter or are ematical Society. ability, please call 020 7927 0800 or email available from Duncan Turton at the LMS (dun- [email protected]. Charity registration number: 252660. [email protected]). LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

List of LMS Representatives (August 2012) CHRISTOPHER JOHN TAYLOR Regional Representatives Region Representative Institution E-mail SHADDOCK Professor John Taylor, who was elected a Mr Christopher J. Shaddock, who was member of the London Mathematical So- Midlands Chris Parker Birmingham [email protected] elected a member of the London Mathe- ciety on 20 June 1986, died on 10 March Northern Mike Prest Manchester [email protected] matical Society on 21 February 1986, died 2012, aged 80. South West & South Tomasz Brzezinski Swansea [email protected] on 8 March 2012, aged 79. Wales Representatives ANDRZEJ ORCHEL FREDERICK BRICKELL Institution Representative E-mail

Dr Andrzej W. Orchel, who was elected a Dr Frederick Brickell, who was elected a Aberystwyth John Gough [email protected] member of the London Mathematical So- member of the London Mathematical So- Bath Jonathan Dawes [email protected] ciety on 22 November 1969, died on 22 ciety on 17 December 1964, died in June Birkbeck Ben Fairbairn [email protected] January 2012, aged 65. 2012. Birmingham Natalia Petrovskaya [email protected] Brighton Paul Harris [email protected] LMS REPRESENTATIVES Cardiff Federica Dragoni [email protected] Chester Jason Roberts [email protected] The continued health of the Society de- The Role of the LMS Representative Coventry Robert Low [email protected] pends on nurturing and maintaining Durham Norbert Peyerimhoff [email protected] close contact with its membership. As Membership Edinburgh Sue Sierra [email protected] current Treasurer I am making the devel- Encourage membership Glasgow Brendan Owens [email protected] 4 opment of a vibrant and active network • Act as proposer/seconder and assist in Greenwich Tony Mann [email protected] 5 of LMS representatives a priority. Forty finding a proposer/seconder Hull Michael Bingham [email protected] or so members have already agreed to • Encourage local members to vote in Heriot-Watt Anke Wiese [email protected] serve in this important role, which is a the annual LMS Elections KCL Yuri Safarov [email protected] very positive start. (The names of the • Act as a local contact for the LMS Kent Peter Fleischmann [email protected] current representatives and their uni- Grants Leeds Alison Parker [email protected] versities are listed below.) If there is no • Promote LMS grants to colleagues Leicester Frank Neumann [email protected] representative listed for your institution Events and Activities Liverpool Jon Woolf [email protected] please contact [email protected]. • Encourage attendance at Regional Loughborough Alexandre Veselov [email protected] By the autumn we aim to have repre- Meetings Manchester Charles Eaton [email protected] sentatives at every higher educational • Promote LMS events and activities e.g. Newcastle Sarah Rees [email protected] institution in the UK. It is essential that displaying posters, emails to colleagues Nottingham Martin Edjvet [email protected] your representatives on Council are kept Students Oxford Karin Erdmann [email protected] aware of the challenges and opportuni- • Liaise with student societies Open University Phil Rippon [email protected] ties facing mathematics in the UK so that • Encourage membership amongst Plymouth Stephen Huggett [email protected] they can reflect your views accurately. students QMUL Rob Wilson [email protected] Although the majority of LMS members Working with the LMS and other LMS QUB Martin Mathieu [email protected] are pure mathematicians, the Society ex- representatives Salford Ray Hill [email protected] ists to serve all branches of mathematics • Liaise with LMS Regional Representa- Southampton Tim Burness [email protected] – pure, applied and applicable. The di- tives and the LMS Treasurer St Andrews Colva Roney-Dougal [email protected] verse research interests of our Presidents • Work with other LMS departmental Strathclyde Penny Davies [email protected] over the past decade make this very clear, representatives Surrey Ian Roulstone [email protected] and our current representatives have a • Attend an annual LMS Representatives Swansea Tomasz Brzezinski [email protected] similar wide range of research interests. Meeting at De Morgan House UCL Jason Lotay [email protected] • Regular liaison with De Morgan House, UEA Jonathan Kirby [email protected] Professor Robert Curtis requesting support where needed UWE Tim Swift [email protected] LMS Treasurer • Produce an annual report for the LMS Warwick John Cremona [email protected] York Stephen Donkin [email protected] LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

