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NEWSLETTER No. 438 July 2014

Society Meetings and Events 2014 The Mathematical Society is pleased to announce its Wednesday 9 July LMS Popular Lectures London page 17 150th Anniversary Wednesday 23 July LMS Spitalfields Day INI, Cambridge Celebrations 1 page 13 (1865 – 2015) Tuesday 19 August LMS Meeting and Reception We invite you to join us in celebrating this historic occasion. ICM 2014, Seoul page 15 Themes for the Anniversary Saturday 150 Years of the LMS and 6 September Mathematics and the Mathematics as Part of our Culture First World War New ways of Communicating Mathematics Meeting, London page 27 There will be an extended and varied programme of events throughout Wednesday 2015 in celebration of the vitality of mathematics in the UK, looking 24 September back over 150 years of achievements and looking forward to exciting LMS Popular Lectures opportunities in mathematics for future generations. Birmingham page 17 Friday 14 November For information and an up-to-date calendar, please visit LMS AGM www.lms.ac.uk/2015 London To receive regular updates about events and lectures occurring during NEWSLETTER the 150th Anniversary Year, please sign up to the emailing list located ONLINE: at the above address. newsletter.lms.ac.uk LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

Contents LMS prizes 2014 No. 438 July 2014 The winners of the LMS Prizes for 2014 were announced at the Society meeting on 4 July 2014. The Society extends its congratulations to these winners, and its thanks to all the nominators, referees and members of the Prizes Committee for their contributions to the Committee’s work this year.

PROFESSOR MILES REID, FRS, of the , is awarded a Pólya Prize for his exceptionally creative work on higher dimensional algebraic geometry; in particular, on canonical singularities, the MacKay correspondence, the explicit study of 3-dimensional flips, the structure of Gorenstein rings, and for his inspired expositions.

20 16 PROFESSOR MARTIN HAIRER, FRS, of the University of Warwick, is awarded a Fröhlich Prize for his work on the interface between probability theory and partial differential equations; a body of work that is widely recognised as revolutionizing an Awards Heilbronn Annual Conference...... 32 entire field of research. Queen's Birthday Honours 2014...... 4 Huxley Meeting...... 36 IMA Conferences...... 33 Calendar of Events...... 50 PROFESSOR , of the University of Warwick, is awarded a Senior INI Methods for Mathematical and Empiri- LMS Items Anne Bennett Prize in recognition of her leading contributions to cal Analysis of Microbial Communities...... 40 and symbolic dynamics, and of the major impact of her numerous initiatives towards 150th Anniversary Celebrations...... 1 INI Structure, Function and Dynamics...... 23 the advancement of women in mathematics. Congratulations...... 4 2 Limit Theorums...... 38 3 Council Diary...... 6 PROFESSOR DANIEL FREED, PROFESSOR MICHAEL LMS Grant Schemes...... 7 UK Probability Meeting...... 37 HOPKINS and PROFESSOR CONSTANTIN TELEMAN are LMS Prizes 2014...... 3 Members' opinions awarded a Senior Berwick Prize in recognition of their paper LMS Undergraduate Research Bursaries....14 Should Mathematicians “Loop groups and twisted K-theory”, Journal of Topology, Open House 2014...... 16 Cooperate with GCHQ?...... 42 4 (2011), 737-799. The paper sets out the foundations of twisted equivariant K-theory, and prepares the ground for the LMS Meetings News proof that the twisted equivariant K-theory of a compact Lie ICM Meeting and Reception...... 15 Challenges for UK Mathematical Scientists group is isomorphic to the Verlinde algebra of its loop group. Mathematics and the First World War...... 27 in Higher Education...... 10 PROFESSOR CLÉMENT MOUHOT, of the , is awarded a Popular Lectures 2014...... 17 European News...... 18 for fundamental mathematical contributions to the foundations of Spitalfields Day: Advances in the Mathematics Policy Round-up...... 4 statistical mechanics and the Boltzmann equation. Mathematics of Water Waves...... 13 Turing Gateway to Mathematics...... 16 LMS Records of Proceedings Obituaries Northern Regional Meeting 2014...... 26 Gelbtuch, Adam...... 45 PROFESSOR RUTH BAKER, of the University of , is awarded a Whitehead Prize for her outstanding contributions to the field of Mathematical Biology. British Mathematical Colloquium...... 21 MacBeath, Murray...... 44 Meetings Reports Analytic ...... 29 LMS Gresham College Lecture...... 22 DR TOM COATES of is awarded a Whitehead Prize for his in- BMC/BAMC Joint Meeting...... 28 LMS Northern Regional Meeting...... 24 British Algebraic Geometry...... 36 fluential work in Gromov-Witten theory: the quantum Lefschetz theorem, the crepant LMS Women in Mathematics Day...... 20 resolution conjecture, the quantum cohomology of stacks, the higher genus theory of British Logic Colloquium...... 37 Reviews Calabi-Yau manifolds, and the Fanosearch program. British Science Festival...... 34 48 British Topology...... 38 Beautiful Geometry...... CStar...... 28 Knots Unravelled...... 47 PROFESSOR DANIELA KUHN and PROFESSOR DERYK OSTHUS, of the University of Birmingham, are jointly awarded a Whitehead Prize for Discontinuous Galerkin Methods...... 29 Primality Testing for Beginners...... 49 their many results in extremal graph theory and related areas. Several of Function Theory...... Visit 36 their papers resolve long-standing open problems in the area. Generalized Functions...... 35 Gerhard Kellar...... 28 LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS 2014 life sciences, for example in biomaterials, EPSRC SATs conference microscopy, DNA sequencing and magnetic The 2014 EPSRC SATs conference was held in Congratulations to the following who have of Risk, University of Cambridge, for services to resonance imaging. May and brought together members of the been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday statistics. Academic and industry figures including Lord Strategic Advisory Teams across the engineering Honours list: Commander of the Order of the British Empire Darzi (Imperial College London), Professor Sir and physical sciences to seek advice and share Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath (CBE) John Bell () and Professor plans for the future. (DCB) Professor Denise Anne Lievesley, Professor of Patrick Vallance (GlaxoSmithKline) discussed EPSRC’s new CEO, Philip Nelson opened Ms Jilian Norma Matheson, National Statistician Statistics and Head of School of Social Science the increasing importance for the future of the conference, introducing himself and his and Permanent Secretary, Office for National and Public Policy, King's College London, for various areas of research - from big data and early thinking on taking up the role. All SAT Statistics and Chief Executive, UK Statistics services to social science. genomics, to new drug discovery techniques, members, including new members joining from Authority, for services to Government Statistics. Office of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) to medical devices for surgery. April, had the opportunity to input into the Knights Batchelor (KB) Dr Penelope Jane Davies, Senior Lecturer in The review group made several recommen- Monitoring Portfolio Evolution exercise as part Professor David John Spiegelhalter, OBE, FRS, Mathematics, University of Strathclyde, for dations to ensure that institutions effectively of the Shaping Capability strategy and start to Winton Professor for the Public Understanding services to mathematics. supported the increasing integration between engage with the BIS consultation for a share of disciplines. These included: £1.1 billion capital investment. • proposals to encourage interdisciplinary A summary of outputs will be available at CONGRATULATiONS working; www.epsrc.ac.uk. Congratulations to Professor Atwell R. Turquette (elected an LMS member 21 October 1971), • the role for challenge-driven research who celebrates his 100th birthday on 14 July 2014. • the need for doctoral training in interdisci- Report on the economic significance of the UK plinary research science base • incorporating engineering and physical sci- ‘A new report commissioned by the Campaign 4 MATHEMATICS POLICY ROUND-UP ences into the UK strategy for life sciences for Science and Engineering (CaSE) provides 5 June 2014 • regular reviews of activity at the interface crucial economic evidence to support claims between disciplines that government can boost growth by investing RESEARCH EPSRC will be discussing the report and its in science and engineering research’. The importance of engineering and the sity of Cambridge, to explore the relation- recommendations with key partners such The new report, The Economic Significance of physical sciences to the health and life ship between engineering and the physical as BBSRC, MRC, Cancer Research UK, the the UK Science Base, extends previous studies by sciences sciences and the health and life sciences. Wellcome Trust and other stakeholders over examining the contribution of the UK science EPSRC invited an independent review The report concluded that engineering and the coming months. The review is available at base to our economy at the level of industry, group chaired by Professor Patrick Maxwell, physical sciences research, including math- http://tinyurl.com/pbb9cnn. universities and individual researchers. It shows Regius Professor of Physic and Head of the ematics, statistics and computer science, has that, in each case, public investment in science School of Clinical Medicine at the Univer- played a major role in advancing health and Universities to contribute to new Science and and engineering leads to economic growth. Innovation Strategy for the UK The full report is available at http://science The four UK higher education funding bodies campaign.org.uk/UKScienceBase.pdf. Editorial team Publication dates and deadlines and Research Councils UK (RCUK) have written SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk to the heads of all UK higher education insti- Published monthly, except August. Items and Editorial office General Editor advertisements by the first day of the month prior tutions inviting input into the science and in- Your Life maths and science campaign London Mathematical Society, Mr A.J.S. Mann to publication, or the closest preceding working day. novation strategy. The campaign was launched by the Chancellor De Morgan House, 57–58 Russell ([email protected]) Notices and advertisements are not accepted for Square, London WC1B 4HS events that occur in the first week of the publication The Department for Business, Innovation of the Exchequer, the Rt. Hon. George Osborne Reports Editor (t: 020 7637 3686; month. and Skills (BIS) will be gathering a wide range MP, and the leading organisations and entrepre- f: 020 7323 3655) Professor R.A. Wilson ([email protected]) News items and notices in the Newsletter may be of contributions on the development of a new neurs taking part in it. The Chancellor was joined Events calendar freely used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, strategy in May and June. The new strategy by Education Minister Liz Truss MP, Minister for Updates and corrections to Reviews Editor although attribution is requested when reproducing [email protected] Professor D. Singerman whole articles. Contributions to the Newsletter is due to be announced in autumn 2014. The Skills and Enterprise Matthew Hancock MP and ([email protected]) are made under a non-exclusive licence; please Articles funding bodies and RCUK are working in part- Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Minister Send articles to Administrative Editor contact the author or photographer for the rights to nership to gather evidence from the higher for Women, Nicky Morgan MP. [email protected] S.M. Oakes reproduce. The LMS cannot accept responsibility for ([email protected]) the accuracy of information in the Newsletter. Views education sector to inform their contributions Organisations such as Google, Arup, L’Oreal, Advertising expressed do not necessarily represent the views or to the strategy. Institutions were invited to Microsoft, Ford, BP, BSkyB, Airbus, Balfour For rates and guidelines see Typeset by the LMS at De policy of the London Mathematical Society. www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/ Morgan House; printed by provide views and any available evidence by Beatty, Laing O’Rourke, IBM, Nestle, Samsung, ratecard.html Holbrooks Printers Ltd. Charity registration number: 252660. 30 June 2014. the Science Museum and the Royal Academy LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

of Engineering have pledged to do more to LMS COUNCIL DIARY gineering in next year’s General Election. ics, complementing last year’s report on the highlight the career opportunities open to Council received the final report from staffing of UK mathematics departments; a 9 May 2014 those studying STEM subjects, committing to Mentoring African Research in Mathematics CMS document on admissions, graduations create over 2,000 new entry level positions A personal view (MARM). Administered by the LMS, MARM and employment destinations in the math- including apprenticeships, graduate jobs or We could see, as we gathered in the Hardy was funded 2006–12 by the Leverhulme Trust ematical sciences; an LMS online database paid work experience posts. Room at De Morgan House, that the work of and the Nuffield Foundation, and since then as a successor to the old Who’s Where in UK The campaign will also have targeted adver- remodelling the garden was now complete. the IMU and the LMS have provided funds Mathematics directory. tising and a new scheme to boost the number This should, when the weather permits, for four more mentoring partnerships while Also in the Research Policy Committee’s of high-skilled science teachers alongside the provide a useful and pleasant area for re- further sponsorship is sought. The aim of the remit is a recent request for views (and pledges from businesses. More information is freshment breaks at meetings held at DMH. programme was to combat the ‘brain drain’ evidence) for a review that the HEFCE is un- available at www.yourlife.org.uk/. As usual, the President impressed us with of mathematicians from sub-Saharan Africa. dertaking on the role of metrics in research how many events he had attended on the The report concludes that, though it is too assessment. Since the deadline for a reply NUS and OCR publish research on student Society’s behalf since the previous meeting; I early to evaluate this long-term aim, MARM falls before the next Council meeting, views to A-level reforms counted at least five. It was worrying to hear has achieved a definite impact on the devel- Council will have to approve a response by New research Informing the reforms released from the meeting of presidents of European opment of mathematics in Africa. email. by NUS is the first national survey of students’ mathematical societies how downbeat the Ken Brown reported on the work of the Finally, it was reported that membership views about the reform of A-Levels. NUS mood had generally been; the situation in Research Policy Committee. Three data-gath- application forms were now online, and conducted the survey in collaboration with Germany and in the UK seemed not to be so ering projects are coming to completion: a grant application forms will follow shortly. exam board OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA gloomy. document on research funding in Mathemat- Francis Clarke Examinations). A very successful joint meeting between Among other issues the research stated that: the LMS and the Royal Meteorological 6 ‘There was also a perception that new A-levels Society had involved half-hour talks. It was LMS GRANT SCHEMES are for postgraduate research students. 7 will be harder and that students may choose to agreed that the Programme Committee move away from STEM subjects’. should discuss whether this format should be Next Closing Date for Research Grant Visits to the UK (Scheme 2) More information is available at www.nus. used more often. Applications: 15 September 2014 Grants of up to £1,500 are available to provide org.uk/Global/informing-the-reforms.pdf. From the meeting of Heads of Departments Applications are invited for the following grants: partial support for a visitor to the UK, who will of Mathematical Sciences Terry reported give lectures in at least three separate institu- OTHER concern that proposed changes in secondary Conferences (Scheme 1) tions. Awards are made to the host towards Women in scientific careers schools could dramatically affect the numbers Grants of up to £7,000 are available to provide the travel, accommodation and subsistence The Science and Technology Select Committee studying mathematics at universities. partial support for conferences held in the costs of the visitor. has received a response from the government Vice-President Ken Brown had deputized . This includes a maximum to the Women in Scientific Careers report for the President at the Women in Mathemat- of £4,000 for principal speakers, £2,000 to Joint Research Groups (Scheme 3) produced in February 2014. The government ics Day. He found the ten-minute mathemat- support the attendance of research students Grants of up to £2,000 are available to provide response is available at http://tinyurl.com/ ical biographies with which the longer talks who are studying at universities in the UK, support to research groups of mathematicians mkwumem. began fascinating and wondered whether and £1,000 to support the attendance of to enable them to engage in collaborative ac- this could be implemented more widely. participants from Scheme 5 or former Soviet tivities through holding regular meetings (the RCUK announces Chair of Open Access Review Before lunch Sarah Main, the Director of Union countries. maximum award is for four meetings held in Research Councils UK (RCUK) has announced the Campaign for Science and Engineer- the academic year). Groups should be made that Professor Sir Bob Burgess will Chair the ing (CaSE), gave a presentation entitled Celebrating New Appointments (Scheme 1) up of mathematicians who are working in at 2014 review of the implementation of the “How to persuade a politician — making Grants of up to £600 are available to provide least three different locations and who have a RCUK policy on Open Access. Amongst other the case for science investment”. The LMS partial support for meetings held in the common research interest. issues, the review will examine the impact of is one of around 100 organisations which United Kingdom to celebrate the new ap- the policy since its introduction in April 2013, are members of CaSE. Sarah outlined the pointment of a lecturer at a UK university. Joint Research Groups (Scheme 3) – Renewal the process of implementation and its effects approach that CaSE has used, with some procedure across the disciplines. success, to influence politicians, a key aspect Postgraduate Research Conferences ALL renewal applications MUST be accompa- More information is available at www.rcuk. of which involved providing arguments and (Scheme 8) nied by a Financial and Academic Report for ac.uk/media/news/140509/. information to those to whom the politicians Grants of up to £4,000 are available to provide the previous year’s activities. Please note that Dr John Johnston listen. CaSE is already planning a series of partial support for conferences held in the full reports should always be submitted (‘light Joint Promotion of Mathematics events to raise the profile of science and en- United Kingdom, which are organised by and touch’ refers to the application procedure LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

