NEWSLETTER Issue: 487 - March 2020
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i “NLMS_487” — 2020/2/18 — 10:03 — page 1 — #1 i i i NEWSLETTER Issue: 487 - March 2020 SIR MICHAEL MULTIFRACTAL MATHEMATICS OF ATIYAH RANDOM SPACECRAFT (1929–2019) MEASURES TRAJECTORY i i i i i “NLMS_487” — 2020/2/18 — 10:03 — page 2 — #2 i i i EDITOR-IN-CHIEF COPYRIGHT NOTICE Eleanor Lingham (Sheeld Hallam University) News items and notices in the Newsletter may [email protected] be freely used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, although attribution is requested when reproducing whole articles. Contributions to EDITORIAL BOARD the Newsletter are made under a non-exclusive June Barrow-Green (Open University) licence; please contact the author or David Chillingworth (University of Southampton) photographer for the rights to reproduce. Jessica Enright (University of Glasgow) The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the Jonathan Fraser (University of St Andrews) accuracy of information in the Newsletter. Views Jelena Grbic´ (University of Southampton) expressed do not necessarily represent the Cathy Hobbs (UWE) views or policy of the Editorial Team or London Thomas Hudson (University of Warwick) Mathematical Society. Stephen Huggett Adam Johansen (University of Warwick) ISSN: 2516-3841 (Print) Aditi Kar (Royal Holloway University) ISSN: 2516-385X (Online) Mark McCartney (Ulster University) DOI: 10.1112/NLMS Susan Oakes (London Mathematical Society) Andrew Wade (Durham University) Mike Whittaker (University of Glasgow) NEWSLETTER WEBSITE Early Career Content Editor: Jelena Grbic´ The Newsletter is freely available electronically News Editor: Susan Oakes at lms.ac.uk/publications/lms-newsletter. Reviews Editor: Mark McCartney MEMBERSHIP CORRESPONDENTS AND STAFF Joining the LMS is a straightforward process. For membership details see lms.ac.uk/membership. LMS/EMS Correspondent: David Chillingworth Policy Digest: John Johnston Production: Katherine Wright SUBMISSIONS Printing: Holbrooks Printers Ltd The Newsletter welcomes submissions of feature content, including mathematical articles, EDITORIAL OFFICE career related articles, and microtheses, from members and non-members. Submission London Mathematical Society guidelines and LaTeX templates can be found at De Morgan House lms.ac.uk/publications/submit-to-the-lms-newsletter. 57–58 Russell Square London WC1B 4HS Feature content should be submitted to the [email protected] editor-in-chief at [email protected]. Charity registration number: 252660 News items should be sent to [email protected]. Notices of events should be prepared using the template at lms.ac.uk/publications/lms-newsletter COVER IMAGE and sent to [email protected]. Venus Express’ trajectory to Venus. © ESA/C. For advertising rates and guidelines see Carreau – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0. lms.ac.uk/publications/advertise-in-the-lms-newsletter. i i i i i “NLMS_487” — 2020/2/18 — 10:03 — page 3 — #3 i i i CONTENTS NEWS The latest from the LMS and elsewhere 4 LMS BUSINESS Reports from the LMS 12 FEATURES Sir Michael Atiyah (1929–2019) 19 Multifractal random measures 23 The Mathematics of Spacecraft Trajectory Optimisation 30 The Current Picture of Gender Diversity in UK Mathematics 35 Lebanese Society for the Mathematical Sciences 39 EARLY CAREER Careers in teaching – some options 41 REVIEWS From the bookshelf 43 OBITUARIES In memoriam 49 EVENTS Latest announcements 53 CALENDAR All upcoming events 58 i i i i i “NLMS_487” — 2020/2/18 — 10:03 — page 4 — #4 i i i 4 NEWS FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF It was a sad start to 2020 for me with the long time before this particular section diversies. death of my co-author Walter Hayman on New This is because every member deserves an obituary, Year’s Day. We had worked together on a book and while our Society is becoming more diverse, it for the last few years — via Royal Mail — and I could be a long time before diversity reaches all levels very much miss the excitement of having ‘actual’ — as you will see in Eugenie Hunsicker’s article on letters arrive, and the intrigue/stress involved in the academic pipeline. deciphering his handwriting and dealing with this slow communication process. On one occasion, I had To nish, I think that we should acknowledge the written a postscript to say that I was looking forward contribution that our obituary writers make to our to seeing him at the upcoming ODFTM (the One Newsletter. These are always friends or colleagues Day Function Theory Meeting — an annual complex (or both) of the deceased and they bear the analysis event), and he replied saying that he never responsibility of summing up a life — something did gain a taste for alphabet soup. of huge importance on both a personal, and an historical, level. Through their pieces we learn a little Inevitably, perhaps, this has led me to think about about the mathematician, their work and the way life, death, mathematics and why we do what we that they lived. While the overall picture may not be