ANNE BENNETT Anne took up a post as Examinations Officer and officials at Westminster and Whitehall, WILLIAM THURSTON at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), where and also to national funders of mathematics The staff at De Morgan House and Members of she was to work for the next 24 years in a va- research and education. She set up opportuni- William Thurston died on 21 August 2012, at the LMS Council were devastated to hear the riety of positions including: Divisional Affairs ties for mathematicians to present their case, the age of 65. He was born in Washington DC, terrible news that Anne Bennett, Head of Soci- Officer, managing the Secretariat of the four quietly and effectively networking with of- was an undergraduate at New College in Flor- ety Business at the LMS, had suddenly died of Science Divisions and the European Chemist ficials, politicians, government agencies and ida, and a graduate student at UC Berkeley. In a heart attack on 6 September 2012 at the age Registration Board; Manager (Development the most senior figures in the academic world, 1974, he became a professor at Princeton, but of 56. This is a terrible loss for all who knew and Support), developing corporate govern- striving to ensure that the M (mathematics) in he returned to Berkeley in 1991, where he be- her and had the good fortune to work with ance following the introduction of a new or- STEM was both recognised and included in all came director of the MSRI in 1993. He moved her. Anne lived for her family and her work. ganisational structure at the RSC; and latterly national discussions on science. to UC Davis in 1996, and then Cornell in 2003. She enjoyed being at the Society and was ex- as Manager (Interest Groups) responsible for Anne was a unique person, warm and ab- He was one of the most creative and out- tremely proud of what she was achieving dur- the management of the 85 RSC Special Inter- solutely genuine. Expressions of sympathy standing mathematicians in recent times. He ing her time here, which has been so sadly cut est Groups. This year Anne was nominated and admiration have come in from the many worked in many different fields, including off by her premature agencies, bodies and individuals with which foliation theory, complex dynamics and geo- death. she fostered strong links over the last two metric group theory, but his most far-reach- Her most notable years. These include: ing research was in the areas of hyperbolic impact has been in ‘her warm personality and radiant smile geometry and 3-manifold theory. the area of public af- were always a great source of encourage- His famous Geometrisation Conjecture, fairs. Her role at the ment….. her contribution to the mathematics which he put forward in the late 1970s, revo- Society was two-fold. community was extraordinary’’ lutionised the study of 3-manifolds. Roughly Firstly, she dealt with ‘a fantastic colleague’ speaking, this proposed that every compact 6 the governance and ‘a wonderfully helpful person who kept in- orientable 3-manifold has a ‘canonical de- 7 complex activities of formation flowing’ composition’ into ‘geometric pieces’. This was the many commit- ‘she will be sadly missed by so many’ a remarkable structural picture that con- tees of the LMS, in ‘Anne was indeed a very supportive and tained the infamous Poincaré conjecture as a particular with the helpful person’ mere special case. It was proved by Perelman Council, and with the ‘she was so helpful and kind and could al- in 2003. However, Bill Thurston himself made Finance and General ways find time’ significant progress towards it, by proving it Purposes, Research ‘Anne was charming, diligent, friendly and in the case of Haken 3-manifolds. His argu- Policy, and Women a stalwart for mathematics. Her loss will be ment developed an extraordinary array of in Mathematics com- felt most deeply.’ new techniques, which involved ideas from mittees. Her second role was to establish links for an RSC Outstanding Achievement Award ‘Anne was both a friend and a true pro- complex analysis, dynamics and of course hy- with national policymakers and funders, both for services to the Society, which she was due fessional. I will miss her and her wise ad- perbolic geometry. For many years, the full for the LMS and for the Council for Mathemat- to pick up in November. Anne joined the LMS vice…. she was highly regarded in the maths details of the proof were not written down, ical Sciences (CMS), as well as developing the in May 2010 community.’ and there were few who understood it fully. public face of mathematics. Her natural ability Anyone who met Anne will remember her Anne was always thinking of others and But it was highly influential, and it set the at encouraging collaborative working, her en- as a very dignified, cultured, intelligent and was one of the kindest people you could hope agenda for the field for three decades. He ergy and application to the task in hand, and compassionate woman, whose French herit- to meet, and this combined with her sharp received a Fields Medal for this work in 1982. her real interest in ensuring that mathematics age shone through in her bearing and out- and perceptive intellect made her contribu- He was also passionate about mathemati- is properly represented at the highest levels look. She was a passionate follower of early tion to both the LMS and the CMS so valuable. cal education, partly because he felt that the made her wonderfully suitable for the role. and baroque classical music as well as opera Her particular personality and skill-set will be way that mathematics is traditionally pre- Anne graduated from Kings College, London and theatre. With her dual nationality she impossible to find again, and she will hold a sented, via a sequence of formal definitions, in 1979 with a BA(Hons) in French. She started was also a great lover of international food special place in the memories of those lucky to theorems and proofs, can often hinder one's work that same year with the London Univer- and cuisine and an excellent cook herself. have been her friend and colleague. intuition. He tried to entice mathematicians sity Careers Advisory Service as an Administra- Anne was completely loyal and dedicated to Anne is survived by her husband Philip Tre- to think about their subject in new ways, and tive Assistant, supporting the annual Graduate the Society and to the CMS, and she had a loar, daughter Isabelle and son Nicholas. Our in doing so, he had a huge influence on the Recruitment Programme. From there she sense of vocation in the furtherance of math- thoughts are with them at this sad time. direction of modern mathematics. moved to the Centre for British Teachers, work- ematics. She brought to a new level the expo- Fiona Nixon Marc Lackenby ing on the Morocco and Brunei desk. In 1986 sure of mathematics to national policymakers Executive Secretary University of Oxford LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

DAVID CRIGHTON on the Trust's training programmes. MEDAL 2012 Neumann has been a stalwart of the Brit- ish Society for the History of Mathematics for LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY The Councils of the Institute of Mathematics many years, and has done as much as any- and its Applications (IMA) and the London one to promote the study of the history of Mathematical Society (LMS) have awarded mathematics as an important discipline in UK ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING the 2012 David Crighton Medal for services to universities. mathematics and the mathematics communi- Arieh Iserles' research has been at the lead- 16 November 2012 ty jointly to Professor Arieh Iserles, University ing edge of numerical analysis for his whole of Cambridge and Dr Peter Neumann OBE, career. His early papers dealt with stability and Jeffrey Hall, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL University of Oxford. accuracy, which were at the forefront of nu- Peter Neumann has been an animator of merical analysis at the time. In particular, he (Nearest tube: Russell Square) UK mathematics for 50 years, and has thrown wrote an important paper with Gilbert Strang himself energetically into every aspect of (1983) on the accuracy of difference schemes mathematics. and a first book with Syvert N�ørsett (1991) on Programme: As an algebraist, his research covered per- the theory of order stars. mutation groups, combinatorics, and compu- His most important mathematical contribu- 3.00–3.30 Annual General Meeting tational group theory. Several of Neumann’s tions include being one of the leading prac- papers have been highly influential. For ex- titioners of geometric numerical integration 3.30–4.30 Charles Stuart (EPFL, Lausanne) ample, his creation, jointly with Cheryl Prae- and in particular the sub-discipline of Lie N ger, of a recognition algorithm for special group methods, which are numerical integra- Bifurcation, asymptotic bifurcation and elliptic equations on R 8 linear groups opened a new area in computation methods for ordinary differential equa- 9 4.30–4.55 Tea tional group theory; his memoir with Adeleke tions on Lie groups and homogeneous spaces. giving a general theory of tree-like relational Two other areas of Iserles’ research are 4.55–5.00 Announcement of Election Results structures inspired new directions in infinite worthy of special mention. One is a seminal permutation groups, model theory and graph contribution to approximation theory, by de- 5.00–6.00 Bryce McLeod (Oxford) theory; and his recent paper on synchronising veloping the theory of Sobolev Orthogonal groups is the first of a new attack on the Cerny Polynomials, with Koch, N�ørsett and Sanz- Naylor Lecture conjecture for synchronising automatons. Serna (1991). Another is recent work with The wedge entry problem As a teacher, Neumann's enthusiasm Tony Bloch on isospectral flows with Poisson and originality have made him legendary. structure, leading to the discovery of a new Very many who encountered him as under- and fascinating integrable system of Toda The meeting will include the presentation of certificates to the 2012 LMS graduates, some of them now prominent type, now known as the Bloch-Iserles system. prize winners. mathematicians and some no longer in the Iserles has an outstanding record of ser- mathematical world, speak of how he was the vice to the research community in his edito- The meeting will be followed by a reception at De Morgan House. first to awaken them to the joy and fascina- rial work, especially that of Acta Numerica; to tion of mathematics. the Society for the Foundations of Computa- The Society’s Annual Dinner will be held in The Russell Hotel’s Fitzroy Doll’s On the national mathematics stage he was tional Mathematics, and finally, teaching and Restaurant at 7.30 pm after the reception. Members and their guests are chairman, in 1991/2 of the committee that pre- mentoring. invited to attend the Annual Dinner. The cost to attend the dinner will be sented to the LMS, IMA, and RSS the report Iserles’ contributions to teaching and men- £45 per person. Those wishing to attend the dinner should contact Leanne that led to four-year MMaths degrees. toring are second to none with award win- Neumann became founding chairman of ning former students, a strong contribution Marshall ([email protected]) before 8 November. the UK Mathematics Trust in 1996, which took to women in mathematics, and a textbook on over responsibility for the British Mathematical numerical analysis. It is hard to give him suf- There are limited funds available to contribute in part to the expenses of Olympiad Committee, and hosted the world- ficient credit for the influence he has on oth- members of the Society or research students to attend the meeting. Requests wide Congress of the International Mathemat- ers, his energy, enthusiasm, commitment and for support, including an estimate of expenses, and any other queries about ical Olympiad in Glasgow in 2002. He brought friendship. the AGM, should be sent to Elizabeth Fisher ([email protected]). the Trust from small beginnings to a large edu- Full citations will appear on the websites of cational charity, and he has continued to work the LMS and the IMA. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