only). Grant holders wishing to renew their by a named mathematician from a country Young British and Russian Mathematicians • A letter or email of agreement from the head application may use the Light Touch Applica- in Africa (or countries where mathematics Scheme of the host department, including the pro- tion Form if the original or last full renewal is in a similar position) to the home base of Next Deadline: 15 September 2014. posed dates of the visit. application was made in the last TWO years, the grant holder. Grants of up to £2,000 are Financial and academic reports will be required and NONE of the following have changed: available to support a visit for collaborative Visits to Russia after the visit. • the grant holder research by the grant holder to a country in Applications are invited from young British post- Further details of the Scheme can be found • the supporters, and Africa (or countries where mathematics is in a doctoral mathematicians who wish to spend a few on the LMS website: www.lms.ac.uk/content/ • the amount requested.* similar position). weeks in Russia giving a series of survey lectures international-grants. Applications received by 15 *Please note that with the increased For full details of these grant schemes, and on the work of their school. The LMS is offering September 2014 will be considered at a meeting in maximum awards, grant holders may still to download application forms, please visit grants of up to £500 to meet the travel costs, while October. Enquiries should be made to the Grants apply using the Light Touch scheme and the LMS website: www.lms.ac.uk/content/ the host should apply to the Russian Academy Administrators: Sylvia Daly and Elizabeth Fisher request the increased award per meeting research-grants. of Sciences for funding towards local expenses (tel: 020 7291 9971/3, email: [email protected]). (£500), e.g. up to £2,000 for 4 meetings, • Applications received by 15 September for accommodation and subsistence. Please provided that no other details have changed 2014 will be considered at a meeting in contact Sylvia Daly ([email protected]) for infor- Spitalfields Days and that the number of meetings has not October. mation before contacting the Russian Academy Next Deadline: 15 September 2014 changed. • Applications should be submitted well in of Sciences for funding. Applications to the LMS Grants of up to £1,000 are available to support an Grant holders MUST use the Full Renewal advance of the date of the event for which should include the following: LMS Spitalfields Day, which have been run since Application Form if the original or last full funding is requested. • A brief academic case for the visit, including a 1987 and are in honour of the Society’s predeces- renewal application was made THREE years • Normally grants are not made for events description of your current research interests, sor, the Spitalfields Mathematical Society (1717- ago, and/or ANY of the following have which have already happened or where and an outline of your planned work during 1845). A Spitalfields Day is a one-day meeting, changed: insufficient time has been allowed for the visit (no more than one side of A4). which is usually associated with a long-term 8 • the grant holder processing of the application. • A brief CV (no more than one side of A4). symposium on a specialist topic at a UK university. 9 • the supporters or Queries regarding applications can be • A brief budget. Selected participants, often distinguished experts • the amount requested. addressed to the Grants Administrators or the • A letter of invitation from the head of the host from overseas, give survey lectures (or other If a renewal application is unsuccessful, Programme Secretary (see below) who will be department in Russia, which must state explic- types of lecture accessible to a general math- normally the grant will be terminated at the pleased to discuss proposals informally with itly that your accommodation and subsistence ematical audience) on topics in the field of the end of the calendar year. A supplementary potential applicants and give advice on the expenses will be met by them. This should symposium. Please see the website for further grant will be available to cover actual expend- submission of an application. include provisional dates for the visit. details: www.lms.ac.uk/content/spitalfields-days. iture for a meeting held during the autumn • Grants Administrators: Sylvia Daly and Financial and academic reports will be required term. This will normally be the equivalent of Elizabeth Fisher (tel: 020 7291 9971/3, after the visit. In exceptional circumstances, ap- Grace Chisholm Young Fellowship the grant awarded for one meeting, eg £500, email: [email protected]). plications may be considered from strong research The Society offers two fellowships of £1,000 and will not usually exceed one third of the • Programme Secretary: Rob Wilson students who are close to finishing their doctor- (consisting of £500 personal support and £500 previous year’s grant. ([email protected]). ates. Applications should include a strong case contribution to a host institution) each year to and the student should obtain a letter of recom- mathematicians who need support when their OTHER LMS GRANTS AND FUNDING Research in Pairs (Scheme 4) mendation from his/her supervisor. mathematical career is interrupted by family Grants of up to £1,200 are available to support Research Workshop Grants responsibilities, relocation of partner, or other a visit for collaborative research either by the The Society offers grants to support Research Visits to Britain similar circumstance. grant holder to another institution abroad, Workshops held in the UK. Requests for Under this Scheme, applications may also be made These fellowships, named after Grace Chisholm or by a named mathematician from abroad support (for travel and subsistence of par- by any mathematician in Britain wishing to host a Young, aim to provide some support, making to the home base of the grant holder. Grants ticipants, and reasonable associated costs) in visit by a young Russian postdoctoral mathemati- possible some continuous mathematical activity, of up to £600 are available to support a visit the range £1,000-£10,000 will be considered. cian who wishes to spend a few weeks in Britain so enabling the to be in a position to apply for collaborative research either by the grant The maximum award is £10,000, but a typical giving a series of survey lectures on the work of for posts when circumstances allow. The Fellow- holder to another institution within the UK, award is in the range of £3,000-£5,000. Appli- their Russian seminar. The LMS is offering grants ship will give an endorsement of the holder's or by a named mathematician from within the cations for partial support of workshops with to the host institution to meet the visitor’s actual status as a mathematician, so that the break in UK to the home base of the grant holder. other sources of support will be considered. travel and accommodation costs of up to £1,500. formal employment should not prevent them Applications should normally be submitted 12 Applications should include the following: from resuming a career as a mathematician at International Short Visits (Scheme 5) months in advance of the proposed workshop. • Name and brief CV of the visitor a later stage. Please see the website for further Grants of up to £3,000 are available to For further information visit: www.lms.ac.uk/ • A brief budget details: www.lms.ac.uk/grants/grace-chisholm- support a visit for collaborative research content/research-workshops-grants. • A brief description of the course of lectures young-fellowships. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

Small Grants for Education mathematician from within the UK or abroad The purpose here is not to provide a detailed sciences (to be published July 2014). A CMS report Next Deadline: 31 August 2014 to the home base of the grant holder. Please analysis of each of the above issues – rather, I want on the “people pipeline” in the mathematical Funding for grants up to £800 is available to see the website for further details: www.lms. to open a dialogue, letting others develop topics sciences will come out later this year. stimulate interest and enable involvement in ac.uk/content/computer-science-small-grants- which they feel are of particular concern, whether I should also briefly explain what I have in mind mathematics from Key Stage 1 (age 5+) to Post- scheme-7. from the above list or not. Instead, I’ll simply with point 5. At least two Russell Group universi- graduate level and beyond. Anyone working/ comment briefly below on a couple of the points. ties have recently introduced contracts for newly- based in the UK is eligible to apply for a grant. If Childcare Supplementary Grants Of course, not everyone will think that each of appointed lecturers, which lead the appointee the applicant is not a member then the applica- Grants of up to £200 are available to parents these developments is by definition “a bad thing”. through a career path set up to complete tion must be countersigned by an LMS member working in mathematics to help with the cost Regarding point 8, for instance, areas of research probation in two to three years, with an expec- or another suitable person such as a Head teacher of childcare when attending a conference or focus and consequently of appointments must tation of promotion to Senior Lecturer or or senior colleague. Please see the website for research meeting. The Society believes that all change over time if our subject is to remain vital. (possibly called something different), within five further details: www.lms.ac.uk/content/small- parents working in mathematics should be able The increased focus on Impact in the UK is part to seven years of initial appointment. All to the grants-education. to attend conferences and research meetings of a world-wide trend which we as mathematical good, you might think - except that milestones without being hindered by childcare costs. In- scientists cannot and should not try to oppose – expected to be passed en route to promotion Computer Science Small Grants (Scheme 7) stitutions are expected to make provision for rather we must continue with and redouble our include winning substantial RC grant income, Next Deadline: 15 November 2014 childcare costs and parents are encouraged efforts to make funders’ definitions of and ways and supervising a PhD student to completion. The Funding for grants up to £500 is available to to make enquiries. However, where this is not of measuring impact more in tune with the full consequences of failing to achieve these targets in support a visit for collaborative research at the available, the Society administers a Childcare range of our activities. We must also continue the specified time frame are left unclear. interface of Mathematics and Computer Science Supplementary Grants Scheme. Please see the to emphasise the huge long-term impact of the So, why am I writing this article? The first and either by the grant holder to another institu- website for further details: www.lms.ac.uk/ mathematical sciences, as catalogued for example very important reason is to gather information. tion within the UK or abroad, or by a named content/childcare-supplementary-grants. in the Deloitte report; and we should develop a At the moment our community has no way of 10 portfolio of examples of the profound influence knowing how widespread are these and similar 11 of the mathematical sciences on all aspects of our changes. Those directly affected can feel isolated, society seeks information from mathematical lives – one excellent example is the USA’s National powerless and undervalued. I am therefore community on the CHALLENGES FOR UK Research Council report “The Mathematical inviting two sorts of response. First, I will very Sciences in 2025”1. much welcome information about particular MATHEMATICAL SCIENTISTS IN Higher eduction On point 4, we all know that RC grant income in cases along the lines of those listed above. It will Ken Brown, Vice President, LMS the mathematical sciences is very low compared be equally valuable to learn of examples of good 3. supervision of research student(s) a necessary to many other STEM subjects. This is in part practice with regard to these issues. Naturally, Some current developments in UK Higher condition for promotion; because the main costs of much of most of the I’ll treat all such communications in the utmost Education Institutions raise serious concerns for 4. substantial external research income a research in the mathematical sciences has been confidence, but will hope to share what global mathematicians. The issues involve complex necessary condition for promotion; for people and for time, costs which, though very data I can gather, in due course. More generally, changes in the relationships between career de- 5. move to “tenured” status dependent on significant, have in the past been adequately it will be good to hear other views on the issues velopment, the impact agenda, and external winning external income and/or PhD supervi- covered for many of us in the UK by the dual raised here: perhaps, for example, some of these funding. While many of these changes affect sion; support system of funding. Perhaps also it is the changes should be welcomed? Most importantly, academics in other fields, I will concentrate here 6. non-submission of an individual’s outputs to case that what we do has historically been under- we need to consider what we as a community on their particular effects on those working in the the REF, despite availability of a full set of valued, thanks to long lag times for impact, but should be doing in the face of these develop- mathematical sciences. These effects are, broadly internationally-published outputs; also – let’s be honest – thanks to our sometimes ments. What should the LMS be doing? speaking, of two sorts: changes in our working 7. departmental decisions on number of outputs relaxed attitude in the past to the need to make Comments can be sent for inclusion in the conditions as individual mathematical scientists, submitted to the REF influenced by the the case for more funding. The LMS, both on its Newsletter, to [email protected], or, in the and changes in the overall structure of academic number of sufficiently strong Impact State- own and in conjunction with the Council for the case of more confidential material, sent to me mathematical science in the UK. Here are some ments; Mathematical Sciences, has been working hard to at [email protected]. Do also feel free examples of the sort of thing I have in mind: the 8. decisions on research fields to support or make these cases and to assemble relevant data, to make use of the LMS blog, at http://discus first six predominantly concern individuals, at least appointments to make dependent on for grant income and more broadly: for example, sions.lms.ac.uk/members/, where a copy of this initially, while the remainder are more structural: likelihood of future Impact Statements being the Deloitte report2, produced with CMS backing article has been placed. 1. award of sabbatical leave only to those generated; last year, has generated a lot of publicity, and 1Available as a free download at winning Research Council (RC) grants; 9. loss of service teaching leading to reduced the LMS is producing data documents on UK HEI www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=15269 3 2. allocation of PhD students only to those student FTE numbers and reductions in staffing in the mathematical sciences (Nov 2013), 2http://tinyurl.com/p3y5u3f winning RC grants; staffing. and on UK research funding in the mathematical 3www.lms.ac.uk/policy/statistics-mathematics LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

Journals from the LMS SPITALFIELDS DAY London Mathematical Society ADVANCES IN THE MATHEMATICS OF WATER WAVES Wednesday 23 July 2014 Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Mathematika 20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge CB3 0EH Publishes both pure and applied mathematical articles since its founding by Harold Davenport in the 1950s. As part of the programme Theory of Water Waves (14 July - 8 August 2014) the Isaac Newton Institute will be holding an LMS Spitalfields Day on 23 July 12 journals.cambridge.org/mtk 2014. This special event consists of four lectures surveying the state of the 13 art in selected areas of the rigorous mathematical theory of water waves. The lectures will be accessible to a general mathematical audience, including graduate students.

