THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

Society HONORARY MEMBERS Full citations for Professor Meetings Gromov and Professor Uhlenbeck The London Mathematical Socie- will appear in the LMS Bulletin. and Events ty has elected Professor Mikhael Gromov of the IHÉS, France, and PROPOSAL FOR A 2008 Professor Karen Uhlenbeck of SINGLE SOCIETY Monday 15 September the University of Texas in Austin, SW & South Wales USA, to Honorary Membership Shortly after this issue, members Regional Meeting of the Society. will receive a Report proposing Swansea [page 5] Mikhael Gromov is one of the the creation of a new, unified most important mathematicians society for mathematics, replac- Thursday 25 September of our time. His influence goes ing both the LMS and the IMA. Popular Lectures far beyond the boundaries of The Councils of the two bod- Birmingham [page 21]  his own field, and he brings a ies, at their meetings in late Friday 21 November profoundly original approach June and early July, adopted AGM, London to the subjects he works on. In the draft Report of their Joint 12–13 December algebra he is well known for Planning Group and resolved to Joint Meeting with his work on hyperbolic groups commend it to their members. the Edinburgh and polynomial growth which The proposal for a new society, Mathematical Society has inspired an entire genera- merging the IMA and the LMS, Edinburgh [page 29] tion of geometric group theo- is thus out for consultation with rists. In analysis his h-principle you, the members. Please read on differential relations has laid the Report. Please at least read 2009 the foundations for a geometric the Prologue, by the two Presi- February theory of PDEs. dents, and Chapter 1! Mary Cartwright Karen Uhlenbeck is a distin- Over the summer, mecha- Lecture, London guished mathematician at the nisms for feedback and discus- 31 March – 4 April highest international level, spe- sion have been put in place, LMS Invited Lectures cialising in differential geometry, details of which are included Edinburgh non-linear partial differential with the Report. Starting soon equations and mathematical and continuing through the physics. Her foundational work early autumn, both Presidents on the analytic aspects of math- – Brian Davies for the LMS and ematical gauge theory is recog- David Abrahams for the IMA nised as providing the analytic – will embark on a ‘roadshow’, foundation underlying the ap- meeting as many members as plications of gauge theory to possible of both bodies to dis- geometry and topology that are cuss the proposal with them. among the more striking devel- Elected officers, members of the opments in twentieth century Councils, and staff will also be mathematics. available to act as channels of THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

communication. Do take the opportunity to COUNCIL DIARY his proposed successor. We moved on of the LMS web-site, to enable dissent- hear what your President, and the President to arguably the major item, the consid- ing (and other) views from all the mem- 4 July 2008 of the IMA, have to say, and give them your eration of the Next Steps Initiative, the bership to be clearly expressed, as befits reactions! In the phrase used several times by the report of the Joint LMS–IMA Planning such a large decision for the future of In November, both Councils will review President Professor Brian Davies, the Group to the Councils of the IMA and the LMS. the results of the consultation and decide 4 July 2008 Council meeting was a his- LMS on the prospects for a single, uni- The main other item, also very impor- whether to proceed to a ballot of both mem- toric occasion in the life of the London fied Society. As I reported previously, this tant, was a discussion of the budget for berships in 2009. Mathematical Society in that the delib- report came already to the Council meet- 2008–9 and subsequent years, consider- Charles Goldie erations regarding the future of the LMS ing on 20 March. And since then, the ing proposals from the Finance and Gen- and the Institute of Mathematics and Council, augmented by a few other LMS eral Purposes Committee. A first item PRESIDENCY its Applications (IMA), which have been staff members and key individuals, has which generated discussion was the rec- ongoing over more than eight years in met on 6–7 June for a Council Retreat, ommendation to increase the subscrip- The President has proposed that Professor joint working groups of the two socie- to consider the various sections of the tion by £4, this prompted by a charity Angus Macintyre FRS be nominated to serve ties, came to something of a head in this Next Steps report in more detail. (Sub- law requirement to bring the cost of as President of the London Mathematical meeting. The meeting was also full with sequent to that Retreat, the Next Steps member benefits in line with subscrip- Society from November 2009. Receiving normal Council business, including dis- report has had some minor amendments tions. Council accepted this recommen- the news with acclamation, Council has cussions on the draft budget and plan- and additions, not least a new Prologue, dation and the argument that we need agreed that Professor Macintyre should ning figures for the coming years. authored by the two presidents, David to include the costs of producing the  be accorded the title President-Designate Under President’s business, Brian re- Abrahams and Brian Davies.) Given these LMS Newsletter that you have in your  from the 2008 AGM and invited to attend ported that the procedure for nominat- opportunities members of Council have hands as a significant member ben- Council and the Finance & General Purpos- ing a new President had selected Prof had to discuss and come to an opinion efit. However, Council also agreed that es Committee from that date. Angus Macintyre FRS of Queen Mary as one way or the other, it was maybe not the costs versus benefit of membership surprising that discussion was reason- would be reconsidered in the course of ably short, and recommendations were thinking about future subscriptions over LMS Newsletter passed rather rapidly by a large majority the coming year. We also looked briefly to ‘accept and adopt the Next Steps re- at the good ideas from the various LMS General Editor: Dr D.R.J. Chillingworth ([email protected]) port as a Report of Council’ and to ‘com- committees for new expenditure, includ- mend the report to members’. There was ing a new postgraduate research confer- Reports Editor: Dr S.A. Huggett ([email protected]) discussion as to what these words meant ences grant scheme, a scheme to support Reviews Editor: Mr A.J.S. Mann ([email protected]) (one would expect no less from a gath- (usually) women staff returning after a ering of mathematicians). The gist was career break, and new public engage- Administrative Editor: Miss S.M. Oakes ([email protected]) that Council was voting to accept that ment schemes, but a definitive decision the philosophical and practical case has on committing new expenditure was de- Editorial office address: London Mathematical Society, De Morgan House, 57–58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS (t: 020 7637 3686; f: 020 7323 3655; e: [email protected], w: www.lms.ac.uk) been made for unification of the LMS layed to the next council meeting. and IMA in a single UK mathematics so- The meeting finished with an impres- Typeset by the London Mathematical Society at De Morgan House; printed by Holbrooks Printers Ltd. ciety. Furthermore we wished our Presi- sive presentation on recent activities dent to go out in the coming months to and new directions for the Computer Sci- Publication dates and deadlines: published monthly, except August. Items and advertisements by the advocate the case presented in the Next ence Committee from its retiring chair- first day of the month prior to publication, or the closest preceding working day. Steps report to the membership, through man Rick Thomas, who also distributed News items and notices in the Newsletter are free to be used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, written communication and an ambi- copies of a Knowledge Transfer Report, although attribution is requested when reproducing whole articles. Contributions to the Newsletter tious tour of the country. There were, prepared by the committee and the KTN are made under a non-exclusive licence; please contact the author for the rights to reproduce. The it needs to be reported, a few members for Industrial Mathematics, on ‘Manag- LMS cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information in the Newsletter. Views expressed who argued their dissent cogently and ing Risk in the Modern World’, surely do not necessarily represent the views or policy of the London Mathematical Society. voted against these recommendations very appropriate bedtime reading as we Charity registration number: 252660. or abstained. Indeed the Council agreed think about the future of the LMS! procedures, including a dedicated part Simon Chandler-Wilde THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