10 11 LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

Numerical Analysis of Stochastic Partial 11-12 Jun 2012, I. Graham, £4,930 SOCIETY CONFERENCE GRANTS Differential Equations Warwick R. Scheichl Nevanlinna theory and number theory 18-20 Jun 2012, R. Halburd £5,800 The Society is pleased to report that in 2011-12 awards totalling £217,100 were made in the UCL support of mathematics conferences. Funds are granted to the organisers of conferences to be held in the United Kingdom, and may be used to cover the expenses of principal speakers, Singularity Theory, its Modern Applications 18-22 Jun 2012, P. Giblin £6,000 and to provide support for research students and for participants from Scheme 5 or former and Future Prospects Liverpool Soviet Union countries. For Postgraduate Research Conferences funds are granted to support Alan Turing Centenary: Satellite Workshops 22 Jun 2012, J. Paris £2,800 participants. Applicants wishing to apply for funding for a conference will find further details Manchester on the Society’s website at www.lms.ac.uk/content/research-grants. Geometry, Representation Theory and 21-23 Jun 2012, S. Schroll £4,900 Clusters Leicester Conference grants awarded during 2011-12 Supergravity, Branes and M-Theory 2-3 Jul 2012, G. Gibbons £4,000 Cambridge Conference Dates, Place Applicant Grant 15th Galway Topology Colloquium 9-11 Jul 2012, P. Collins £4,800 One-Day Meeting in Combinatorics 14 Mar 2012, A. Scott £2,000 Oxford Oxford Galois Representations and Arithmetic 11-13 Jul 2012, N. Byott £2,500 Asymptotic Group Theory and Model Theory 26-27 Mar B. Klopsch £2,378 Geometry: Conference to Honour Sir Martin Bordeaux, France 2012, RHUL J. Taylor on his 60th birthday Biological Flow: A Conference to Celebrate 2-3 Apr 2012, O. Jensen £4,700 Logic Colloquium 2012 12-18 Jul 2012, A. Wilkie the 70th birthday of Professor T. Pedley Cambridge £4,803 Manchester Modern Perspectives in Homotopy Theory: 10-13 Apr 2012, J. Giansiracusa £1,371 Infinity Categories, Infinity Operads and Swansea Infinite Combinatorics Mini Conference 25 Jul 2012, A. Ostaszewski £304 12 Homotopy Type Theory LSE 13 ICFT2012: 16th UK Meeting on Integrable 13-14 Apr N. MacKay £1,590 Probability at Warwick Young Researchers 23-27 Jul 2012, D. Croydon £1,000 Models, Conformal Field Theory and Re- 2012, York Workshop Warwick lated Topics Finite Groups, Representations and Related 20-24 Aug 2012, R. Rouquier £5,000 Recent Advances in Gauge and String 3-4 May 2012, B. Stefanski £5,000 Topics Oxford Theory London 5th International Workshop on Physics and 28-31 Aug 2012, E. Beggs £4,654 Two linked one-day colloquia in 16-17 May 2012, J. Skokan £1,800 Computation Swansea Combinatorics London Function Theory Meeting 3 Sep 2012, A. Fletcher £1,442 London Wales Mathematics Colloquium 2012 21-23 May 2012, S. Cox £1,658 Stochastic Methods and Nonlinear PDEs 5-7 Sep 2012, F. Dragoni £5,000 Wales Cardiff Workshop on Infinite Ergodic Theory 28 May - 1 I. Melbourne £5,725 Future Directions for Quantum Groups 6-8 Sep 2012, J. Grabowski £2,567 Jun 2012, Lancaster Surrey 27th British Topology Meeting 6-8 Sep 2012, I. Smith £5,000 Workshop on Arithmetic Geometry and 31 May - 1 Jun A. Pal £5,000 Cambridge Homotopy Theory 2012, Imperial College London International Conference on Nonlinear PDE 10-13 Sep 2012, G-Q. Chen £966 and Satellite Workshop - Free Surface and Oxford Recent Developments in Lie Theory 1-2 Jun 2012, Y. Bazlow £600 Interface Problems Manchester Nonlinear Waves in Fluids 12-14 Sep 2012, K .Khusnutdinova £6,000 Numerical Linear Algebra, Control Theory 2-3 Jun 2012, S. Langdon £4,955 and Data Assimilation: A Conference in Reading Loughborough Honour of Nancy Nichols' 70th birthday Topological Solitons: Conference to Cel- 19-22 Sept 2012, M. Dunajski £5,600 Beauville Surfaces and Groups 6-9 Jun 2012, A. Vdovina £4,460 ebrate the 60th birthday of Professor N. Cambridge Newcastle Manton Categorical Methods in Representation 24-28- Sep 2012, J. MacQuarrie £1,000 Stochastic Modelling in Ecosystems 11-12 Jun 2012, X. Mao £5,500 Theory Bristol Glasgow LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics and 14-17 Jan 2013, T. Kuna £5,000 MATHEMATICS addressed before formal consultation in 2013. the Theory of Extreme Events in Earth Science Reading • Part B (http://tinyurl.com/crob555) is a collation POLICY ROUND-UP of the detailed comments made by respond- 65th British Mathematical Colloquium 2013 25-28 Mar 2013, D. Jordan £12,000 September 2012 ents and by ACME on the statements included Sheffield in the curriculum document. Large Deviations and Asymptotic Methods 9-12 Apr 2013, A. Jacquier £6,000 SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES ACME's response was informed by workshops, in Finance Imperial Col- e-seminars and a written consultation with the lege London Mathematics A-level numbers rise again mathematics community – ninety-nine responses High-Dimensional Inference with 20 - 21 Jun 2013, J. Zhang £4,330 The number of A-level mathematics entries were received. The