Speakers are:

• Mark Groves (Loughborough, Saarland) Three-dimensional water waves • Guido Schneider (Stuttgart) Publishes first-class research papers that Validity and non-validity of the NLS approximation for the water wave traditionally focus on the mainstream of problem - recent developments and open problems pure mathematics. • Steve Shkoller (Oxford) journals.cambridge.org/com Interface singularities for the Euler equations • Eugene Varvaruca (Reading) Singularities of steady free surface water flows

Register by 13 July 2014 (www.newton.ac.uk/cgi/ wsapply?CODE=TWWW02). There are limited funds available to assist in the travel cost of research students. If you require support towards travel, advise an estimated amount in the space provided on the online registration form.

The organiser is Professor Mark Groves ([email protected]). LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

LMS UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH BURSARIES 2014 LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY The London Mathematical Society is pleased research project alongside a research su- to announce the list of successful appli- pervisor. The purpose of the Bursaries is MEETING AND RECEPTION cants to its second round of Undergradu- to enable undergraduates with research Tuesday 19 August 2014 ate Research Bursaries. For the 2014 round potential to experience research and to 20 awards were made to students from encourage them to consider a career in sci- International Congress of Mathematicians 16 different institutions to undertake a entific research. Seoul, South Korea

Institution Research Supervisor Student Research The London Mathematical Society will be holding a meeting and reception during Professor David Functoriality in geometry and University of Bath Charles Craven the next International Congress of Mathematicians, in Seoul from 13-21 August Calderbank representation theory 2014. Professor Peter Spread of rumours in preferential University of Bath Tom Crawley Morters attachment networks Jean-Pierre Bourguignon will give a talk on The life of a mathematician has several Spectral graph theory beyond finite sides. University of Belfast Dr Martin Matthieu Victoria Coombe dimensions The Society meeting and reception will be held from 5.00 pm – 9.00 pm on Tuesday University of Dr Richard Mycroft Candida Bowtell Investigating external set systems 19 August. LMS members will have the opportunity to sign the Members’ Book, Birmingham which dates back to 1865. A new test of stationarity for network time University of Bristol Professor Guy Nason Lewis Rendall LMS members who wish to attend the meeting and reception should apply for series their free ticket to Elizabeth Fisher, ([email protected]) no later than Friday Modelling elliptic curves with random matrix University of Bristol Dr Patrick Morris 14 theory 25 July. The Society hopes to entertain as many as possible of its members, but 15 numbers are limited by the capacity of the room. University of Dr Thomas Dynamics of cilia observed in developing David Baker Cambridge Montenegro-Johnson zebrafish The LMS will also host a stand during the ICM and would like to invite members to Dimension reduction with reweighted large drop by, see the latest publications and meet the LMS Officers and staff. Dr Andreas Artemiou Luke Smallman margin classifiers Low rank approximations of matrices, with a Cardiff University Dr Jonathan Gillard Holly Butcher view towards statistical applications Dr Athanasios Special values of L-functions attached to University of Durham Francesca Bianchi Bouganis Hecke characters University of East The directed geometry of finitely generated Dr Robert Gray David Reed Anglia amendable semigroups University of East Professor Shaun Counting cuspidal representations of finite Elaine Barker Anglia Stevens and p-adic reductive groups University of Can organisms with a non-motile life-stage Dr Christina Cobbold Remus Stana Glasgow keep pace with climate change? Imperial College Professor Alessio Hilbert functions of orbifold del Pezzo Ben Wormleighton London Corti surfaces University of Quantum wavefunctions in disordered Dr Alexander Ossipov Thomas Cope Nottingham topological insulators Unoriented surfaces, Moebius graphs and University of Oxford Dr Tobias Dyckerhoff Lothar Krapp outer space University of Power laws and power law crossover in Dr James Burridge Steven Kenney Portsmouth cascading systems Royal Holloway, Counting points of bounded height in Dr Martin Widmer Sahana Seetharaman certain infinite extensions University of Dr Michael Grinfeld Maciej Buze Non-local models of phase transitions Strathclyde Accuracy and validation of barotropic fluid University of Surrey Dr Bin Cheng Timothy Burchell models on a sphere LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

OPEN HOUSE 2014 LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY The LMS will once again open its doors to the building and there will also be a pres- the public as part of this year’s Open House entation on mathematics through the years. London event. De Morgan House will be Over 300 people visited the building in 2013 POPULAR LECTURES 2014 open on Sunday 21 September from 11am and we hope to continue this success in Institute of Education, London – Wednesday 9 July until 4 pm. Visitors will be given a tour of 2014. University of Birmingham – Wednesday 24 September TURING GATEWAY TO MATHEMATICS Post-Quantum Research Professor Kevin Buzzard Over 50 people attended the Post- Imperial College London Quantum Research – Identifying Future Challenges and Directions What’s in a number? Workshop from 8 to 9 May 2014 Much of our work and our leisure at the Isaac Newton Institute in interests are now stored in digital format Cambridge. This was organised by the -- i.e., as numbers. This has weird conse- Turing Gateway to Mathematics, with quences: for example some numbers are support from GCHQ, with the aim to now copyrighted, and other numbers are bring mathematicians and computer illegal. scientists together to build UK capacity Professor Buzzard will explain some of 16 in the post-quantum research area. 17 these stories, and also what happens if Participants included academics, researchers sion sessions set out to explore and identify one tries to digitise mathematics itself. and those representing industry. what is the state-of-the-art in quantum algo- This event was the first of a programme of rithms, what are the mathematical challenges activities to develop and broaden the post- in quantum algorithms, what are the cyber Dr Julia Gog quantum research community in the UK. security issues today and what are the chal- This is largely based on the realistic possibil- lenges for mathematicians in cyber security University of Cambridge ity that in the medium term the power of arising out of quantum computing? Epidemics and viruses: the quantum computation will have the potential Overall feedback from those who attended mathematics of disease to compromise some cyber security systems. the event was positive and highlighted the Therefore, there is a current need to develop benefit of having a wide spread of back- Dr Gog will look at how mathematics classical cryptographic security into schemes grounds in attendance. These were advanta- has been applied to help understand that are resistant to quantum computer geous in helping facilitate the range of dis- and control infectious diseases, from the attack. cussions that took place, allowing for good scale of a single virus particle through The event sought to identify future chal- exploration of the issues/threats that could to a global influenza pandemic, and lenges and directions for post-quantum cy- potentially be faced in the future. considers some mathematical challenges ber-security research and to generate ideas A second workshop will take place from for the future. for developing UK research and teaching in 18 to 19 September 2014 in Cambridge. This the area. will take forward ideas generated in this first The workshop included a selection of presen- workshop, with a key aim to gain consensus tations that identified the possible challenges in identifying the mathematical challenges in LONDON: Commences at 7.00 pm, refreshments at 8.00 pm, ends at 9.30 pm that could be faced and how these might be post-quantum cryptography. There will also Admission is free, with ticket. Register by Thursday 3 July. addressed. It also enabled discussion between be a focus on setting the agenda for future those in industry who had identified problems research directions and the event will be open BIRMINGHAM: Commences at 6.30 pm, refreshments at 7.30 pm, ends at 9.00 pm and the academics who might work to solve to a wider audience, including public and in- Admission is free, with ticket. Register by Thursday 18 September. these. Short talks were also given by next dustrial stakeholders. generation researchers which brought some For more details see www.turing-gateway. To register for tickets, please email [email protected] or visit the LMS website for new ideas to the audience. Facilitated discus- cam.ac.uk/gchq_may2014.shtml. abstracts and a registration form (www.lms.ac.uk/events/popular-lectures). LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

EUROPEAN NEWS outstanding mathematical research achieve- first edition of the Prize will be awarded at continents, 29 countries and over 120 cities ments in the fields of harmonic and Clifford the general UMI congress which will take with more than 1 million visitors in total. In Who are the Invited Speakers at analysis with applications in theoretical place in Siena, September 2015. Applications Europe, IMAGINARY has been presented in 17 ICM 2014? physics. He received his PhD from Ghent Uni- and nomination letters must be sent to the countries with talks, workshops, media activi- The purpose of this study by Martin Andler versity with a titled Clifford analysis on UMI office (Piazza di Porta San Donato 5, ties and, in most cases, exhibitions. (Université de Versailles St Quentin, France) is the hyperbolic unit ball (supervisor Franciscus I-40126 Bologna) not later than 30 November For more details and some striking images to give an overview of the ICM 2014 speakers Sommen). 2014. More information at http://tinyurl.com/ from the exhibition see the full article in the - not to say something about their math- The W.K. Clifford Prize will be presented to le4ez29. EMS Newsletter June 2014, pp. 3-6, as well as ematics but to answer questions about their David Eelbode at the ICCA10 Conference at [Source EMS e-News 11 May 2014] the website www.imaginary.org. gender, geographic origin, where they went Tartu, (4-8 August 2014). David Eelbode will [Source: EMS Newsletter June 2014, p. 3-6] to school at the various stages of their lives, give the second special W.K. Clifford Prize IMAGINARY – Mathematics etc. This list of 206 excellent mathematicians Lecture at University College London on 7 Communication for the 21st Century New Service by EU-MATHS-IN provides a good sample of our community, November 2014. Further details at http://wk and hence of the globalisation of higher cliffordprize.org/2014-tartu-laureate.html. IMAGINARY is the name of a collaborative The association EU-MATHS-IN (promoted by education and of the academic job market. [Source: www.euro-math-soc.eu/news.html] mathematics outreach project that aims the EMS and the ECMI) has launched a new [Source: EMS Newsletter June 2014, pp. 38-44] to improve the image and understanding service: a website for advertising jobs for Barcelona Dynamical Systems Prize 2015 of mathematics and in this way awake an mathematicians in companies or institutions Shaw Prize in Mathematical interest and fuel passion for the subject in working on industrial contracts. See www.eu- Sciences 2014 With the patronage of Professor Carles Simó, children and adults. This goal is achieved in maths-in.eu/jobs . the Societat Catalana de Matemátiques different ways: on the one hand by showing [Source: EMS Newsletter June 2014, p.10] , the Abdun-Nur Professor of will award a prize to the author or authors the beauty and art in mathematics and on the 18 Mathematics at MIT (Cambridge, MA, USA) of a paper or research work in the area of other hand through surprising applications. New Editorial Board of the Journal of 19 was awarded the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Dynamical Systems, published or accepted To best understand the project we have to go the European Mathematical Society Sciences for 2014. The Shaw Foundation cited for publication between 1 May 2013 and back to its beginning. Lusztig ‘for his fundamental contributions to 31 April 30 2015. Further details available at IMAGINARY was born at the Mathematische The Executive Committee of the EMS has algebra, algebraic geometry, and representa- http://tinyurl.com/qev3znv. Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach (MFO) in appointed a new editorial board of its tion theory, and for weaving these subjects [Source EMS e-News 11 May 2014] conjunction with the Year of Mathematics in flagship journal, JEMS. The EMS is greatly together to solve old problems and reveal 2008 in Germany. It started with the travelling indebted to the departing editorial board, beautiful new connections.’ Further details Federigo Enriques Prize 2014 exhibition IMAGINARY – through the eyes of which under the leadership of Professor at www.shawprize.org/en/ and http://tinyurl. mathematics shown in 12 German cities. Due Brézis has raised the journal to its current com/mtedydm. The Unione Matematica Italiana, in collabo- to its tremendous success, follow up exhibi- high rank. This board is responsible for the [Source: www.euro-math-soc.eu/news.html] ration with Centro Studi Enriques, announces tions were soon organised in Austria, Swit- handling of papers submitted to JEMS before the Federigo Enriques Prize, to be awarded zerland, Spain, UK and Ukraine. The program 1 June 2014; it will terminate its functions by The Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize 2014 to a doctoral dissertation on subjects related SURFER, developed for IMAGINARY, became September 2015. to Federigo Enriques' mathematical thought a centrepiece of the exhibition. It teaches in a At the same time, the EMS expresses its The Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize 2014 and defended in the last two years. Applica- playful way the connection between formula gratitude to the new editorial board for winners were Professors Véronique Fischer tions must be sent to UMI, Piazza di Porta San and form, between algebra and geometry having accepted this important responsibility, and Michael Ruzhansky (Imperial College Donato 5, 40126 Bologna, not later than 30 through beautiful 3D surfaces. In this way, it and welcomes warmly all its members. From London), for the work Quantization on November 2014. More information at http:// bridges the gap between art and mathemat- the 1 June 2014, authors submitting articles Nilpotent Lie Groups. See http://ffsb.iec.cat umi.dm.unibo.it/premi/premio-federigo-enr ics. An example of such a surface, Citrus, is to the journal are directed to an electronic for further details, including those for submis- iques/. seen on the front cover of the current issue submission system, and the new editorial sion for the 2015 prize. [Source EMS e-News 11 May 2014] of the EMS Newsletter. The visitors of the ex- board will handle these articles. For more in- [Source: EMS Newsletter June 2014, p.12] hibition get the chance to alter the algebraic formation including lists of members of the equations, see the effects on the displayed new and of the departing editorial board see UMI Book Prize surfaces in real time and even get to take a www.euro-math-soc.eu/node/4791. Clifford Prize The Unione Matematica Italiana (UMI) has printout back home. [Source: www.euro-math-soc.eu/news.html] David Eelbode (University of Antwerp, established a Prize of €4,000, sponsored by Since 2008, the IMAGINARY exhibition has Belgium) has been selected as the recipient Springer-Verlag, for an excellent, original been shown in over 60 cities in Germany alone David Chillingworth of the second W.K. Clifford Prize, for his monograph in any field of mathematics. The but has also travelled further afield to four LMS/EMS Correspondent LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