do. Not the cheeriest of starts to a Newsletter I one of diversity, the close-up is one of individuality — know, but one which touches on some issues of and each of these individuals should be celebrated. importance to this publication. In my pre-editor days, I had often read the Obituaries section and wondered at its lack of diversity, particularly in terms of gender. Eleanor Lingham However, the fact of the matter is that it may be a Editor-in-Chief LMS NEWS Mathematician Honoured in interests are at the interface between mathematics and New Year’s Awards physics, including relativity, and the connections between geometry and physical theory. Professor Nick Woodhouse was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours awards for services to mathematics. Annual Elections to LMS Council Professor Woodhouse has been a member of the LMS since 1977 and was a Member of LMS Council from 1999–2009 (Meetings and Membership Secretary The LMS Nominating Committee is responsible for 1998–2001 and Treasurer 2002–09). He served on the proposing slates of candidates for vacancies on Council Research Meetings Committee/Early Career Research and vacancies on its own membership. The Nominating Committee as the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) Committee welcomes suggestions from the membership. Representative from 2013–18 while the LMS–CMI Research Schools ran from 2014–18. He stepped down Anyone who wishes to suggest someone for a position as President of CMI in 2018. as an Officer of the Society or as a Member-at-Large of Council (now or in the future) is invited to send their Professor Woodhouse is Emeritus Professor of suggestions to Professor Kenneth Falconer, the current Mathematics, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow Chair of Nominating Committee ([email protected]). of Wadham College. He studied for his undergraduate Please provide the name and institution (if applicable) degree at Oxford and gained his PhD from King’s of the suggested nominee, her/his mathematical College London in 1973. After a postdoctoral position at specialism(s), and a brief statement to explain what s/he Princeton he returned to Oxford in 1976. His research could bring to Council/Nominating Committee. i i i i i “NLMS_487” — 2020/2/18 — 10:03 — page 5 — #5 i i i NEWS 5 It is to the benefit of the Society that Council is balanced The delegation also paid a visit to the campus of and represents the full breadth of the mathematics the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology community; to this end, Nominating Committee aims for a and met the Dean of Science, Professor Yang Wang, balance in gender, subject area and geographical location and the Head of the Department of Mathematics, in its list of prospective nominees. Professor Xiao-Ping Wang, who were also very open to the building of further links with UK mathematics. Nominations should be received by 17 April 2020 in order The LMS delegation then travelled by train to to be considered by the Nominating Committee. the city of Guangzhou in China to join close to In addition to the above, members may make 1,000 mathematicians for the Chinese Mathematical direct nominations for election to Council or Society’s annual meeting and four-yearly Congress at Nominating Committee. Direct nominations must the invitation of their President, Professor Ya-xiang be sent to the Executive Secretary’s office Yuan. ([email protected]) before noon on 1 September The Chinese Mathematical Society held its elections 2020. For details on making a direct nomination, see during their annual meeting, enabling connections lms.ac.uk/about/council/lms-elections. to be made between the newly elected President, The slate as proposed by Nominating Committee, together Professor Gang Tian, and Professor Keating who with any direct nominations received up to that time, will was also about to begin his term as LMS President. be posted on the LMS website in early August. Professor Keating was honoured to be invited to present one of the Congress’ three plenary talks, titled Extreme Values of the Characteristic Polynomials Visit to Hong Kong and China of Random Matrices and the Riemann Zeta-Function, and to introduce the LMS and its activities. Each of the other delegates gave mathematical lectures in the invited sessions and Professor Hunton also gave an overview of the Society’s publishing activities in a session on scholarly publishing which also included representatives from Cambridge University Press and Science China Press. Meetings with the Chinese Mathematics Society and the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science (part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) revealed a mutual desire to establish links on several activities including promotion of publications. Visit to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology It is hoped that there is scope to take forward many In November 2019, a delegation from the LMS spent of initiatives and ideas generated during the trip and a week visiting Hong Kong and China.