summary of the responses, as Applications Kent across the UK is up 3.3% on last year, with 85,714 well as the responses themselves, have been sent Bifurcation Theory, Numerical Linear Alge- 1-2 Jul 2013, M. Freitag £4,995 students sitting the exam. In other STEM subjects – to the Department for Education. The summary bra and Applications Bath physics was up 5% (to 34,509), biology up 1.7% (to of responses is available at http://tinyurl.com/bm- 63,074) and chemistry up 2.4% (to 49,234). komac and the collated responses are available at Brauer's Problems in Representation Theory 3-6 Sep 2013, C. Eaton £5,000 Figures released by the Joint Council for Qualifi- www.acme-uk.org/media/10145/collated.pdf. The - 50 years on Manchester cations also show that: LMS response is included in these documents. British Mathematical Colloquium 7-10 Apr 2014, P. Cameron £12,500 • A-level further mathematics has continued to Government urged to reconsider content of draft QMUL rise in popularity, with entries increasing by programmes Mathematics of John Thompson Date to be J. Saxl £5,000 5.1% (to 13,223) In a letter to the Education Secretary, Michael confirmed • AS mathematics entries increased by 7.6% (to Gove, National Numeracy’s chair, Chris Humphries CMS Cambridge 148,550) CBE, says that the government’s draft proposals • AS further mathematics entries continued the for the primary mathematics curriculum ‘prescribe 14 Postgraduate Research Conference grants awarded during 2011–12 trend, increasing by 24.7% (to 20,,954) an overloaded and undeliverable curriculum that 15 This means that since 2007 the number of A-lev- will not allow children to develop genuine math- Conference Dates, Place Applicant/Organiser Grant el mathematics entries has risen by 42.7% and in ematical understanding. The curriculum should be Postgraduate 4-6 Jan 2012, Applicant: A. Pillay £4,000 further mathematics the increase is even greater reduced to the essential core so that all children Model Theory Conference Oxford Organiser: C. Kestner at 68%. can be secure in key aspects before leaving primary Full tables of results are available on the Joint school’. The full response is available at http://tiny- Young Functional Analysts’ Workshop 21-22 Mar 2012, Applicant: S. Eveson £3,984 Council for Qualifications website at http://tinyurl. url.com/d96ktln. Oxford Organiser: T. Potts com/bwr7q7b. Mathematics graduates go into teaching Young Researchers in Mathematics 2-4 Apr 2012, Applicant: S. Siksek £5,500 GCSE results Data reveal that almost one in five mathemat- 2012 Bristol Organiser: D. Holmes The number of GCSE mathematics entries has ics graduates are becoming teachers. In addition, Techniques for Multiscale Analysis 6 Jun 2012, Applicant: R. Kessar £2,950 fallen by 12.6% compared with last year’s entries. for the first time, over half of new mathematics Edinburgh Organiser: J. Taylor 675,789 students sat the exam in 2012 compared trainee teachers have upper second-class degrees, Essex-Greenwich-Hertfordshire 7-8 Jun 2012, Applicant: C-H. Lai £4,000 with 772,944 in 2011. In other STEM subjects, or better. Workshop on Applied and Numerical Greenwich Organiser: C. Su entries for biology, chemistry and physics rose by The data, from the Higher Education Statistical Mathematics 12.3%. Unit (HESA), shows that 18.5 % of mathematics 14th Postgraduate Group Theory Con- 9-12 Jul 2012, Applicant: M. Bate £4,000 ACME response to draft primary curriculum graduates surveyed three and a half years after ference (PGTC) York Organizer: M. On 11 June 2012, a draft National Curriculum for graduating chose to go into teaching. Teacher Connolly primary mathematics was published by the De- Training Agency data also show that the propor- Postgraduate Combinatorial 15-17 Aug 2012, Applicant: V. Lozin. £4,000 partment for Education for informal consultation, tion of mathematics graduates entering training Conference Warwick Organisers: K. Dab- as a precursor to a more formal consultation in with a 2:1 degree or better has risen from 44 % to rowski, C. Purcell early 2013, and publication of the final version in 51 % in just three years. Student Conference on Mathematical 7-9 Nov 2012, Applicant: G. Adesso £4,000 September 2013, ACME was asked to gather the Together, these figures confirm that teaching is Techniques for Quantum Physics Nottingham Organisers: D. views of the mathematics community on the draft. an increasingly popular choice for the most able Girolami, graduates, reflecting the good employment pros- S. Ragy ACME's submission is in two parts: pects that teaching currently enjoys. Teachers are British Postgraduate Model Theory 16-18 Jan 2013, Applicant: M. Prest £4,000 • Part A (http://tinyurl.com/cbfdnfx) provides also twice as likely to attain management positions Conference Manchester Organiser: H. overarching messages and recommendations, early in their careers when compared to many of Alzahrani highlighting the most important aspects to be their fellow graduates. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