LMS WOMEN IN that, despite almost all their queries being non-gender specific issues MATHEMATICS DAY 2014 which can affect mathematicians Report or even a person in the early stages of their career in general, they felt This year the LMS Women in Mathemat- more comfortable approaching ics Day was held on 25 April 2014 at the female mathematicians. LMS headquarters in central London. The whole day, finished off by the After the opening welcome from LMS conference dinner, provided all of us Vice-President Ken Brown, we had with a wonderful opportunity and a programme packed with excellent sociable setting in which to swap speakers from a variety of mathemati- amusing anecdotes, share concerns cal and personal backgrounds and at Laura Watkin (EPSRC) and experiences, and in general be various stages of their careers. encouraged and informed by the Discussion group The morning speakers Sarah Hart (Birkbeck as a junior mathematician, their individual academic and non-academic experi- College), Katia Babbar (Lloyds) and Anne Juel climb to successful careers (academic and ences of others. no matter what stage of career they are in (University of Manchester) spoke about their financial), which involved having potential The entire meeting was an enriching day, and whether they are aiming for a career in mathematical research/applications and barriers which were often non-female and certainly I wish I knew about earlier academia or otherwise. also included some stories and insight into specific and/or common in academia espe- meetings. I wholeheartedly encourage math- Shona Yu their career progressions. It was inspiring cially. ematicians to participate in these meetings, University of Leeds and useful to learn in person, in particular The three afternoon speakers Sian Fryer 20 (University of Manchester), Mareike Ha- 21 berichter (University of Kent), and Masha Jankovic (University of Leicester) spoke on their PhD research and during tea breaks and RECORDS OF PROCEEDINGS lunch, we were also able to peruse posters submitted by 19 student participants on a AT LMS MEETINGS diverse range of pure and applied math- ORDINARY MEETING ematical research. Layal Hakim, of Brunel University, won the poster prize by vote, held on 8 April 2014 at Queen Mary College, University of London, during the British for her submission on Numerical Analysis Mathematical Colloquium. Over 150 members and visitors were present for all or of Cohesive Zone Model Approach for Time part of the meeting. and History Dependent Materials. Following the talks, we split into three dis- The meeting began at 11.30 am with The President, Professor Terry Lyons FRS, in cussion groups focussing on "Next steps in the Chair. your career" , "General issues in the life of a The Treasurer, Professor Robert Curtis, presented a report on the Society’s activities. mathematician" , and “Funding opportuni- No members were elected to membership. ties”; the latter included a presentation by Eight members signed the book and were admitted to the Society. Laura Watkin, the Mathematical Sciences portfolio manager from the EPSRC. The President, on Council’s behalf, presented a certificate to Dr , The very friendly forum atmosphere allowed the winner of a Whitehead Prize in 2013. participants to raise and explore questions Professor Lyons introduced a lecture given by Professor Claire Voisin on Points, zero including, but not restricted to, how/when cycles, and rationality questions. to change/broaden research areas, taking The Chair expressed the thanks of the Society to the speaker for giving an interest- the next step in one's careers, balancing with ing lecture. personal wants, job hunting issues if you have a partner also in academia, and good/bad The Chair also expressed thanks to Ivan Tomasic and Behrang Noohi for organising practices in university departments. Several a successful BMC. Layal Hakim (Brunel University) poster competition winner of the younger mathematicians expressed LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

LMS GRESHAM COLLEGE LECTURE 2014 sions. Professor du Sautoy also told us that Jackson Pollock's works also show Report qualities, which is how some people have managed to show that The 2014 LMS Gresham College Lecture come back together during the course of some works purporting to be his are given by Professor on The the movement. This use of primes was illus- actually fakes! Secret Mathematicians took place on 21 May trated again with magicicada septendecim, The poet chosen was Jorge Luis 2014. The lecture theatre at the Museum of a cicada with a 17-year cycle. Other species Borges. He is obsessed with paradox, London was completely full for this annual apparently use 13 – was there a predator and in his The Library of Babel he lecture which is a joint venture by the LMS they were trying to avoid? looks at something which is infinite and Gresham College. Marcus started by We then had a brief foray into the world of and cyclical. (What is the shape of our reminiscing about his school-days where he Fibonacci numbers, with numbers of petals universe?) seemed to be presented with a choice: Art v. and breeding rabbits, and a reminder that the And finally to Rudolf Laban, the cho- Marcus du Sautoy Science. He was attracted by the excitement Indian mathematician Hemachandra (1089- reographer. He has invented a way of of Science and realised that mathematics 1172) had looked at them rather earlier. And representing the movements of dancers seemed to forge a link between these two so to architecture, with Le Corbusier. He in 3-D shapes. (And here our lecturer only as a creative art.' apparently different areas and decided that produced two series of numbers, his Série mentioned his involvement in X&Y, a col- An interesting and enjoyable evening. there was really a false dichotomy. Rouge and Série Bleue, made up of Fibonac- laboration with Victoria Gould at the Science Martin Perkins We are familiar with the idea that math- ci-type numbers, which he used in creating Museum.) Gresham College ematicians often have other strings to their living spaces in his buildings. Fibonacci also And to come full circle we had a quotation The report is also on the Gresham College website bows – music, chess, or even cricket (think led to the spiral and the golden ratio as from G.H. Hardy, in A Mathematician's at www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the- 22 G.H. Hardy – see later) and what was to exemplified in many buildings. Palladio, Apology, 'I am interested in mathematics secret-mathematicians 23 be presented in this lecture were five 20th however, preferred whole numbers, and for century practitioners in other fields for Zaha Hadid the mathematics definitely came whom mathematics was an integral part of first. The golden ratio apparently fascinated their activities. Mozart, to the extent that there is a crucial STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND DYNAMICS The first was the composer Olivier 83/130 bar split in the overture to his Magic IN MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES Messiaen, who in the prison camp where Flute. 30 - 31 October 2014 he was interned wrote his famous Quatuor The artist came next – Salvador Dali. His in association with the Newton Institute programme pour la Fin du Temps. In one movement, Visage of War shows a skull with the eye Understanding Microbial Communities; Function, Structure and Dynamics the Liturgie de Cristal, he writes a 17-note sockets and mouth filled with smaller (11 August – 19 December 2014) rhythm repeated over and over set against a versions and so on... like the Sierpinski 29-note harmonic sequence, so that, because gasket. And his Crucifixion is set against a Organisers: Rosalind Allen (University of Edinburgh), Thomas Curtis (Newcastle University), of the primes involved, the two things never 4-dimensional cube unwrapped in 3 dimen- Thomas Pfeiffer (Massey University), William Sloan (University of Glasgow), Orkun Soyer (Univer- sity of Warwick) and Carsten Wiuf (University of Copenhagen).

Background: In recent years, our understanding of how microbial communities develop and function has been revolutionized by advances in both DNA sequencing and microscopy. Math- ematical tools provide a powerful tool for making sense of such data. This workshop will bring together leaders in the field, both from the experimental and theoretical sides, to highlight the current state of our understanding of microbial community structure, function and dynamics, and to discuss productive future directions. The workshop will focus on ecology, evolution and dynamics. The workshop will take place at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, UK, as part of a longer-term research programme on the study of function and structure of microbial com- munities. It will be preceded by a training event, aimed at early career researchers but all are welcome also to attend. Closing date of the receipt of applications is 10 August 2014. Further information and application forms are available from the website at Marcus du Sautoy www.newton.ac.uk/programmes/UMC/umcw03.shtml LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

LMS NORTHERN polygons. The meeting ended with a wine REGIONAL reception and a dinner MEETING 2014 at Collingwood College, Report where all the participants were accommodated. The 2014 LMS Northern The following four day Regional Meeting took place at Easter School on Dynamics Durham University on Monday and Analytic Number 31 March and was followed Theory was mainly aiming by the Easter School Dynamics at young scientists working and Analytic Number Theory in one of the two above from 1 to 4 April 2014. The mentioned mathematical event was jointly organised disciplines. The speakers by three Durham organisers were internationally rec- Dmitry Badziahin (Durham) , Tim Austin (NYU), (D. Badziahin, N. Peyerimhoff Alex Gorodnik (Bristol) ognized experts giving and T. Ward) together with a series of minicourses: A. Gorodnik (Bristol), A. Ghosh (TIFR) and (York), who introduced and discussed two T. Austin (Courant) on Alex Gorodnik (Bristol), Pankaj Vishe (York), Trevor Wooley (Bristol), B. Weiss (Tel Aviv). The intention of this event fundamental results in the classical theory Multiple Recurrence and Sanju Velani (York) was to communicate remarkable recent of metric Diophantine approximation, Kh- Finding Patterns in Dense developments at the interface between intchine's and Jarnik's theorem, and who Sets, Y. Bugeaud (Strasbourg) on Exponents proximation and T. Wooley (Bristol) on Ex- 24 Number Theory and Dynamical Systems. presented a surprising modern take on the of Diophantine Approximation, M. Einsie- ponential Sums Associated with Translation- 25 The LMS meeting was opened by the connections between these two results. The dler (ETH Zurich) on Diophantine Problems invariant Systems. President of the LMS, Professor Terry Lyons, next talk by Manfred Einsiedler (ETH Zurich) and Homegeneous Dynamics, G. Forni The Easter School was very well received who introduced new LMS members, and was about dynamical theorems on homoge- (Maryland) on Effective Equidistribution for by more than 60 young researchers, many invited members at the meeting, who had neous spaces and how they can be applied Some Homogeneous Flows, A. Kontorovich of them PhD students from all around the not previously done so, to sign the pres- in Diophantine analysis. The final afternoon (Yale) on Applications of Thin Orbits, S. world. Besides the financial support of tigious Membership Book. The following talk was given by Giovanni Forni (Maryland), Velani (York) on Metric Diophantine Ap- the LMS there was also additional financial three survey talks were aiming at a who described a geometric viewpoint on support via an ERC grant broader audience of nonspecialists. The renormalization and discussed applications of A. Gorodnik (Bristol). first afternoon speaker was Sanju Velani to linear skew-shifts and billiards in rational The timeliness of the event is confirmed by other forthcoming events on similar research topics like the Activity Dynamics and Numbers at the Max Planck Institute for Math- ematics (Bonn) during June/July 2014 and the Programme Interac- tions between Dynamics of Group Actions and Number Theory during June/July 2014 at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. Dmitry Badziahin and Norbert Peyerimhoff Attendees Discussion during the coffee break Durham University LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

RECORDS OF PROCEEDINGS AT LMS MEETINGS ORDINARY MEETING LMS SOCIETY MEETING held on 31 March 2014 at the University of Durham as part of the Northern Regional Mathematics and the First World War Meeting and Easter School on Dynamics and Analytic Number Theory. Over 70 members and visitors were present for all or part of the meeting. Saturday 6 September 2014 The meeting began at 2.00 pm with The President, Professor Terry Lyons FRS, in the De Morgan House, 57-58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS Chair. Thirteen members were elected to Ordinary membership: Katia Babbar, Márton Balázs, Gergely Berczi, Andrew Brooke-Taylor, Panagiotis Doukakis, Tamara Grava, Timothy McNicholl, Reto Mueller, David Platt, Peter Rowlett, John Smillie, Michael Todd, Alexandra Tzella. Eleven members were elected to Associate membership: Thomas Booker-Price, Pierre Dechant, Grahame Erskine, Thomas Harris, Wilfred Itankan, Madeleine Jotz Lean, Sheng Li, Stuart Litobarski, Charles Muli, Jean-Frances Niglio, Luke Vorhies. Two members were elected to Reciprocity membership: Avery Carr, Bruce McNeil. Two members signed the book and were admitted to the Society. 26 Dr Dmitry Badziahin introduced a lecture given by Professor Sanju Velani on Metric 27 Diophantine approximation: the Lebesgue and Hausdorff theories. Dr Badziahin then introduced a lecture given by Professor Manfred Einsiedler on Diophantine Problems and Homogeneous Dynamics.

After tea, Dr Badziahin introduced the final lecture given by Professor Giovanni 10:00 Coffee and Registration 3:00 Deborah Kent (Drake University) Forni on Beyond Renormalization in Parabolic Dynamics. 10:30 Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze (Agder) Developing a theory of ballistics from The President, Professor Lyons, expressed the thanks of the Society to the speakers German and Austrian mathematical experimentation and mathematics: and to Norbert Peyerimhoff, Dmitry Badziahin, Anish Ghosh, Alexander Gorodnik, efforts during the First World War O. Veblen, F.R. Moulton, and the Aberdeen Proving Ground Project Tom Ward and Barak Weiss for putting on such a wonderful meeting. 11:30 David Aubin (Paris) Afterwards, the reception and Society Dinner were held at Collingwood College. The Total War of Paris Mathematicians 3:45 Tea 12:15 June Barrow-Green (Open University) 4:15 Joseph Dauben (CUNY) What did Cambridge mathematicians The international diplomacy of G.H. do during the First World War? Hardy 1:00 Lunch 5:15 Close of meeting. Wine Reception 2:15 Rossana Tazzioli (Lille) 7:00 Society Dinner The reaction of Italian mathematicians to the entrance of Italy in the First World War

To register contact Elizabeth Fisher ([email protected]) by Monday 1 September. Late registrations for places may still be accepted, subject to availability. The reception will be followed by a dinner at venue (tbc), at a cost (tbc) per person, inclusive of wine. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact Elizabeth Fisher (lmsmeet [email protected]) by Monday 1 September. There are limited funds available to contribute in part to the expenses of members of the Society or research students to attend the meeting. Please contact Elizabeth Fisher (lms [email protected]) for further information. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

