NEWSLETTER Issue: 486 - January 2020
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i “NLMS_486” — 2019/12/17 — 16:57 — page 1 — #1 i i i NEWSLETTER Issue: 486 - January 2020 CELEBRATING TRANSCENDENCE & MARKOV BASES DE MORGAN ALGEBRAIC OF TORIC HOUSE INDEPENDENCE IDEALS i i i i i “NLMS_486” — 2019/12/17 — 16:57 — 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 Tomasz Brzezinski (Swansea University) photographer for the rights to reproduce. Lucia Di Vizio (CNRS) The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the David Chillingworth (University of Southampton) accuracy of information in the Newsletter. Views Jonathan Fraser (University of St Andrews) expressed do not necessarily represent the Jelena Grbic´ (University of Southampton) views or policy of the Editorial Team or London Cathy Hobbs (UWE) Mathematical Society. Thomas Hudson (University of Warwick) Stephen Huggett ISSN: 2516-3841 (Print) Adam Johansen (University of Warwick) ISSN: 2516-385X (Online) Bill Lionheart (University of Manchester) DOI: 10.1112/NLMS Mark McCartney (Ulster University) Kitty Meeks (University of Glasgow) Vicky Neale (University of Oxford) Susan Oakes (London Mathematical Society) NEWSLETTER WEBSITE Andrew Wade (Durham University) The Newsletter is freely available electronically at lms.ac.uk/publications/lms-newsletter. Early Career Content Editor: Vicky Neale News Editor: Susan Oakes Reviews Editor: Mark McCartney MEMBERSHIP Joining the LMS is a straightforward process. For membership details see lms.ac.uk/membership. CORRESPONDENTS AND STAFF LMS/EMS Correspondent: David Chillingworth SUBMISSIONS Policy Digest: John Johnston The Newsletter welcomes submissions of Production: Katherine Wright feature content, including mathematical articles, Printing: Holbrooks Printers Ltd career related articles, and microtheses, from members and non-members. Submission EDITORIAL OFFICE guidelines and LaTeX templates can be found at lms.ac.uk/publications/submit-to-the-lms-newsletter. London Mathematical Society De Morgan House Feature content should be submitted to the 57–58 Russell Square editor-in-chief at [email protected]. London WC1B 4HS News items should be sent to [email protected] [email protected]. Charity registration number: 252660 Notices of events should be prepared using the template at lms.ac.uk/publications/lms-newsletter and sent to [email protected]. COVER IMAGE For advertising rates and guidelines see Section from ’De Morgan House’ by J. Love (1998) lms.ac.uk/publications/advertise-in-the-lms-newsletter. i i i i i “NLMS_486” — 2019/12/17 — 16:57 — page 3 — #3 i i i CONTENTS NEWS The latest from the LMS and elsewhere 4 LMS BUSINESS Reports from the LMS 22 FEATURES Some Historical Developments of the Theory of Transcendence and Algebraic Independence 28 Markov Bases of Toric Ideals: connecting commutative Algebra and Statistics 34 DeMorgan@21: Twenty-One Years of Success 38 De Morgan House Anniversary: A Celebration 39 EARLY CAREER Everything you need to know about the REF 43 REVIEWS From the bookshelf 45 OBITUARIES In memoriam 50 EVENTS Latest announcements 52 CALENDAR All forthcoming events 54 i i i i i “NLMS_486” — 2019/12/17 — 16:57 — page 4 — #4 i i i 4 NEWS FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Welcome to the January 2020 issue of the LMS Furthermore, are you the sort of reader who likes Newsletter. Now I know that change is never easy, to read the issue from cover to cover? Would bad but here we have taken the brave step of beginning formatting annoy you, and poor spelling upset you? this issue by directly addressing you, the Reader. Then maybe you could help us. We are looking for This isn’t purely an innovation by myself as incoming some ‘rst readers’ who would be happy to read the Editor-in-Chief, but is something that came out of proofs before they go to press — and let us know a survey of LMS Representatives over the summer of any inconsistencies spotted. Newsletter issues months. Further changes exist with the (exceptional) appear bi-monthly, the timescales are tight and the insertion of a leaet about legacies into paper copies issues are quite lengthy — but your work would be of the Newsletter; and the expansion of the electronic much appreciated. If you could help, please let me version email. It is a lot to take, I know, but let’s ring know: [email protected]. in some changes with the New Year. Eleanor Lingham Editor-in-Chief LMS NEWS LMS Council 2019–20 MEMBERS-AT-LARGE OF COUNCIL: *Professor Alexandre Borovik The results of the 2019 LMS Elections to Council (University of Manchester) and Nominating Committee were announced at the *Professor Tara Brendle (University of Glasgow) LMS Annual General Meeting on 29 November 2019. Professor Elaine Crooks (Swansea University) Council membership is as follows: Professor Andrew Dancer (University of Oxford) (re-elected to Council) PRESIDENT: *Professor David E. Evans (University of Cardi) Professor Jon Keating FRS (University