Education for Engineering (E4E) report Director: Jean-Pierre Bourguignon EUROPEAN ber of the EMS. I was especially impressed A recent report entitled Opportunity or Ability? Permanent Professors: Thibault Damour, that the fledgling society had raised some of Key Stage 4 science and mathematics participa- Mikhael Gromov, Maxim Kontsevich, Laurent MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY its initial funds by making many of its first tion and attainment in England 2010 examines Lafforgue, Nikita Nekrasov The European Mathematical Society (EMS) members run a sponsored half-marathon! national and regional participation and attain- Honorary Professor: David Ruelle is a learned society representing mathema- Council also decided that the 7th European ment in science and mathematics across England Léon Motchane Chair: Alain Connes ticians across Europe. Around 60 national Congress of Mathematics in 2016 will take in 2010. The report finds that there are significant Louis Michel Chairs: Ali Chamseddine, Samson mathematical societies are members, of place in Berlin: there had been two other differences in participation in sciences across many Shatashvili which the LMS is one. The governing body of candidate cities, but unfortunately the fi- regions of England and asks the question, is this Long term CNRS visitors: Ahmed Abbes, Ofer the EMS is its Council, which is comprised of nancial crisis meant that their bids had to be because of opportunity or ability? ‘The potential Gabber, Christophe Soulé nominated representatives from the mem- withdrawn. consequence is that some able young people will External Members of the Scientific Council: ber societies and elected representatives of The second day started with elections to be denied a future in science, engineering or tech- Costas Bachas, Emmanuel Candès, Bertrand Du- the individual members. Council comprises the EMS Executive Committee, which were nology if they choose the wrong combinations of plantier, Gerd Faltings, Raymond E. Goldstein, around 100 people, so it only meets every carried out by a mixture of secret ballot (for subjects’. The full report is available at http://tiny- Gabriele Veneziano two years. From 1 to 2 July 2012 the EMS the contested posts) and acclamation (for url.com/chd36pd. Council met in sunny and historic Krakow. the uncontested ones). Franco Brezzi and Dr John Johnston William Hodge Fellowships 2013 / 2014 The LMS sent the President, Graham Segal, Martin Raussen were elected as Vice-Presi- Mathematics Promotion Unit In 2000 the EPSRC committee reviewing IHÉS together with Wilfred Kendall, Rob Wilson, dents, whilst Laurence Halpern, Gert-Martin suggested that the EPSRC and IHÉS offer each and myself as voting delegates. Greuel, Alice Fialowski, and Armen Sergeev INSTITUT DES HAUTES year two one-year fellowships bearing the name We were briefed with a frankly terrifying were elected as Members-At-Large. Council ÉTUDES SCIENTIFIQUES of Sir William HODGE, the eminent British math- amount of papers beforehand – around 200 concluded with a panel discussion on chang- ematician. The fellowships enable outstanding pages – but it gradually became apparent es in publishing procedures and financing 16 The Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, young mathematicians and theoretical physicists that only a small number of issues were li- and on a proposal of a code of practice pre- 17 located in Bures-sur-Yvette (France), welcomes to spend time at IHÉS. Fellows are encouraged able to cause much discussion. On the first sented by the EMS ethics committees. each year up to 250 mathematicians and theo- to have a UK-based mentor and to be in contact day, the Kosovar Mathematical Society was Colva Roney-Dougal retical physicists from all over the world for re- with the UK mathematics community. accepted (by secret ballot) as a new mem- St Andrews University search periods ranging from two to three weeks Applicants must have a PhD in Mathematical up to one or two years. Sciences or Theoretical Physics obtained in 2011, Created in 1958, IHÉS is an international re- 2012 or in early 2013. One of the two grants

search institute, registered as a Foundation in will be awarded to an applicant who has spent Susan Hezlet the public interest since 1981. Its mission is to at least the preceding nine months at a UK aca- support and develop theoretical research in demic institution or has just graduated from a mathematical sciences, physics and more recent- UK institution. Applications will be reviewed ly, at the interface with biology and medicine. and selection made based on the sole criterion Support for IHÉS comes from several sources: the of excellence in research by the IHÉS Scientific French Ministry of Research, several European Council in December 2012. The Committee con- research agencies among which the Engineering sists of the Permanent Professors, the Director, and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the external members (the list can be found the US National Science Foundation, the Max- above). The fellowship would start in Autumn Planck-Gesellschaft, the Swiss National Science 2013. Foundation, and also some private foundations Applications should be made on the IHÉS web- and companies. site (www.ihes.fr) and should include: the appli- EPSRC has been supporting IHÉS for a number cation form, a cover letter, a CV, a publication of years, fostering closer links between British list, a research project, two or three letters of rec- and French mathematical research centres. Brit- ommendation, and a proposal for a UK mentor. ish mathematicians and theoretical physicists are Deadline for applications is 15 November 2012. invited to apply to IHÉS for visits (for more in- For more information contact: IHÉS, 35 route formation, visit www.ihes.fr). Their visit can be de Chartres, F-91440 Bures-sur-Yvette, France; The Mathematika editors, Keith Ball, Alex Sobolev and Frank Smith, going the extra mile to support the jour- an opportunity to work with researchers from tel: +33 1 6092 6605; fax: +33 1 6092 6609; email: nal. The t-shirts were given away by CUP to participants at this summer's European Congress of Mathematics other research groups in the Paris area. [email protected]; website: www.ihes.fr. in Kraków. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

HIGHER STRUCTURE 2013: OPERADS AND DEFORMATION THEORY

2 - 5 April 2013

in association with the Newton Institute programme Grothendieck-Teichmüller Groups, Deformation and Operads (3 January - 26 April 2013)

Organisers: Anton Alekseev (Université de Genève), John Jones (University of Warwick), Bruno Vallette (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis) and Chenchang Zhu Bartholdi (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen).

Theme of conference: The notion of an operad was introduced in the late 60's in algebraic topology as a tool to encode higher homotopies. It enjoyed a renaissance in the 18 90's when M. Kontsevich and others used algebraic operads in deformation theory. 19

The passage from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics prompted the general mathematical problem of deformation quantization. In Poisson geometry, such a problem was solved by D. Fedosov for symplectic manifolds, by V. Drinfeld for Poisson-Lie groups, and by M. Kontsevich for Poisson manifolds. In 1998, six months after Kontse- vich's original proof, D. Tamarkin gave another but purely operadic proof of the deformation quantization of Poisson manifolds, using the formality of the little discs operad, the Deligne conjecture, and the deformation-quantization of Lie bialgebras due to P. Etingof and D. Kazhdan.

