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NEWSLETTER No. 468 April 2017 CMS AT THE HOUSE OF COMMONS he Council for the Mathematical Sciences tions. Guests had the chance to network with T(CMS) (www.cms.ac.uk) held an event colleagues and also heard an address from Sir recently at the House of Commons on Mathemat- Adrian Smith, Chair, CMS, about his upcoming ics Education, hosted by Stephen Metcalfe MP, review of post-16 mathematics provision in Chair, Science and Technology Select Committee. England where he drew on general points from Over 100 invited guests from parliament, his yet to be published review. The invited guests including Sir Julian Brazier MP and Stephen also heard from the new chair of the Advisory Timms MP, government departments including Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) the Department for Education, academia, (www.acme-uk.org) Professor Frank Kelly, about education and a range of Science, Technology, new developments within the Committee and Education and Mathematics (STEM) organisa- the vision moving forward. Sir Adrian Smith, Chair, CMS Professor Frank Kelly, Chair, ACME SOCIETY MEETINGS AND EVENTS 2017 • 3 April: Society Meeting at BMC, Durham page 25 • 18 September: Midlands Regional Meeting, • 18–22 April: LMS Invited Lectures, Newcastle page 11 Loughborough page 31 • 5 May: Mary Cartwright Lecture, London page 13 • 10 November: Graduate Student Meeting, London • 1 June: Northern Regional Meeting, York page 30 • 10 November: Annual General Meeting, London • 30 June: Graduate Student Meeting, London • 11 December: SW & South Wales Regional • 30 June: Society Meeting, London Meeting, Cardiff NEWSLETTER ONLINE: newsletter.lms.ac.uk @LondMathSoc LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk Contents No. 468 April 2017 28 42 Awards European Study Groups with Industry...........35 Clay Research Fellows 2017..............................27 Extremal Combinatorics...................................38 Oxford Mathematics.........................................20 Gender Diversity in Mathematics ....................36 Gravity and Black Holes....................................34 Calendar of Events 46 2 History of Open Quantum Systems...................35 LMS Items Hooley Day.........................................................41 Durham Symposia 2018 – call for proposals...21 Interacting Systems and Stochastic PDEs.........38 Grant Schemes...................................................6 Mathematical Logic..........................................34 Election News....................................................5 Mathematical Physics Day................................36 Library at UCL...................................................14 Nonlinear Water Waves....................................40 LMS Council Strategic Retreat..........................3 Profinite Groups................................................34 LMS Publications Strategic Retreat.................8 Random Graphs and Random Processes........35 Holgate Lectures and Workshops....................7 The Mathematical Association.........................38 News for Early Career Researchers Variational Methods.........................................39 and Students..................................................18 News Revised Committee Structure at the LMS........4 Alan Turing's Lost Notebook..........................22 LMS Meetings Chalkdust Issue 05............................................26 Aitken UK Lecture Tour 2017 – Hinke Osinga...33 CMS at the House of Commons......................1 Algebraic Topology of Manifolds European News.................................................20 Research School..............................................17 Mathematical Stamps Website........................29 Introduction to Geometry Research School.....16 Mathematics Policy Round-Up.........................19 Invited Lecturer 2017 – Jim Agler.....................11 Swiss Mathematical Society..............................28 Mary Cartwright Lecture..................................13 Obituary Mathematics Can Make You Fly?.....................37 Wilson, Brian.....................................................40 Midlands Regional Meeting............................31 Northern Regional Meeting.............................30 Report Society Meeting at BMC..................................25 COW and CALF in Cardiff................................32 Symmetry & Computation LMS–IMA Reviews Joint Meeting.................................................12 A Doubter’s Almanac........................................44 Meetings Hidden Figures..................................................42 Boundary Integral Methods............................34 Mathematics at the Science Museum.............43 Escher and Coxeter: A Mathematical Visit Conversation.................................................36 Madritsch, Manfred..........................................29 [email protected] No. 468 April 2017 LMS COUNCIL STRATEGIC RETREAT A Personal View Council’s 2017 Strategic Retreat was held early feedback from Council to the Review on the 3rd and 4th of February at Chicheley Group. Any proposed changes in the Charter Hall. and Statutes will require further approval. The 2014–2019 strategic plan arose from The Review Group was requesting Council's the Council’s previous strategic retreat, in feedback on two key proposed changes. February 2013. The five strategic priorities One concerned the size and composition of this plan are Communication, Review of Council (there was a proposal to cut it of grants, Early career researchers, Society to eleven members) and the nominations meetings, and Data collection. A report had procedure. been provided to bring Council up to date In addition, there was a suggestion, not with the work undertaken so far on each of previously discussed by the Standing Orders these priorities. Review Group and not reflected in the draft Council was invited to consider current Charter, to separate completely the roles activities in relation to the strategic plan. of the Council and the Board of Trustees. The main points of the discussion included: The issue of the composition of Council improvement of communication between triggered a lively and inconclusive discus- Council and Committees, development of sion. Many Council members felt that such communications policy with government, changes would be unhelpful for the govern- the membership and the public; improve- ance of the Society. There were also sugges- 3 ment of the web site; schemes focusing on tions that there was room for improvement early career researchers; data collection. in governance which could be achieved One of the more important issues discussed now without waiting for new governing at the retreat were the possible changes in documents: for example, draft minutes of the Charter, Statutes, and By-laws of the Council produced more rapidly; clarification Society. A special working group of the of the delegation to, and reporting from, Council, the Standing Orders Review Group Committees, and so on. has been working for several years on these The General Secretary gave a presenta- documents. An annotated preliminary tion outlining the Society’s current activi- version was presented to Council. It was not ties by committee with an indication of the a recommendation, but a way of getting budgetary allocation for these activities. Editorial team Publication dates and deadlines http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk Editorial office General Editor Published monthly, except August. Items and adver- London Mathematical Society, Mr A.J.S. Mann tisements by the first day of the month prior to publi- De Morgan House, 57–58 Russell ([email protected]) cation, or the closest preceding working day. Notices Square, London WC1B 4HS and advertisements are not accepted for events that Reports Editor occur in the first week of the publication month. (t: 020 7637 3686; Professor I. A. Stewart f: 020 7323 3655) ([email protected]) News items and notices in the Newsletter may be freely used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, al- Events calendar Reviews Editor though attribution is requested when reproducing Updates and corrections to Professor D. Singerman whole articles. Contributions to the Newsletter are [email protected] ([email protected]) made under a non-exclusive licence; please contact Articles Administrative Editor the author or photographer for the rights to repro- Send articles to Susan Oakes duce. The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the [email protected] ([email protected]) accuracy of information in the Newsletter. Views expressed do not necessarily represent the views or Advertising Typeset by the LMS at De policy of the London Mathematical Society. For rates and guidelines see Morgan House; printed by newsletter.lms.ac.uk/rate-card Holbrooks Printers Ltd. Charity registration number: 252660. LMS Items LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk After presentations from Treasurer and After agreeing on the minutes of the Publications Secretary, there was a dis- previous Council meeting and noting the cussion of future financial security of the unconfirmed minutes of the Finance and Society under various economic and political General Purposes Committee meeting and scenarios, and possible fundraising activities. the Annual General Meeting, the Council On the basis of these discussions, Council received an update on the activities of considered possible updates in the Society's the President undertaken since the last Strategic Plan. Council members were invited meeting of the Council. to consider how the