VISIT OF GERHARD KELLER the access grid system available to some • Marius Dadarlat (Purdue) DISCONTINUOUS UK mathematics departments as an AG • Siegfried Echterhoff (Münster) Professor Gerhard Keller (Mathematics, Uni- Dynamics Seminar; see www1.maths.leeds. • Ilijas Farah (York, CA) GALERKIN METHODS versity of Erlangen, Germany) will be visiting ac.uk/~rsturman/ag_dynamics_seminar/ • George Elliott (Toronto) A meeting on the Recent Advances in Discon- the UK from 24 September to 2 October • Imperial College London, 29 September • Gwion Evans (Aberystwyth) tinuous Galerkin Methods will take place at 2014. His expertise is in and (contact Sebastian van Strien: s.van-strien@ • Ilan Hirshberg (Be'er Sheva) the Department of Mathematics and Statis- dynamical systems, especially the thermo- imperial.ac.uk) • Eberhard Kirchberg (Humbold Berlin) tics at the University of Reading from 11 to dynamic formalism, equilibrium states and • University of Warwick, 30 September • David Kerr (Texas A&M) 12 September 2014 and is dedicated to recent spectral theory of dynamical systems. During (contact Ian Melbourne: I.Melbourne@ • Nadia Larsen (Oslo) advances in various aspects related to discon- his visit, Professor Keller will give lectures at warwick.ac.uk) • Xin Li (Queen Mary) tinuous Galerkin methods. the following locations: Further details about the visit can be • Narutaka Ozawa (RIMS Kyoto) The discontinuous Galerkin Method is a • University of Exeter, 25 September , 4-5 pm obtained from Peter Ashwin (P.Ashwin@ • Francesc Perera (Barcelona) well-established approach for the numerical (contact Peter Ashwin: [email protected]. ex.ac.uk). The visit is supported by an LMS • N. Christopher Phillips (Oregon) solution of PDEs with applications ranging uk). This lecture will be broadcast via Scheme 2 grant. • Yasuhiko Sato (Copenhagen) from electromagnetic scattering to fluid and • Aaron Tikuisis (Aberdeen) structural mechanics. One of the reasons of the There are 25 funded places (accommoda- success of the DG paradigm is its flexibility and BMC/BAMC JOINT CSTAR tion, fees and further support) for the mas- capability to incorporate different numerical terclass. methodologies: high order approximation, a MEETING 2015 Classification, STructure, Amenability and Some further funding is available to support posteriori error control, Trefftz approximation, The organisers invite you to Cambridge for Regularity (CStar) is a two week event con- local accommodation and travel for the hp time stepping. The aim of the workshop is the 2015 combined British Mathematical Col- sisting of a masterclass from 25 to 29 August conference. For more information, and to to bring together the leading scientists and 28 loquium (BMC) and British Applied Mathemat- 2014 and a conference from 1 to 5 September register, visit the website at www.maths.gla. active young researchers, mostly from the UK, 29 ics Colloquium (BAMC) to commemorate the 2014 on classification of nuclear C*-alge- ac.uk/~saw/CStar14/main.html. working in the field of discontinuous Galerkin 150th Anniversary of the London Mathemati- bras and will take place at the University of The organisers are: Joan Bosa, Stuart White, methods and initiate intensive idea exchanges cal Society. Glasgow. Joachim Zacharias (Glasgow) and Wilhelm and new collaborations. The speakers include: Combined BMC/BAMC meetings takes place The classification programme started Winter (Muenster). The event is supported by • Blanca Ayuso de Dios (KAUST) every five years, and this meeting, hosted by around 1990 and there have been some spec- an LMS conference grant and EPSRC. • Gabriel Barrenechea (Strathclyde) the University of Cambridge, will include a tacular recent developments. Both events are • Andrea Cangiani (Leicester) special set of sessions and plenaries in honour devoted to the latest exciting developments. ANALYTIC NUMBER • Andreas Dedner (Warwick) of 150 years of the LMS. The masterclass provides an opportunity to • Herbert Egger (TU Darmstadt) Keynote speakers at the meeting will learn about key techniques at the heart of THEORY • Emmanuil Georgoulis (Leicester) include Robert Calderbank, Ingrid Daube- current research in this area. An international conference on Analytic • Stefano Giani (Durham) chies, Jacques Dumais, Phil Hall, Sylvia Serfaty, Aimed at PhD students and early career Number Theory and its Applications will • Edward Hall (Leicester) Wendelin Werner and Andrew Wiles, and a researchers, the masterclass will consist of be held from 14 to 18 July 2014 at Perrotis • Paul Houston (Nottingham) public lecture is scheduled to be given jointly two introductory courses on the classifica- College (Thessaloniki, Greece) in honour of • Foteini Karakatsani (Strathclyde) by and Michael Green. tion programme given by Marius Dadarlat Jeff Hoffstein. The conference aims to enable • Irene Kyza (Dundee) The combined BMC/BAMC meeting will run (Purdue) and Nate Brown (Penn State) and exchange of ideas and information among • Omar Lakkis (Sussex) from 11:00 on Monday 30 March 2015 to 13:00 a further longer course on more special- workers on Dirichlet series and automorphic • Matthias Maischak (Brunel) on Thursday 2 April 2015, with the celebration ised techniques (central sequences) given by forms, areas to which Jeff Hoffstein has made • Charalambos Makridakis (Sussex) of the 150th anniversary of the LMS taking Mikael Roerdam (Copenhagen). There will fundamental contributions. The structure • Iain Smears (Oxford) place during Wednesday 1 April 2015 followed be further introductory lectures by Wilhelm of the conference will consist of research The registration fee is £30 (research students by the conference dinner that evening. For Winter (Münster) and various local speakers. lectures, discussion and problem sessions. and postdoctoral researchers within three years further details visit www.bmc-bamc.org.uk. Moreover there will be opportunities for par- The organizers are B. Brubaker (Minnesota), of the completion of their PhDs are exempt). For Limited accommodation in Cambridge ticipants to present their work. N. Diamantis (Nottingham) and D. Goldfeld further information visit the workshop website colleges will be available during the meeting The masterclass will be followed by a (Columbia). The conference is supported by www.personal.reading.ac.uk/~st904897/ to those who book early. Registration and research conference devoted to the latest the Clay Foundation, the Compositio Founda- ReaDG.html or contact the organizers Alexey abstract submission opens on 1 December activity in the area, emphasising connections tion and the NSF. Details of the meeting can Chernov, Andrea Moiola and Tristan Pryer by 2014. To sign up for a reminder of this date to dynamics and topology. The speakers are: be viewed at http://math.umn.edu/~brubaker/ email ([email protected]). The meeting is visit www.bmc-bamc.org.uk/preregistration. • Joachim Cuntz (Münster) jh2014c.html. supported by an LMS Conference grant. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS ADAMS PRIZE

Algebraic Geometry

School of Mathematics and Statistics The University of Cambridge has announced the subject for one if its oldest and most prestigious prizes. The Adams Prize is named after the mathematician John Couch Regius Professor of Mathematics Adams and was endowed by members of St John’s College. It commemorates Adams’s role in the discovery of the planet Neptune, through calculation of the discrepancies in the of Uranus. The School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews is looking to appoint a Regius Professor of Mathematics. This prestigious chair was established The Chairman of the Adjudicators for the Adams Prize invites applications for the in 1668, and the first holder was James Gregory. 30 2014-15 Prize which will be awarded this year for achievements in the field of algebraic We are looking for candidates with an outstanding track record of research and 31 geometry. academic achievement in any of the key areas of mathematical sciences. The ability to lead the strategic development of mathematical sciences in St Andrews, and to The prize is open to any person who, on 31 October 2014, will hold an appointment in represent the School prominently within the UK and internationally are essential. the UK, either in a university or in some other institution; and who is under 40 (in excep- We expect the appointment to expand our existing research portfolio in a sig- nificant way, with the possibility of forming a new research group. Nonetheless, tional circumstances the Adjudicators may relax this age limit). The value of the prize is synergies with the current expertise -- algebra, analysis, combinatorics, solar MHD, expected to be approximately £14,000, of which one third is awarded to the prize-winner fluid dynamics, and statistics -- will be welcome. on announcement of the prize, one third is provided to the prize-winner’s institution The University, the oldest in Scotland and third oldest in the UK, is consistently (for research expenses of the prize-winner) and one third is awarded to the prize-winner highly ranked in national league tables. It was voted Scottish University of the Year on acceptance for publication in an internationally recognised journal of a substantial 2013/14 by and Sunday Times, and the School was ranked top in the UK in (normally at least 25 printed pages) original article, of which the prize-winner is an University Guide 2015. author, surveying a significant part of the winner’s field. The University is committed to equality of opportunity. The School of Mathemat- ics & Statistics prides itself on its inclusive and family-friendly work environment, Applications (email and two hard copies), comprising a CV, a list of publications, the actively striving to achieve diversity and equality of opportunity for all of its staff, body of work (published or unpublished) to be considered, and a brief non-technical students and visitors. summary of the most significant new results of this work (designed for mathematicians For further details and an informal discussion please contact Professor Nik Ruskuc, not working in the subject area) should be sent to: the Head of School, [email protected]. For full details see http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/employment/. The Secretary of the Adams Prize Adjudicators, We encourage applicants to apply online at www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Undergraduate Office, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, welcome.aspx. However if you are unable to do this, please call +44 (0)1334 462571 Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA for an application pack. Closing Date: 15 September 2014 (Email: [email protected]) Please quote ref: ME837R The deadline for receipt of applications is 31 October 2014. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland (No SC013532). LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

List of upcoming conferences:

• 4th IMA Conference on Numerical Linear Algebra and Optimisation University of Birmingham, 3-5 September 2014 http://tinyurl.com/IMAConfNLAO • IMA Conference on Mathematical Modelling of Fluid Systems Engineers’ House, Bristol, 10-12 September 2014 http://tinyurl.com/IMAConfFluid 2014 Annual • IMA Early Career Mathematicians’ Autumn Conference 2014 Queen Mary University London, 22 November 2014 Conference www.ima.org.uk/conferences/conferences_calendar.cfm • IMA Conference on Applications of Game Theory The 2014 Heilbronn Annual Conference will be held St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, 8-10 December 2014 at the University of Bristol on the 11–12 September. A http://tinyurl.com/IMAConf-GameTheory number of distinguished mathematicians are invited to • 10th IMA Conference on Maths in Signal Processing 32 present lectures, intended to be accessible to a mixed IET, Austin Court, Birmingham, 15-17 December 2014 33 audience of mathematicians. Invited speakers: http://tinyurl.com/IMAConf-SignalProcessing10

Nalini Anantharaman, Universite Paris-Sud • IMA Conference on the Mathematical Challenges of Big Data Emmanuel Breuillard, Universite Paris-Sud Woburn House, London, 16-17 December 2014 , University of Oxford http://tinyurl.com/IMAConf-BigData Nick Duffield, Rutgers University Alexander Holroyd, Microsoft Research • IMA Conference on Research in Mathematics and its Applications: Eight Great Hendrik Lenstra, University of Leiden Technologies James Maynard, University of Oxford Ashkan Nikeghbali, University of Zurich University of Bath, 9 January 2015 Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey http://tinyurl.com/IMAConfResearch

There is no registration fee but to enable estimation • IMA Mathematics 2015 of numbers, please complete this on-line form: Mary Ward House, London, 19 March 2015 survey.bris.ac.uk/mathematics/heilbronnregistration2014 www.ima.org.uk/conferences/conferences_calendar.cfm UK graduate students and postdoctoral who would like to attend • 3rd IMA Conference on Flood Risk Assessment and need support should contact [email protected] Swansea University, 30-31 March 2015 before 15 July detailing their requirements, enclosing a brief CV, and http://tinyurl.com/IMAConf-FloodRisk explaining why other support is not available. The final programme and additional details will be posted on the Institute website in due course. • 8th IMA Conference on Mathematical Education of Engineers Loughborough University, 20 April 2015 Venue http://tinyurl.com/IMAConfMEE Pugsley Lecture Theatre, 1.40 Queens Building, University Walk, Bristol, BS8 1TR • IMA International Conference on Barriers and Enablers to Learning Maths: Enhancing Learning and Teaching for All Learners University of Glasgow, 10-12 June 2015 http://tinyurl.com/IMAConfTeach

Visit www.ima.org.uk/conferences/conferences_calendar.cfm to keep up to date with the conference programme, and for further information or to register your interest any of the above conferences, please contact Lizzi Lake, Conference Officer, email: [email protected], maths.bris.ac.uk/events/meetings tel: +44 (0) 1702 354 020, fax: +44 (0) 1702 354 111, Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Catherine Richards House, 16 Nelson Street, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1EF, UK. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