of Oxford) Dr Tony Gardiner (re-elected to Council) VICE-PRESIDENTS: Dr Frank Neumann (University of Leicester) Professor Iain Gordon (University of Edinburgh) Professor Brita Nucinkis (Royal Holloway, Professor Cathy Hobbs (University of the University of London) (re-elected to Council) West of England) Dr Richard Pinch *Dr Mariya Ptashnyk (Heriot-Watt University) TREASURER: *Professor Anne Taormina (University of Durham) Professor Robert Curtis (University of Birmingham) *Members elected in 2018 who are continuing with GENERAL SECRETARY: the second year of their two-year term. Professor Stephen Huggett Professor John Greenlees stood down at the AGM, having PROGRAMME SECRETARY: served as a Vice-President for ten years. The AGM also Professor Chris Parker (University of Birmingham) saw Professors Mark Chaplain and Gwyneth Stallard, and Dr Alina Vdovina, step down as Members-at-Large on PUBLICATIONS SECRETARY: Council. The LMS is grateful for their contributions, details Professor John Hunton (University of Durham) of which can be found on page 7. EDUCATION SECRETARY: Dr Kevin Houston (University of Leeds) LMS NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Also at the AGM, Professor Beatrice Pelloni MEMBER-AT-LARGE (LIBRARIAN): (Heriot-Watt University) and Professor Mary Rees Dr Mark McCartney (Ulster University) i i i i i “NLMS_486” — 2019/12/17 — 16:57 — page 5 — #5 i i i NEWS 5 (University of Liverpool) were elected to the and parabolic systems, reaction-diusion-convection Nominating Committee for three-year terms of oce. systems and travelling waves, applications of PDE to Continuing members of the Nominating Committee biology, and geometric methods for image processing. are: Professor Kenneth Falconer (Chair), Professor I. She served as a member of the Editorial Advisory David Abrahams, Professor Martin Mathieu, Professor Board from 2009-2018. H. Dugald Macpherson and Professor Elizabeth Winstanley. Council will also appoint a representative Frank Neumann is an Associate Professor in Pure to the committee. Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Actuarial Science at the University of Leicester. His previous work has included positions at the Incoming Ocers and Members Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and the CRM of Council Barcelona. Research interests include algebraic topology, algebraic geometry and its interactions and VICE-PRESIDENT: in recent times homotopy theory and cohomology of Iain Gordon is a Professor of Mathematics at the algebraic stacks. Dr Neumann’s LMS service includes University of Edinburgh who has also worked at acting as Chair, board member and mentor of the the University of Glasgow and as an EU Research LMS Mentoring African Research in Mathematics Fellow at the University of Bielefeld and the (MARM) initiative, as the LMS Representative for University of Antwerp. His research interests are the University of Leicester and as an organiser of representation theory and noncommutative algebra, regional joint research groups, regional meetings and their connections with combinatorics and and a research school on Homotopy Theory and algebraic geometry. Professor Gordon’s service to Arithmetic Geometry. the LMS includes being a Member-at-Large on Council from 2005-2009, as well as a member of Richard Pinch is a retired civil servant who gained Programme Committee and Publications Committee his PhD from the University of Oxford in 1983. From during the same period. He was a member of the 1998 to 2018 Dr Pinch was a Mathematician at Research Meetings Committee from 2010-2012, Editor, GCHQ; he has also served as Deputy Director of Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research. 2012-2015 and a member of the Prizes Committee Earlier in his career Richard Pinch lectured and from 2017 to date. conducted research at Cambridge University and the University of Glasgow. His research interests are MEMBERS-AT-LARGE: computational number theory: primality test and Elaine Crooks is a Professor in the Department of Diophantine equation and algebraic combinatorics. Mathematics at Swansea University. She has also Dr Pinch delivered the LMS Popular Lecture in 1994. worked at the University of Oxford, with short term He is currently Vice President (Professional Aairs postdoc appointments in Lausanne, Paris and Rome. and Industry) of the Institute of Mathematics and its Professor Crooks’ research interests are nonlinear Applications. partial dierential equations, singular limits of elliptic Access the LMS Book Series Online The Society publishes two book series in partnership with Cambridge University Press: the Lecture Notes and the Student Texts. If your institution has purchased electronic editions of titles in the series, you may be able to access the electronic versions of these books on the Cambridge Core platform. The titles in the series are listed at tinyurl.com/m6cm6ed for the Lecture Notes and tinyurl.com/wdjczpv for the Student Texts.