The introduction of operadic graph homology in 1991 by M. Kontsevich allowed V. Ginzburg and M. Kapranov, and E. Getzler and J. Jones to develop the Koszul duality theory on the level of algebraic operads. This theory gives a conceptual explanation of the duality between commutative algebras and Lie algebras in Rational Homotopy Theory, developed by D. Quillen and D. Sullivan. It was also shown by M. Kontsevich, E. Getzler, and Y.I. Manin to share nice relationships with moduli spaces of curves, i.e. quantum cohomology and Frobenius manifolds. The operadic calculus plays a key role in Quantum Field Theory in mathematical physics since it provides an algebraic way to control higher structures.

The goal of this conference is to cover the most recent and interesting developments of these fields of research.

Closing date of the receipt of applications is 31 October 2012. Further information and application forms are available from the website at www.newton.ac.uk/programmes/ GDO/gdow02.html LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

MA to Oxford. As Woodhouse explains, ‘The MOULDING THE FUTURE CMI supports mathematics internationally and the nature of the Clay Institute is such OF MATHEMATICS that it needn’t be in any particular place. It For Professor Nick Woodhouse, newly appoint- remains a US charitable corporation but the ed President of the Clay Mathematics Institute, President’s office is now in Oxford. The type it was relativity that caught his imagination at of programmes it supports means that the ad- an early age, paving the way for a successful ministration can be in both the US and UK. All career in mathematics. financial administration is in the US – where Woodhouse began his career at Oxford the endowment is held, and the science ad- where he initially applied to read physics ministration is now in Oxford. The position of but was encouraged to do mathematics. After his undergraduate studies, Wood- house did his PhD at King’s College London under Felix Pirani. As he says, ‘At the time King’s was a major centre for relativity. Roger Penrose was at Birkbeck and there was a very powerful 20 group in London’. Wood- 21 house briefly attended Princeton University where he worked under Professor John A Wheeler. ‘Wheeler was one of the legendary figures of American physics, who had known Einstein and worked with Bohr on nuclear fission. President is more like that of a Chief Executive Richard Feynman was one of his graduate than an honorary position. The President is students. He returned to Oxford in 1977 and responsible for running all scientific activities, has been there ever since, taking up his new under the Scientific Advisory Board and the position in July this year. Woodhouse served as Board of Directors’. LMS Treasurer from 2001 until 2009. The CMI administers a number of activi- The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) was ties including Research Fellowships. These are set up in 1998 by Landon T. Clay and its mis- awarded on an individual basis and the fellow sion is clearly set out. can undertake these fellowships wherever is • To increase and disseminate mathematical convenient. These are similar to Royal Society knowledge. fellowships and are very prestigious, allowing • To educate mathematicians and other complete freedom to ‘high-flying’ mathemati- scientists about new discoveries in the field cians. Fellows are expected to be international of mathematics. leaders in their respective fields 10 years on. • To encourage gifted students to pursue All decisions on funding are made by the mathematical careers. Board of Directors – Landon T. Clay, Lavinia • To recognise extraordinary achievements Clay and Thomas Clay – which acts on the ad- and advances in mathematical research. vice of the Scientific Advisory Board. ‘The val- With the appointment of Woodhouse the ue of CMI is that it is a private foundation and President’s office moved from Cambridge, is not subject to any outside influences or too LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

much bureaucracy. The structure is very flex- fundamentally discrete in nature. For exam- formal dinner in one of Warwick's conference ematical Sciences Morse 2-functions and ible and those funded are given considerable ple, one could study subsets of the integers, centres, and on the second evening we had a trisections of 4-manifolds Local organ- freedom’. considering arithmetic progressions, sumsets barbecue in the common room, followed by iser: Ivan Smith ([email protected]) The key constraint on the CMI is that it is and so on, or you could take the first n inte- a social where we played games and got to • Warwick: Thursday 1 November at 15:00 an Operating Foundation. An operating foun- gers and study permutations, or graphs on n know each other further. More information Room MS.04, Warwick Mathematics dation is a private foundation that uses its re- vertices. Other areas involve Boolean formu- about the Postgraduate Combinatorial Con- Institute, Morse 2-functions and trisec- sources to conduct research or provide a direct lae, binary matrices, and strings. Combinato- ference can be found at go.warwick.ac.uk/ tions of 4 manifolds, Local organiser: service. This means that the Clay Foundation rics is a very broad term, with lots of potential pcc2012. The conference was supported by Schleimer ([email protected]) has to use the bulk of its income to do things avenues for research, especially because there an LMS Postgraduate Research Conference • Imperial: Friday 2 November at 13.30, itself. For example, Research Fellows are paid is a lot of overlap with other areas of math- Scheme 8 grant. Photographs from the con- Huxley Building, Room TBC, Morse direct rather than a grant being paid to a uni- ematics. One can apply combinatorial ideas to ference can be found on the back cover of this 2-functions and trisections of 4-mani- versity or institution for distribution. Wood- many areas of mathematics, and in turn use Newsletter. PCC 2013 will be held at Royal folds, Local organizer: Mark Haskins house points out, ‘It is very important that the the approach of other areas of mathematics to Holloway, University of London. ([email protected]) activities are of the highest quality scientifi- solve combinatorial problems. Chris Purcell • Edinburgh: Wednesday 7 November cally. CMI must be involved in the planning’. The three invited speakers illustrated this University of Warwick at 15.30, Lecture Room C, James Clerk Another important activity is the Senior perfectly, with three very different talks cov- Maxwell Building, The Arf/Rochlin invar- Scholars Program. The aim of the Senior Schol- ering applications of discrete mathematics VISIT OF Rob KIRBY iant in manifold topology, Sir Michael ar Program is to foster mathematical research as well as results obtained from other areas. Atiyah at 17.00, Chern classes for real and the exchange of ideas by providing sup- Professor Thomason opened proceedings Professor Rob Kirby (Berkeley) will be vis- vector bundles, Local organizer: Andrew port for senior mathematicians who will play with a talk on hypergraph containers, a very iting the UK in November 2012, giving Ranicki ([email protected]) a leading role as ‘senior scientist’ in a topical pure mathematical notion with applica- lectures at Cambridge, Warwick, Imperial During his visit to Edinburgh, from 5 to 22 programme at an institute or university. Sup- tions to problems concerning independence College London and Edinburgh, as follows: 30 November, Professor Kirby will give a 23 port for high school programmes in the US is in graphs. The second day began with a talk course of 12 lectures on Topological mani- also very important and these are aimed at from Dr Gerke, who discussed random graph • Cambridge: Wednesday 31 October 31 folds: their triangulations and smooth- very high achieving students. processes, and various ways of picking graphs at 16:00 Room MR13, Centre for Math- ings. These lectures will be recorded on One of the areas that Woodhouse is keen to at random from special graph classes and mak- promote is the Millennium Prizes and he being use of results from probability theory. The lieves that they have been ‘hugely influential final invited speaker, Dr Swanepoel, talked in raising the profile of mathematics’. He goes about discrete geometry, which is another on the say, ‘It gives the public the idea that great example of the interdisciplinary nature there are still some significant problems in of discrete mathematics. mathematics that remain unsolved and these The contributed talks were similarly varied, Prizes have an inspirational role’. covering everything from secret sharing to Woodhouse’s stewardship is in its early stag- chessboard problems. All of the speakers were es and he is looking forward to the challenges early in their careers, and the atmosphere of the post. As he says, ‘The focus of CMI is ex- was relaxed and supportive. The PCC has al- ceptional individuals internationally, and this ways been a great place to meet with fellow will continue in the future’. students in the field, but also to practice vital presentation skills in front of one's peers. It is POSTGRADUATE great to see the thriving young research community, and to see our research in context, as COMBINATORIAL doing a PhD can sometimes feel like research- CONFERENCE ing in a vacuum. There was plenty of discussion at each meal and coffee break. Report Every day there was a lovely buffet lunch, The annual Postgraduate Combinatorial Con- and a tea and coffee session. This provided a ference took place at Warwick from 15 to 17 great opportunity to wander around and join August 2012. Combinatorics is the study of in various discussions and to get to know the mathematical objects which are countable, or other attendees. On the first evening we had a LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