all based on solid and well-understood prob- WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER GENERALIZED FUNCTIONS ability theory, and there are many striking 13:00-14:30 Life Saving Mathematics, examples. Thomas Woolley, Helen Byrne and Gary An international conference on Generalized Mirams (Oxford). Applying mathematics Functions (GF2014) will take place at the De- SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER to biological problems in medicine: brain partment of Mathematical Sciences, Univer- 10.00-11.00 Seventeen or Bust, Iain Bethune tumours, cancer and modelling of the sity of Southampton from 8 to 12 September (EPCC, University of Edinburgh) heart. 2014. This conference continues a long-stand- The Sierpinski conjecture, and what you can ing tradition of international conferences on do to help. THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER generalized functions gathering researchers 12:00-13:00 The Rosalind Franklin Award working in all branches of the field. Topics 13:30-14:30 Sex, Maths and the Brain: Where Lecture: Our Dynamical Sun: a 21st Century include: Have All the Girl Scientists Gone?, Gina View, Ineke De Moortel (St Andrews) • Distribution theory, hyperfunctions, Rippon (Aston) A journey from the Sun’s nuclear core, algebras of generalized functions, Integral Is there such a thing as a maths brain? Are through the solar surface, into its atmos- transforms, mathematicians born or made? Can brain phere, on towards Earth and finally out • Linear and nonlinear differential equa- The Festival is organized by the British Science imaging help us understand gender differ- into space, showing how we can create tions, solvability, regularity, stochastic Association (a.k.a. the British Association for ences in the world of mathematics? mathematical models of solar activity. analysis, the Advancement of Science) and takes place • Pseudodifferential operators and microlo- this year in Birmingham from Saturday 6 to 16:00-17:30 When Fridges Attack: Big Data IN ADDITION cal analysis, Thursday 11 September 2014. Meets Intelligent Machines The 2014 Math- Katie Steckles will be running Think Maths • Geometric problems and nonlinear distri- These are the mathematical sciences related ematical Sciences Presidential Lecture by Workshops on Saturday 6 September, and butional geometry, 34 events in the main programme, with provi- Peter McOwan (QMUL), with Louis McCallum there will be several events in the Young • Applications in mathematical modelling 35 sional timings. (QMUL). People’s Programme, including Modular and mathematical physics, applied analysis, Computers, and the maths powering them, Arithmetic by Joe Watkins (Kent), Maths • Harmonic analysis, modulation spaces, SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER are starting to link everything around us with Saves Lives by Louise Orpin (OR Society); time-frequency analysis. 10:00-11:30 From Dürer to Sudoku: 500 Years the sea of personal data we all now swim in. and Codes and Codebreaking by Corneliu Confirmed speakers are: of Recreational Maths, organized by Peter What could happen when everyday things Hoffman, Designing and Making a Cal- • Pedro Catuogno (University Estadual de Rowlett (Nottingham Trent) get smart? culator by David Leppinen, Using Maths Campinas) Geometry and magic squares, inspired by Followed by a wine reception sponsored by to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse by • Sandro Coriasco (University of Turin) the 500th anniversary of Dürer's Melencolia the Operational Research Society. Sara Jabbari and Using Maths to Win at • Claudia Garetto (Loughborough I, with John Sharp, Robin Wilson and Peter Gameshows by Simon Goodwin (all from University) McOwan. MONDAY 8 SEPTEMBER Birmingham). • James Grant (University of Surrey) 11:00-12:00 Pocket Doctor, Max Little (Aston) The Maths and Computing Magic Show, • Eduard Nigsch (University of Vienna) 12:00-13:00 The Darwin Award Lecture: What Cheap phones are capable of recording Matt Parker and Peter McOwan (QMUL). • Michael Oberguggenberger (University of Can Maths Tell Us about How an Animal is voice, activity, movement, location – all data Magic tricks and fun with a basis in math- Innsbruck) Feeling? Lisa Collins (Lincoln) which can reveal signs of illness. Mathemati- ematics or computer science [day and time • Stevan Pilipovic (University of Novi Saad) Explore a wonderland of animal behaviours cal algorithms can detect problems such as to be decided]. • Luigi Rodino (University of Turin) that are hidden to the human eye, but not depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and For further details visit the website at • Michael Ruzhansky (Imperial College, to an algorithm. We will seek to explain how Parkinson’s. New technologies will monitor www.britishscienceassociation.org/british- London) mathematics can help to understand some vital signs continuously - a true doctor in your science-festival/birmingham-2014. • Roland Steinbauer (University of Vienna) complicated and bizarre behaviours, and pocket. • Joachim Toft (Växjö University) what it can tell us about the feelings of the FESTIVAL 2015 • Jasson Vindas (University of Ghent) animals performing them. TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER The format of a Festival of Science in 2015 For details and registration form see the 16:30-17:30 The Royal Society Vision for the is not yet settled. If there is a call for event conference webpage at www.ocs.soton. 15:00-16:00 The Improbability Principle, Future of Science and Mathematics Education proposals as in previous years then I shall ac.uk/index.php/gf2014/gf2014 or contact the David Hand (Imperial College) Learn more about the Royal Society’s vision be circulating notices to email lists in the organising committee at [email protected] The improbability principle says extremely for how the UK can develop an inspiring and autumn of this year. Any queries please or the Chair of the Organising Committee: improbable events are commonplace. The high performing science and mathematics to the Chair of the Mathematical Sciences James Vickers ([email protected]). five basic laws underlying the principle are education system over the next 15 to 20 years. Section, Peter Giblin ([email protected]). The conference may be able to offer LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

some degree of financial support to - par • Antal Balog (Hungarian Academy of • Anne-Sophie Kaloghiros (Imperial College) Registration is now open via the conference ticipants giving contributed talks, to post- Sciences) • Jonathan Pridham (Edinburgh) website at www2.imperial.ac.uk/~amijatov/ graduate students, and to others unable to • Ben Green (University of Oxford) • Orsola Tommasi (Hannover) IP/EPM2014/EPM.html cover costs from their own sources. Contact • Roger Heath-Brown (University of Oxford) • Claire Voisin (Ecole Polytechnique) Some support for PhD students will be [email protected] if you would like to • Harald Helfgott (École Normale • Geordie Williamson (Bonn) available. Details on how to apply can be request financial support. The conference is Supérieure) There is a £25 registration fee (£20 for found on the conference website (deadline supported by an LMS Conference grant and • Christopher Hooley (University of Bristol) PhD students). Funding is available for a 31 July 2014). the University of Southampton. • Jens Marklof (University of Bristol) significant number of PhD students and The meeting traditionally takes place in • James Maynard (Universities of Montreal post-docs. For more information, including April of every other year. However, in 2014 FUNCTION THEORY and Oxford) how to register, see the meeting website the meeting has been moved to September • Nina Snaith (University of Bristol) https://sites.google.com/site/bragmeet due to the temporal proximity of other large MEETING • Trevor Wooley (University of Bristol) ing/. The meeting is supported by an LMS Con- events in probability in the UK. The meeting is This year's One Day Function Theory Meeting There is a £45 registration fee (£15 per ference grant, EPSRC and the Warwick MRC. organised by Nick Bingham, Rama Cont, Dan will be held on Monday 1 September 2014 at day) to cover coffee/tea and lunches. Some Crisan, and Alex Mijatovic. It is supported by De Morgan House in London. This popular funding is available to contribute to the an LMS Conference grant, EPSRC, CFM-Impe- meeting, well attended by function theorists expenses of research students. For more UK PROBABILITY rial Institute of Quantitative Finance, and the from the UK and Ireland, has been held information, including how to register, MEETING 2014 Department of Mathematics at Imperial. The annually for over thirty years. see the meeting website http://mathsev meeting is sponsored by the Bernoulli Society. Speakers will include Professor Nuria Fagella ents.cf.ac.uk/huxleymeeting/index.html or The next UK Probability Meeting From (University of Barcelona) who will speak on contact the organiser, Matthew Lettington Microscopic to Macroscop- Hyperbolic entire functions with bounded ([email protected]). The meeting is ic Phenomena will take place at Imperial BRITISH LOGIC 36 Fatou components, and Professor Lasse Rem- supported by an LMS Conference grant and College London from 15 to 19 September COLLOQUIUM 2014 37 pe-Gillen (University of Liverpool) who will by Cardiff University. 2014. As with previous meetings, the general and speak on Arc-like continua, Julia sets of entire aim of the conference is to bring together the functions, and Eremenko's conjecture. UK probability community, showcase recent BLC PHD DAY 2014 Email the organiser (odftm.mail@gmail. BRITISH ALGEBRAIC developments, and invite leading interna- com) if you are interested in attending. Infor- GEOMETRY tional researchers to give short courses on The British Logic Colloquium (BLC) 2014 mation about past meetings and the location topical and emerging areas in the field.The will be held at the University of Central Lan- of De Morgan House can be found on the The first British Algebraic Geometry Meeting meeting is organised by the Imperial Proba- cashire from 3 to 5 September 2014. It will One Day Function Theory Meeting website (BrAG) will take place at the Mathematics bility Centre and will include mini-courses by: be preceded by a BLC PhD Day from 2 to 3 at https://sites.google.com/site/functiontheo- Institute at the University of Warwick from • Krzysztof Burdzy (Washington) September. This is a general Logic meeting rymeeting/. 22 to 24 September 2014. The conference • Gareth Roberts (Warwick) and will cover a variety of topics within the The meeting is supported by an LMS Confer- will start on Monday at 2.30 pm and finish on • Walter Schachermayer (Vienna) subject. Invited speakers are: ence grant Wednesday at 2.30 pm. and a number of invited one-hour talks. • Natasha Alechina (Nottingham) This will be the inaugural meeting of a Confirmed invited speakers include: • Ann Copestake (Cambridge) planned series of regular meetings of British • Mathias Beiglböck (Vienna) • Anuj Dawar (Cambridge) THE HUXLEY MEETING algebraic geometers. The goal is to create • Nathanael Berestycki (Cambridge) • Immanuel Halupczok (Leeds) ON ANALYTIC a series that further strengthens the British • Franco Flandoli (Pisa) • Johnathan Kirby (UEA) algebraic geometry community, in particu- • István Gyöngy (Edinburgh) • Graham Leigh (Oxford) NUMBER THEORY lar by integrating PG students and young • Saul Jacka (Warwick) • Jeff Paris (Manchester) This meeting will take place in the School researchers. The first meeting will feature a • Ioannis Karatzas (Columbia) • Alex Simpson (Edinburgh) of Mathematics at Cardiff University from number of pre-talks for graduate students, a • Vassili Kolokoltsov (Warwick) • Boban Velickovic (Paris) Wednesday 17 September to Friday 19 poster session, and will include plenty of time • Claudio Landim (IMPA-Rio de Janeiro and The organisers welcome contributions for September 2014. The focus of the meeting for informal interactions between the partici- CNRS) the main conference and the PhD Day. For will be on recent developments in analytic pants. The speakers are: • Sylvie Méléard (Ecole Polytechnique) details of how to submit a contributed talk number theory. This meeting is being held on • (Sheffield) • Ashkan Nikeghbali (Zurich) or poster visit the website at http://www. the occasion of Martin Huxley’s 70th birthday • Lucia Caporaso (Roma Tre) • Sandrine Péché (Paris VII) blc-logic.org/2014-Lancashire. The meeting is minus epsilon. The confirmed speakers so far • Paolo Cascini (Imperial College) • Vitali Wachtel (Ludwig-Maximilians-Univer- supported by an LMS Conference grant and are: • Mark Gross (Cambridge) sität München) the British Logic Colloquium. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

BRITISH TOPOLOGY visit the meeting's website www.personal. soton.ac.uk/ijl1y09/btm14/, or contact one of MEETING the organisers: Jelena Grbic (J.Grbic@soton. The 29th British Topology Meeting will take ac.uk), Ian Leary ([email protected]) and place in the School of Mathematical Sciences Stephen Theriault (S.D.Theriault@soton. at the University of Southampton from 8 to ac.uk). The meeting is supported by an LMS 10 September 2014. It will showcase recent Conference grant. Mathematics Journals developments in topology and their connec- tions with other areas of mathematics. The LIMIT THEOREMS froM CaM bridge speakers include: • Tara Brendle (University of Glasgow) A one-day workshop on Limit Theorems, • Ib Madsen (University of Copenhagen) Probability Approximations and Related High quality pure and applied mathematics research: free • Aniceto Murillo (Universidad de Malaga) Areas will be held at Heriot-Watt University aCCess • Taras Panov (Moscow State University) on Friday 12 September 2014. Speakers for • Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society offer • Birgit Richter (University of Hamburg) the event are: • Combinatorics, Probability and Computing • Vladimir Vershinin (Université Montpelier) • Gesine Reinert (University of Oxford) • The Review of Symbolic Logic • Henry Wilton (University College London) • Sergey Utev (University of Leicester) • Compositio Mathematica There are also open slots for contributed • Fraser Daly (Heriot-Watt University) • talks. The registration fee is £30 (research For further information see the workshop students are exempt). Some funding is website www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~fd78/ltpara or available to contribute to the travel and ac- contact Fraser Daly ([email protected]). The 38 commodation expenses of research students. meeting is supported by an LMS Conference 39 For further information, including how to grant under the Celebrating New Appoint- register or apply to give a contributed talk, ments scheme.

Automorphisms Optimal and Equivalence Transportation Relations in Theory and Applications Topological Hervé Pajot, Université de Grenoble Dynamics Yann Ollivier, David B. Ellis, Université de Paris XI Beloit College, Wisconsin Cedric Villani, Robert Ellis, Université de Paris VI (Pierre et Marie Curie) Beloit College, Wisconsin 1 Contains short courses which give an Focusing on the role that accessible introduction to problems of automorphisms and equivalence current interest, and research papers relations play in the algebraic theory of minimal sets provides which present modern developments an original treatment of some key aspects of abstract topological access a selection of key papers from across these journals and more 1 The book presents both the theory of dynamics. Such an approach is presented in this lucid and optimal transport and some of its many applications Visit: journals.cambridge.org/trial Enter code: LMsaCCess self-contained book, leading to simpler proofs of classical results, as well as providing motivation for further study. This 1 Of interest to researchers in pure and applied mathematics, book is designed as both a guide for graduate students, and physics, computer science and economics a source of interesting new ideas for researchers.

London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, No. 412 London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series, No. 413 Paperback | 9781107633223 | June 2014 | £45.00 Paperback | 9781107689497 | July 2014 | £40.00

www.cambridge.org/lms412 www.cambridge.org/lms413

www.cambridge.org LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

ASYMPTOPIA METHODS FOR MATHEMATICAL AND Joel Spencer, New York University With Laura Florescu, New York University EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES Asymptotics in one form or another are part of the landscape for every mathematician. The objective of this book is to present PhD Summer School the ideas of how to approach asymptotic problems that arise in discrete mathematics, analysis of algorithms, and number theory. 27 - 29 October 2014 A broad range of topics is covered, including distribution of prime in association with the Newton Institute programme integers, Erdős Magic, random graphs, Ramsey numbers, and asymptotic geometry. Understanding Microbial Communities; Function, Structure and Dynamics (11 August – 19 December 2014) Asymptopia is a beautiful world. Enjoy! Student Mathematical Library, Vol. 71 Jun 2014 195pp 9781470409043 Paperback £29.50

Organisers: Rosalind Allen (University of Edinburgh), Thomas Curtis (Newcastle University), Thomas Pfeiffer (Massey University), William Sloan 40 (University of Glasgow), Orkun Soyer (University of Warwick) and Carsten MATHEMATICS ACROSS 41 Wiuf (University of Copenhagen). THE IRON CURTAIN A History of the Algebraic Theory of Semigroups Background: Theoretical and computational techniques to model microbial communities are essential tools for making sense of the massive amounts Christopher Hollings of new data emerging from DNA sequencing. This two-day workshop will The theory of semigroups is a relatively young branch of mathematics, with most of the major results having appeared feature tutorial-style lectures on a number of themes that are emerging after the Second World War. This book describes the evolution in this field, ranging from understanding and interpreting microbial of (algebraic) semigroup theory from its earliest origins to the evolution experiments, through individual-based modelling, to analysis establishment of a full-fledged theory. of sequence data. The meeting is open to all, but aimed at early career Semigroup theory might be termed Cold War mathematics’ researchers, whom will be given the opportunity to present their work in because of the time during which it developed. There were thriving short talks and posters. The workshop will take place at the Isaac Newton schools on both sides of the Iron Curtain, although the two sides were not always able to communicate with each other, or even gain Institute, Cambridge, UK, as part of a longer-term research programme on access to the other’s publications. A major theme of this book is the study of function and structure of microbial communities. the comparison of the approaches to the subject of mathematicians in East and West, and the study of the extent to which contact between the two sides was possible. History of Mathematics, Vol. 41 Closing date of the receipt of applications is 10 August 2014. Sep 2014 449pp 9781470414931 Hardback £81.50

Further information and application forms are available from the website at To order AMS titles visit www.eurospanbookstore.com/ams www.newton.ac.uk/programmes/UMC/umcw02.shtml CUSTOMER SERVICES: FURTHER INFORMATION: Tel: +44 (0)1767 604972 Tel: +44 (0)20 7240 0856 Fax: +44 (0)1767 601640 Fax: +44 (0)20 7379 0609 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] distributed by Eurospan|group LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

MEMBERS’ OPINIONS ...... have your say They would leave the building." By contrast, HINDUSTAN BOOK AGENCY GCHQ's own documents detail how it secretly All opinions submitted to this section are strictly those of the contributor and do not necessar- captured webcam images, many sexually ily represent the views of the London Mathematical Society. explicit, from millions of ordinary people. If INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY These two opinions close this particular debate. that is not "snooping", what is? OF STANDARD MONOMIALS We would welcome opinions on other topics relevant to mathematics (newsletter@lms. We all want spies to spy on terrorists. We Second Edition ac.uk). Items are accepted at the discretion of the Editor and subject to available space in any all agree that the secret services must have C. S. Seshadri given edition. Items may also be reproduced on the LMS Membership blog to allow debates to secrets. We all support targeted surveillance. Texts and Readings in continue for a longer period of time. Mathematics, Vol. 46 But what is at issue is mass surveillance: the Provides an introduction to monitoring of everyone, all the time. what has come to be known SHOULD MATHEMATICIANS COOPERATE WITH GCHQ? Pinch and MacCallum blur that distinction. as Standard Monomial Theory Trevor Jarvis (University of Hull - ret’d) trust the Orwellian statements of government Thus, MacCallum cites MI5 head Andrew (SMT). SMT deals with the construction of nice bases of This question was posed by Tom Leinster in ministers. Who carries out the ‘independent’ Parker's statement that the agencies and finite dimensional irreducible the April LMS Newsletter. His quite reasonable scrutiny of GCHQ? police have disrupted many "plots towards representations of semi-simple article referred to widespread allegations that Finally, can I make a request to Malcolm terrorism". But Parker did not credit mass algebraic groups or, in geometric terms, nice bases of coordinate rings of flag varieties (and their Schubert the security services monitor much of our lives. MacCallum and Richard Pinch: please will you surveillance; on the contrary, he added that subvarieties) associated to these groups. Besides its Richard Pinch (May LMS Newsletter) and give me an assurance that this email won't be almost all the plots came from a known intrinsic interest, SMT has applications to the study of the Malcolm MacCallum (June LMS Newsletter) read by the security services? pool of several thousand individuals. Even geometry of Schubert varieties. each make a valiant attempt to stave off the less relevant is MacCallum's observation This book is a reproduction of a course of lectures given by the author in 1983-84 which appeared in the Brandeis question. Tom Leinster (School of Mathematics, Univer- that phone billing records can be useful in Lecture Notes series Their defence is basically 'we don't believe sity of Edinburgh) criminal trials. These are obtained from phone Jun 2014 228pp 9789380250427 Hardback £39.50 42 the allegations but we can't say why.' Two mathematicians associated with GCHQ, companies, not GCHQ. 43 "Allegations about GCHQ's activities are Richard Pinch and Malcolm MacCallum, have Heads of mathematics departments would NOTES ON FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS not going to be confirmed or denied. Either now replied to my April LMS Newsletter probably like to "stay out of politics". This Rajendra Bhatia would be helpful to hostile nations, terrorists article, which consisted mostly of factual state- is wishing for the impossible. It is illogical to Texts and Readings in Mathematics, Vol. 50 or criminals." ments based on the Snowden leaks, followed maintain that dissenting from cooperation These notes are a record of That is very puzzling. In what way would it by the mild opinion that mathematicians can with GCHQ is a political act, but assenting is a one semester course on help "hostile nations, terrorists or criminals" to choose whether to give GCHQ their coopera- not. A HoD who runs a working relationship Functional Analysis given by know their every moves were being watched? tion. with GCHQ is implementing a political view the author to second year Haven't they caught on yet? Neither of them disputes any specific factual just as surely as one who declines. Master of Statistics students at the Indian Statistical Institute, Malcolm MacCallum says that the intelli- statement that I made.1 Neither engages with HoDs should at least consult openly. In New Delhi. Students taking gence services have thwarted 34 terrorist plots. the fact that the intelligence agencies intercept London, resentment has been caused by the this course have a strong Well, maybe they have, maybe they haven't. not just terrorists' communications, but eve- establishment of joint positions with GCHQ background in real analysis, linear algebra, measure theory and probability, and the course proceeds rapidly We don't know. Mathematicians don’t usually ryone's (over 50 billion communications/day, without proper consultation. Medicine and from the definition of a normed linear space to the take things on trust. In any case, if the plots according to GCHQ). Neither discusses the psychology departments routinely make spectral theorem for bounded selfadjoint operators in a have been foiled shouldn't the would-be per- total surveillance mission of GCHQ's closest ethical assessments. Maybe it is time for math- Hilbert space. petrators be publicly exposed – pour décour- partner, the US National Security Agency: ematics departments to draw up their own 2009 248pp 9788185931890 Hardback £35.95 ager les autres? Collect it all. Sniff it all. Know it all. ethical policies. Praising the work of GCHQ and the intelli- Process it all. Partner it all. Exploit it all. We now have detailed evidence of what To order Hindustan Book Agency titles visit gence agencies in stopping innocent people Neither addresses any of the facts revealed we are supporting when we collaborate with www.eurospanbookstore.com/hindbook being killed, Malcolm MacCallum says “Deaths by the leaks. Both say, effectively: "Trust us." the secret services, and we can use it to have at 9/11 and 7/7 were narrowly avoided...” That But no one needs to trust Pinch or a properly evidence-based discussion. Instead is a very strange statement; were those attacks MacCallum, or me, because we now have of seeking refuge in the comforting myth of foreseen? detailed documentary evidence of what GCHQ political neutrality, we should take responsibil- |group As for the statement by the Foreign and its partners are doing. We can simply test ity for our actions. distributed by Eurospan CUSTOMER SERVICES: FURTHER INFORMATION: Secretary in the House of Commons – “It is claims against that evidence. 1 MacCallum disputes one I didn't make; see the Tel: +44 (0)1767 604972 Tel: +44 (0)20 7240 0856 my belief... that GCHQ staff conduct them- For example, Pinch quotes GCHQ director longer online version of this article at www.maths. Fax: +44 (0)1767 601640 Fax: +44 (0)20 7379 0609 selves with the highest level of integrity and Iain Lobban's claim that if his staff "were asked ed.ac.uk/~tl. In both that and my previous article, Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] legal compliance" – many people no longer to snoop, I would not have the workforce. every factual statement is hyperlinked to supporting evidence. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

OBITUARIES four decades an international reputation line of wit and aphorism delivered in his bination of science and commerce was to be in discrete groups and Riemann surfaces, very own soft highland brogue. This never the pattern of his life. MURRAY MACBEATH writing seminal papers on geometry of deserted him and throughout his retirement Adam returned to the UK in 1947. His Professor AM numbers, measure theory, discrete groups he and Julie continued to make new friends: contacts and language skills led him into the Macbeath, who and Teichmüller theory, finite group actions his funeral was a standing-room-only affair. translation of accounts of Russian science was elected a on surfaces and algebraic curves, over 55 For me, with his high intelligence, kindness and technology and with John Ashby, a bio- member of the publications in all, with a final contribution and innate modesty, he has been a model chemist, he formed Pion to publish transla- London Mathemat- in 1998 to an MSRI volume The Eightfold as mathematician and human being. An in- tions of Russian-language journals in con- ical Society on 16th Way on Klein's quartic curve. dependent observer might note the lack of junction with the British Library (which ran a January 1947, died Murray had a broad circle of friends within any formal recognition for his achievements government-sponsored programme for that on 26 May 2014, the international community, ensuring a from the British science establishment. He purpose) and to publish academic journals aged 90. healthy flow of postdoctoral visitors to Bir- would smile and refer us to the bard: and books on its own account. Bill Harvey writes: mingham and lively seminars. The style and For a' that, and a' that Pion was involved in the publishing of a Born in Glasgow, quality of his teaching enriched a genera- Our toils obscure and a' that, translation of Russian Mathematical Surveys © Julie MacBeath his early education tion of students at all levels, including the The rank is but the guinea's stamp, for the LMS and the British Library from the was at Royal Belfast fortunate few postgrads (12 or more) directly The man's the gowd for a' that. late 1970s. From 1990 onwards, Adam or- Academy and Queen's College, Belfast. On supervised by him. His lectures Discontinu- I can see him still, at a workshop on Dessins chestrated discussions, in collaboration with moving to Clare College, Cambridge in 1943, ous groups and birational transformations d'enfant in Southampton in Millennium year, the LMS and the Department of Mathemat- his precocious mathematical abilities were from the 1961 Dundee Conference were sitting happily with his old friend Robert ics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, that recognised and he joined the code-breakers very influential in fostering interest in finite Rankin and enjoying the fare: the talks, the led to the translations of Sbornik: Math- at Bletchley Park (1943-45). After the war, group actions on surfaces, group presenta- chat and the conviviality. RIP, Murray. ematics and Izvestiya: Mathematics leaving 44 a glittering educational career followed: tions and the topology of 2- and 3-dimen- the American Mathematical Society and 45 ADAM GELBTUCH wrangler in the , MA sional orbifolds. He spent several periods in being published in 1995 in conjunction with (Cantab) 1948 and Smith's Prize in 1949. visiting positions including Caltech and Pitts- Adam Gelbtuch, the LMS by Turpion, the company he had Two years as a Commonwealth fellow in burgh, St. Andrews and Warwick. He will be Chairman of Pion earlier formed jointly with the Royal Society Princeton led to a PhD under , greatly missed by all who knew him and his Ltd Publishers, died of Chemistry. Such was the success of the after which a return to Cambridge, marriage work. on 3 April 2014 move that Russian Mathematical Surveys to his wife Julie (who survives him) and a As a postgraduate student of Murray aged 93. followed in 1998. post as lecturer at Keele University in 1951. Macbeath in Birmingham from 1962, I was Robert Welham Many, both in the UK and Russia, contrib- He was appointed professor at Queen's privileged to gain the best possible introduc- writes: He was born uted to these projects but Adam’s role was College, Dundee in 1953, and his research tion to research, with fascinating new ideas in 1921 in Krakow. both central and essential. Honest, direct, broadened from geometry of numbers and at play fostered by a friendly and encourag- He came to the UK and always even-tempered he dissolved dif- convex measure theory into low-dimension- ing supervisor. His complete honesty, lack in 1938 to study ficulties and united all parties in the atmos- al topology. Discrete groups and transfor- of pretension and unfailing good humour aeronautical engi- phere of mutual trust in which the publica-

mation formed the central made the transition from undergraduate to © Alex Sunshine 2013 neering at Imperial tion of these journals continues. core of his work, in particular Fuchsian and research student almost painless. His own College London. He lived his private life to the full. He non-Euclidean crystallographic groups and innovative work on presentations of discrete Returning to visit his parents in the summer shared an enjoyment of good food and finite group actions on Riemann surfaces, groups blended naturally with the devel- of 1939 he was caught up in the invasion of wine, music and the arts with his wife, Helen where he reactivated and modernised an opment of quasiconformal mappings and his country and was captured by the Russians - herself a professional singer. He continued area largely untouched since the days of moduli of Riemann surfaces at that time by and held in harsh conditions of captivity in with his annual skiing holiday until his late Hurwitz and Klein. He moved in 1962 to the Lars Ahlfors, Lipman Bers and Harry Rauch; a labour camp, where his father died. In eighties and travelled widely for business Mason Chair at the University of Birming- these ideas have proved inspirational to a 1941 those conditions eased but ill-health and pleasure. ham and a taxing life as HOD from 1962 host of researchers around the world. prevented his being drafted into the Polish He continued daily attendance at his office until 1979, when he migrated back to the Murray had a gift for friendship which armies then being formed. He found himself into his 92nd year. He leaves Helen, whom USA to take up the chair at the University enriched life among us graduate students in Tashkent where evacuated Russians and he married in 1949, their daughter, Maya, a of Pittsburgh vacated by his friend Joseph and this together with his academic repu- internees had formed a university. He university lecturer in Japan and specialist in Lehner. On retirement, a conference was tation drew many important visitors to the studied there under the famous Academi- the social and cultural anthropology of that held in his honour at Birmingham in 1992, Birmingham department. He had a quietly cian Abram Ioffe but also found time to set country, and a grandson, Misha, as well as funded by the Society. He maintained over mischievous sense of humour and a quick up a successful ice-cream business. That com- many friends around the world. LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

Reviews KNOTS UNRAVELLED: From String to Mathematics Research highlights by Meike Akveld and Andrew Jobbings, Arbelos, 2011, pp 129, £8, ISBN 978-0-9555477-2-0.