video and posted on the internet at complex analysis, functional analysis, and www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/kirby.htm. discrete geometry. For further information contact the lo- During his visit, Professor Favorov will give cal organizer Andrew Ranicki (a.ranicki@ talks at: ed.ac.uk). The visit is supported by an LMS • Heriot-Watt, 1 October Scheme 2 grant. • King's College London, 4 October • Cardiff, 8 October visit of sergey favorov For further information contact Profes- sor Eugene Shargorodsky, KCL (eugene. Professor Sergey Favorov (Kharkov, Ukraine) [email protected]). The visit is sup- will be visiting the UK from 29 September ported by an LMS Scheme 2 grant. to 10 October. His research interests include

SYMMETRY, BIFURCATION AND ORDER PARAMETERS

24 7 – 11 January 2013 25 in association with the Newton Institute programme The Mathematics of Liquid Crystals (7 January - 5 July)

Workshop Organisers: David Chillingworth (University of Southampton) and Peter Palffy-Muhoray (Kent State University).

Aims of the workshop: This workshop in the first week of the Programme has two main aims.

To set the stage for the Programme as a whole, with an introduction to basic models, methods and results as well as outstanding problems, and to bring together researchers working in the field of liquid crystals with mathematicians working on bifurcation theory and geometric mechanics with emphasis on symmetry.

The goal is to inspire mathematicians to work on problems related to liquid crystals, and to introduce liquid crystal experts to new approaches and geometric techniques from bifurcation theory. With these aims in view, the talks will generally have an expository flavour as appropriate for an audience of mathematicians and physicists with diverse backgrounds.

It is anticipated that both the concepts and the interactions initiated at this workshop will continue to develop throughout the Programme, resulting in collaborations and the exploration of new areas.

Further information and application forms are available from the website at www.newton.ac.uk/programmes/MLC/mlcw01.html. Closing date of the receipt of applications is 11 November 2012. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

26 27 LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

REVIEWS Game of Life, Yard Theatre, gons, making triangles and pentagons out HWFI, London Gems of Geometry by John Barnes, Springer, of Meccano, and the appearance of the Fibo- The first thing to say about 2012, 2nd edition, 325 pp, 337 illus., £22.95, nacci numbers in plants. Game of Life is that I enjoyed Mila Sanders ISBN: 978-3-642-30963-2. As may be apparent from the previous it. It’s well worth going to This book is based on a series of lectures paragraph, the book has a pick-and-mix feel. see even if you aren’t in a for adult students given by the author, who Huge numbers of topics are covered, but of- mood for reflecting on the is not a professional mathematician but has a ten very briefly, and there’s often no sense of ideas that lie behind it. If long-standing interest in mathematical puz- continuity between the different sections. I you are, however, then it zles and curiosities. There have a feeling that this ap- may make you think a bit are ten chapters, cover- proach was probably very more about how some ideas ing a wide range of topics effective for giving popular from mathematics also apply more-or-less closely associ- lectures, but it resulted in – up to a point – in the real ated with geometry. Each me finding the book quite world. For non-mathemati- chapter concludes with irritating to read, due to cians, it can be an interest- suggestions for further the frenetic skipping from ing introduction to concepts like emergence. these things go. Thus in the play, Tom, a bi- reading and some easy subject to subject. The The play has five characters, for example, ology teacher, is an atheist and doesn’t want exercises. Additionally, author claims in the final but what happens is mostly a sequence of a church wedding, but in the middle of an there are seven appendi- chapter that his most im- pairwise interactions. argument with his fiancée he admits to her ces, some of which are es- portant goal was to dem- One of the ways in which Conway’s game that he will eventually give in. For him this is sentially chapters in their onstrate that “solving and of life is different from the real world is that an undesirable conclusion but one he knows 28 own right (eg. 14 pages on understanding a problem the rules are fixed. Given an initial configu- he will not be able to avoid. Significantly, he 29 sphere-packing and crystal depends very much on ration, the trajectory and conclusion follow always seems to be carrying a copy of The structures), and some of getting the right point of inexorably. Real life isn’t quite the same, Selfish Gene. which consist of additional view”, and in this he suc- but it sometimes can feel like it is, which Game of Life is currently playing at the resources for the lectures ceeds, but at the expense is why it can be useful to understand how Yard Theatre in an area the locals call HWFI (eg. several pages of “ste- (to my mind) of creating a reo images” of geometric `cabinet of curiosities’ ap- objects, which work like proach to mathematics, the three-dimensional rather than displaying its `magic eye’ pictures). structure or interconnect-

The book covers a huge range of material: edness. The author doesn’t formally state Katherine Leedale chapter headings range from polyhedra, to theorems or prove results, which means that topology, to chaos and fractals, to relativity. although his style can often be engaging, I Furthermore, each chapter contains a dense also found it hard to determine his key points. collection of topics. Thus in the first 11 pages Some of my criticism in the previous par- the author starts by discussing the folding agraph may be unfair, as I suspect that the properties of the “A” series of paper sizes, as intent is for the reader to dip into the text, a lead-in to the golden ratio. The Fibonacci looking for the title’s “gems of geometry”. numbers are introduced, there’s a discussion I mistakenly picked the book up hoping to of dividing up rectangles into smaller squares learn some actual geometry, and on this it of different sizes (including a suggestion that failed, but sections of it could be a useful these make good mathematical jigsaw puz- starting point for undergraduate projects. zles), and then we move on to continued Additionally, it would be very great for any- fractions and their convergents, where the one looking for some reasonably straightfor- golden ratio reappears, together with e and ward mathematical tricks and puzzles, for a π. The pace then slows down slightly, as the general audience. rest of the chapter applies these concepts to Colva Roney-Dougal analysing some basic properties of penta- St Andrews University LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 418 October 2012

CALENDAR OF EVENTS DECEMBER 2012 Deformation Theory INI Conference, Cam- 3-7 Quantized Flux in Tightly Knotted and bridge (418)

Mila Sanders This calendar lists Society meetings and other Linked Systems INI Workshop, Cambridge 8-9 Mathematics in Finance IMA Confer- mathematical events. Further information (416) ence, Heriot-Watt University (416) may be obtained from the appropriate 11 From One to Many Geometries, 9-11 Large Deviations and Asymptotic LMS Newsletter whose number is given in Gresham College London Methods in Finance, Imperial College brackets. A fuller list of meetings and events 15-17 Thomas Harriot Seminar, St Chad’s London is given on the Society’s website (www.lms. College, Durham (412) 18-19 Women in Maths Day, Cambridge ac.uk/content/calendar). 17-20 Mathematics in Signal Processing Please send updates and corrections to 9th IMA International Conference, Austin June 2013 [email protected]. Court, Birmingham (416) 20-21 High-Dimensional Inference with Applications, Kent OCTOBER 2012 January 2013 july 2013 1 LMS South-West and South Wales 7-11 Symmetry, Bifurcation and Order Pa- 1-2 Bifurcation Theory, Numerical Linear Regional Meeting, Bristol (417) rameters INI Workshop, Cambridge (418) Algebra and Applications, Bath 1-3 L-Functions of Curves Workshop, 14-17 Non-equilibrium Statistical 1-4 Dense Granular Flows 2nd IMA Bristol (417) Mechanics and the Theory of Extreme Conference, Isaac Newton Institute, 3-6 International Conference on Applied Events in Earch Science, Reading Cambridge (416) 30 and Computational Mathematics, Ankara, 31 16-18 British Postgraduate Model Theory 5 LMS Meeting, London Turkey Conference, Manchester (Hackney Wick and Fish Island). It used to 15-19 Tangled Magnetic Fields in Astro- 22 The Queen of Mathematics, Gresham AUGUST 2013 be home to various small industries, and and Plasma Physics INI Satellite Meeting, 3-11 Groups St Andrews 2013, St Andrews as they closed down or left, artists and College London ICMS Edinburgh (415) (410) artisan producers moved in. The area has FEBRUARY 2013 become more attractive, with the predict- 22-25 Weather and Climate Prediction on able result that rents are going up and the Next Generation Supercomputers INI 19 Are Averages Typical? Gresham september 2013 people who live and work there are in dan- Satellite Meeting, Met Office, Exeter (413) College, London 2 Heilbronn Day, Groups and Their Repre- ger of being forced out. This sort of thing sentations, Manchester has happened many times before, for in- MARCH 2013 stance in Hoxton in London and SoHo in NOVEMBER 2012 1 LMS Mary Cartwright Lecture, London 3-6 Brauer’s Problems in Representation 6 The Mathematical Objection, BCS-FACS New York. 18 LMS Northern Regional Meeting, Theory – 50 years on, Manchester Evening Seminar, London (418) Unlike Tom, the local residents are try- Newcastle 11-13 Mathematics of Surfaces 14th IMA ing to stop the process from following its 6 Polynomials and their Roots, Gresham 18-23 Workshop on Triangulations and Conference, University of Birmingham expected trajectory, to change the rules College London (416) of the game, so to speak. It’s too soon to Mutations, Newcastle 7-9 Mathematical Techniques for Quantum know whether they’ll succeed, but I very 19 Modelling the World, Gresham College 17-19 Mathematical Cultures Conference, Physics Postgraduate Student Conference, much hope they do. In the meantime, even London De Morgan House, London (417) if you're reading this too late to see the Nottingham (417) 25-27 Quantitative Modelling in the APRIL 2014 production at The Yard, you might want to 16 LMS AGM, London (418) Management of Health and Social Care 7-10 British Mathematical Colloquium, find your way to HWFI just to visit an inter- 24 Early Career Mathematicians’ Autumn QMUL esting bit of London that may not be there 7th IMA Conference, Central London (416) Conference, University of Greenwich (416) for much longer. 25-28 British Mathematical Colloquium, 26-30 Algebraic Geometry, Modular Forms AUGUST 2014 Sheffield Peter Saunders and Applications to Physics ICMS Work- 13-21 ICM 2014, Seoul, Republic of Korea King's College London shop, Edinburgh (415) April 2013 (403) 2-5 Higher Structure 2013: Operads and LMS-FUNDED MEETING LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk

Postgraduate Combinatorial Conference held at the University of Warwick from 15 to 17 August 2012 (report on page 22)

Robert Schumacher Andrew McDowell Matthew Wells (City University) (Royal Holloway, (University of Essex) University of London)