Meike Akveld This is the blurb 1. Introduction: Knots everywhere, Knots in Knots Unravelled from the back of rope, Knot science, History. from the leading • Andrew Jobbings From string to mathematics the book: Interlude: Knots in paper

Meike Akveld Knots Unrav- 2. Working with diagrams: mathematical journals Andrew Jobbings elled is a guide Describing knots, Mathematical knots, Pro- Knots Unravelled Knots to the fascinat- jections and knot diagrams, knotted or not? ing world of The same or different? Reidemeister moves. knots, from the Interlude: Celtic knots familiar realm of 3. Counting crossings: knotted string to Telling knots apart, The crossing number, the less familiar Which crossing numbers are possible? Does

Arbelos  branch of math- the crossing number classify knots? Classify- ? ematics known ing knots. as knot theory. Interlude: Tie knots • Are two given knots the same or different? 4. New knots from old: • How many knots are there? Mirror images, Combining knots, Changing 46 • Can knots be classified? crossings. 47 Questions like this are easily asked, but Interlude: The figure of eight finding answers requires more effort. Math- 5. Using colours: ematical ideas help to put the study of knots Knot invariants, three-colourability. Izvestiya: Mathematics Russian Mathematical Sbornik: Mathematics Surveys on a firm footing, and also either answer such Interlude: Hunter's bend iopscience.org/im iopscience.org/msb questions, or explain why an answer cannot 6. Links: iopscience.org/rms be found. The core chapters of Knots Unrav- What is a link? The Borromean rings, elled lead the reader through this mathemat- Components, The linking number, three- ics, from the basics to the frontiers of current colourability. Free to read in 2014 work in knot theory. Interlude: Torus knots Between the main chapters, the ‘inter- 7. Knot polynomials: 2013 highlights ludes' reveal some of the rich variety of ways The bracket polynomial, the writhe, The X- Collections of the very best ar ticles published in 2013. in which knots appear throughout human polynomial, The Jones polynomial. culture, drawing attention to related math- Postlude: A special trefoil ematics and making connections with other Tables of links and knots. Yakov G Sinai collection material in the book. This is an impressive list of contents and the Go to iopscience.org/sinai to discover a special collection of first-class A key feature of the text is the range of tasks authors introduce us to these subjects in an easy research in mathematics from the 2014 recipient of the Abel Prize, and activities for the reader to work through- yet rigorous manner. free to read until the end of December. --with string, rope, or pencil and paper to The readership is claimed to consist of school hand! Complete solutions are provided at the children. In fact the early chapters is intended back of the book. for 12/13 year olds. The book makes full use of clear diagrams, Quite possibly this may be correct but if I and a table of knots, a glossary and an index were a teacher I would expect a much greater are included. expansion of the solution section. In fact this The question now is, how successful have would be a much better and more useful book the authors been in their endeavours? if this were the case. Before answering this, here is a list of So in conclusion, this is a good book and could contents: be a useful addition to a school's library but I LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

look forward to a second edition with a greatly co.uk/Resources/KU-errata.pdf templating ideas whether they are from The book by Maor and Jost should be given expanded solution set. Roger Fenn literature, philosophy or science and math- to everyone – young or old – embarking on For a short list of errata go to www.arbelos. University of Sussex ematics is good for growth. A mental growth the study of mathematics or anyone teaching that cannot be brought about if mathematics mathematics. The book will act as a source of BEAUTIFUL GEOMETRY is taught with the depressing attitude that inspiration and as a reminder of why it is that by Eli Maor and Eugen Jost, Press, 2014, pp 208, £19.95, $27.95, ISBN makes the students learn the bare minimum mathematics has fascinated the human race 9780691150994, eBook ISBN 9781400848331. which will allow some good marks at the for millennia. exams but leaves everyone empty handed Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen People who are spontaneously attracted to what the invariance theorem by Thales of when facing non-standardised questions. Imperial College London mathematics do find that a certain kind of Miletus is about and Plate 37 greatly enhances beauty emanates from the conceptual con- and aids the discussion of the Euler Line. One PRIMALITY TESTING FOR BEGINNERS structions: the simplicity and yet profoundness can definitely enjoy the book simply as a col- by Lasse Rempe-Gillen and Rebecca Waldecker, Student Mathematical Library Vol 70, American of the equations, the subtlety and yet univer- lection of intriguing and appealing plates if Mathematical Society, 2014, pp 244 , $45.00, £33.95, ISBN 978-0-8218-9883-3. sality of the concepts, the durability of the one is so minded. However, I do believe that proofs etc. This beauty is regrettably difficult the plates in general manage to relate to the This book aims integers modulo an integer or modulo a poly- to convey to the uninitiated, which is probably beauty of the mathematics at a deep and to take the nomial or modulo both. This is presented in why people in general very informative level. I reader from a a leisurely way with plenty of examples. The would be embarrassed would imagine that the pre-university discussion of algorithms not only delineates if they had to admit they plates would make most knowledge of the classes P and NP but also gives didn’t know who Shake- readers curious about mathematics to a lucid explanation of the distinction between speare or Mozart is, but the mathematics under- the Agrawal-Kay- Monte Carlo and Las Vegas algorithms. 48 are unaware of their loss lying the plates. al-Saxena (AKS) The second part presents the AKS algorithm 49 by not being familiar This brings us to the polynomial time itself. This algorithm relies on the analogue with Euclid or Euler, say. main question, namely primality test of of Fermat's little theorem in polynomial rings. This highly stimulating is the book able to 2004 in barely The authors mention the precursor to this book by historian of convince people of the 200 pages. That algorithm, the Monte Carlo test of Agrawal mathematics Eli Maor beauty of mathematics? is certainly an and Biswas, but devote most attention to the and artist Eugen Jost is Can it be used as an eye ambitious aim, AKS test itself. They give a complete proof of a very competent and opener? I think so – es- so we need to ask to what extent the authors the correctness of the AKS test and also of its enjoyable attempt to pecially among students succeed, and what else does one learn along polynomial running time. explicate the beauty in secondary school the journey. Throughout the book, the authors give of geometry. The book and others who have To understand and prove correctness of the complete proofs but also plenty of examples consists of 51 chapters an open mind and are AKS test one needs the basics of elementary and exercises. The exposition is never each consisting of a plate created by Jost ac- curious but never found the right inroad to number theory and abstract algebra (group rushed, and the authors are happy to take companied by a couple of pages in which Jost mathematics. At the moment mathematics is theory and the theory of polynomial rings) a page where many textbooks would take explains the mathematical context and his- often presented in school as a boring, difficult, but to understand its significance as the first a paragraph. They finish with an appendix torical background to the topic being consid- dead subject one just has to put up with for deterministic polynomial time primality test on open problems in number theory, and ered. The chapters can be read in any order exams purposes and because accountants and one also needs the rudiments of the theory solutions for selected exercises. As the title the reader might fancy and although the title some engineers actually need to be able to use of algorithms. suggests, this is a good book for beginners, focus on the beauty of geometry the two some of it. The insight that mathematics can The first part of the book, deals with ele- but while it does touch on many aspects of authors have cleverly included chapters on e.g. be conceptually stimulating and may help one mentary number theory as well as algorith- number theory, it is not and does not claim prime numbers, infinite series, the number to learn how to think straight seems to have mic complexity. The authors develop number to be a comprehensive introduction to 11, the Golden ratio, Fibonacci Numbers, been lost. This wasn’t always so. In the preface theory from scratch up to Fermat's little number theory. Ambitious sixth-formers and the number e together with a lot of classical to Einstein’s popular book “Relativity” from theorem and Euler's generalization. They beginning undergraduates should enjoy it, geometry. 1916 the great man finishes the preface with discuss the Fermat and Miller-Rabin tests while more advanced students will find it an Some of the plates, e.g. Plate 40.2, are es- the words: “May the book bring some one in detail. Applications to cryptography are interesting complement to the more conven- sentially profoundly decorative comments a few happy hours of suggestive thoughts!” touched on but not dwelt on. In preparation tional texts on number theory. but others are more than that. I find e.g. that Yes, thinking about mathematics may indeed for the AKS test they include a very careful Robin Chapman Plate 1 brilliantly aids the understanding of make the soul see glimpses of sunshine. Con- discussion of polynomial arithmetic over the Exeter University LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk [email protected] No. 438 July 2014

CALENDAR OF EVENTS 28–1 Aug Contact Geometry in Dimension 8–10 British Topology Meeting, Southampton november 2014 (438) This calendar lists Society meetings and Three and Higher Workshop, University 14 LMS AGM, London College London (437) 8–12 Generalized Functions, Southampton other mathematical events. Further 22 Early Career Mathematicians' Autumn IMA (438) Conference, Queen Mary University London information may be obtained from the 10–12 Interdisciplinary Approaches to (438) appropriate LMS Newsletter whose number August 2014 Understanding Microbial Communities INI 26–28 Engineering and Control of Natural is given in brackets. A fuller list is given 4–8 Principles and Applications of Control to Workshop, Cambridge (437) Quantum Systems INI Workshop, Cambridge and Synthetic Microbial Communities, INI on the Society’s website (www.lms.ac.uk/ 10–12 Mathematical Modelling of Fluid (436) Workshop, Cambridge content/calendar). Please send updates and Systems IMA Conference, Bristol (438) 6–8 Water Waves INI Summer School, 11–12 Recent Advances in Discontinuous corrections to [email protected]. Cambridge (437) Galerkin Methods, Reading (438) December 2014 12 & 14 International Congress for Women in 11–12 Heilbronn Annual Conference 2014, 8–10 Applications of Game Theory IMA JULY 2014 Mathematics 2014, Seoul, Republic of Korea Bristol (438) Conference, Oxford (438) 3–4 Higher Structures in Number Theory (433) 12 Limit Theorems, Probability 15–17 Maths in Signal Processing IMA Approximations and Related Areas Workshop, Workshop, Nottingham (436) 13–21 ICM 2014, Seoul, Republic of Korea Conference, Birmingham (438) Heriot-Watt University (438) 4 Hardy Lecture, LMS Meeting, (437) 16–17 Mathematical Challenges of Big Data 15–19 UK Probability Meeting from London (437) 18–21 Operator Methods in Harmonic IMA, Woburn House, London (438) 4 LMS Graduate Student Meeting, Analysis Workshop, Queen's University Belfast Microscopic Randomness to Macroscopic Phenomena, Imperial College London (438) London (437) (437) 17–19 Huxley Meeting on Analytic Number 5–10 Activities on Symmetries and 19 LMS Meeting and Reception, ICM, Seoul, January 2015 Theory, Cardiff (438) 9 Research in Mathematics and its Correspondences Conference, Oxford (436) Republic of Korea (438) 18 Additive Combinatorics Meeting, Bristol 25–29 Algebraic Lie Theory and Applications IMA Conference, Bath (438) 6–7 Set Theory: Inner and Outer Model (437) Theory Meeting, Bristol (437) Representation Theory, LMS–CMI Research 50 18 Recent Advances in Orthogonal 51 7–11 Symmetries in Graphs, Maps and School, Glasgow (435) Polynomials and its Interactions with mARCH 2015 Polytopes Workshop, ELIM Conference 25–5 Sept Classification, Structure, Integrable Systems Meeting, University of 19 Mathematics 2015 IMA Conference, Mary Centre, West Malvern (436) Amenability and Regularity Masterclass and Kent (437) Ward House, London (438) 7–11 An Invitation to Geometry & Topology Conference (438) 18–19 Post-Quantum Research Workshop, INI, 30–31 Flood Risk Assessment IMA Conference, 28–30 15th International Pure Swansea (438) Via G2, LMS–CMI Research School, Imperial Cambridge (438) College London (436) Mathematics Conference, Islamabad 22–24 British Algebraic Geometry Meeting, 30–2 Apr Joint Meeting of the BMC and 9 LMS Popular Lectures, London (438) Warwick (438) BAMC, Cambridge (438) 13–15 Modelling in Industrial Maintenance September 2014 22–26 Bounded Gaps Between Primes, LMS– CMI Research School, Oxford (437) and Reliability IMA Conference, Oxford 1 Function Theory Meeting, London (438) april 2015 24 LMS Popular Lectures, Birmingham (438) 14–16 Representations of Symmetric 2–3 British Logic Colloquium PhD Day, 20 Mathematical Education of Engineers IMA 28–2 Oct Advances in Probability Clay Groups, Hecke Algebras and KLR Algebras, University of Central Lancashire (438) Conference, Loughborough (438) Birmingham (437) Research Workshop, Oxford (436) 3–5 British Logic Colloquium, University of 29–3 Oct Analytic Number Theory Clay 14–16 Bianchi and Siegel Modular Forms, Central Lancashire (438) Research Workshop, Oxford (436) June 2015 Sheffield (437) 3–5 Stable Homotopy Theory Conference, 29–3 Oct Functional Transcendence around 10–12 Barriers and Enablers to Learning 14–18 Analytic Number Theory and its Manchester (437) Ax–Schanuel Clay Research Workshop, Oxford Maths IMA International Conference, Applications, Thessaloniki, Greece (438) 3–5 Numerical Linear Algebra and (436) Glasgow (438) 17–18 Projection and Slicing Theorems in Optimisation IMA Conference, Birmingham 29–3 Oct Symplectic Topology Clay Research 18–19 Mathematics in Finance IMA Fractal Geometry, Bristol (437) (438) Workshop, Oxford (436) Conference, Manchester 21–24 Kent Algebra Days Young Researchers, 3–5 Jordan Geometric Analysis and University of Kent (437) Applications, Queen Mary, University of october 2014 23 LMS Spitalfields Day, Advances in the July 2015 London (432) 1 Clay Research Conference, Oxford (436) Mathematics of Water Waves, INI Cambridge 13–17 Conference on Stochastic Processes 3–5 Operator Theory Workshop, Queen’s Methods for Mathematical and 27–29 and their Applications, Oxford (438) University, Belfast (435) Empirical Analysis of Microbial Communities 23–25 ISSAC 2014 Kobe University, Japan 5–6 Caucasian Mathematical Conference INI PhD Summer School, Cambridge (438) 28–1 Aug Mathematical Relativity, ESI-EMS- Tbilisi, Georgia 30 History of Statistics, BSHM–Gresham September 2015 IAMP Summer School, Vienna 6 Mathematics and the First World War, LMS College Joint Meeting, London (437) 1–4 Numerical Methods for Simulation IMA 29–4 Aug International Mathematics Meeting, London (438) 30–31 Structure, Function and Dynamics Conference, Oxford Competition for University Students, 6–11 British Science Festival, Birmingham in Microbial Communities INI Workshop, 9–11 Mathematics of Robotics IMA Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria (435) (438) Cambridge (438) Conference, Oxford LMS WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS DAY held at De Morgan House, London, on 25 April 2014 (report on page 20)

Katia Babbar (Lloyds) Sarah Hart (Birkbeck College)

Masha Jankovic (University of Leicester) Sian Fryer (University of Manchester)

Anne Juel (University of Manchester) Mareiek Haberichter (University of Kent)