ANNUAL LMS preference that members continue to pay SUBSCRIPTION 2008–09 by direct debit. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY The LMS annual subscription, including pay- Publications Pricing Policy ment for publications, for the session Novem- The LMS has a pricing structure that allows SOUTH WEST & SOUTH WALES ber 2008 – October 2009 is due on 1 Novem- individual members to purchase its jour- ber 2008. Together with this Newsletter is a nals, for personal use only, at a substan- REGIONAL MEETING renewal form to be completed and returned tial discount. In common with other math- with your remittance in the enclosed ematical societies, the Society regards a Civil and Computational Lecture Theatre, Talbot Building, envelope. subscription as for personal use only if: Swansea University (a) issues are either destroyed or held on Rates a continuing basis among the member’s Monday 15 September 2008 The annual subscription to the London Math- personal belongings, and are not depos- ematical Society for the 2008-09 session is: ited even temporarily in a library, common 2.00 Opening of the meeting • Ordinary Members 47.50 room or other public room, and £ Nicola Fusco (Naples) • Associate Members £12.00 (b) are accessible to other mathemati- • Reciprocity Members £23.75 cians (or to students) only with the mem- Equilibrium configurations of strained films: The prices of the Society’s periodicals to ber’s permission, given individually in each Existence, regularity and qualitative properties  Ordinary, Associate and Reciprocity Members case. 3.00 István Gyöngy (Edinburgh)  for 2009 are: Issues are the personal property of mem- Numerical solutions of optimal stopping and control problems • Bulletin £51 bers, who would be able, without nego- • Journal £97 tiation with authorities, to take the issues 4.00 Tea • Proceedings £97 with them if they left their present institu- • Nonlinearity £66 (except N America); tion or to give them to another individual 4.45 Bert Peletier (Leiden) £85 (N America) who is willing to abide by these terms. Dynamical systems in pharmaceutical sciences • Journal of Computation and Mathematics remains free ICMI ELECTION RESULTS There will be a reception and dinner afterwards. For registration, further details and to reserve a place at the dinner, see the webpage www-maths.swan.ac.uk/ Payment The results of the election of the 2010–12 staff/vm/LMS-regional or contact V. Moroz ([email protected]). No action is required if you are already Executive Committee of the International paying by direct debit, and do not wish to Commission on Mathematical Instruction The meeting will be followed by a workshop from 16 to 18 September on change your choice of publications. Fully (ICMI) which took place during the General The Calculus of Variations and Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations. The complete and return the form if you are Assembly of ICMI, held on 7 July in Monterey, workshop will address new trends in the modern theory and applications of paying by direct debit but wish to change Mexico, are as follows. nonlinear partial differential equations and the calculus of variations. Particular your choice of publications or add/delete a President: William (Bill) Barton (New areas will include quantitative and qualitative analysis of nonlinear elliptic and subscription to the European Mathemati- Zealand) parabolic partial differential equations, existence and regularity problems, cal Society. Bank accounts of members pay- Secretary-General: Jaime Carvalho e Silva variational and PDE-related numerical methods in material microstructures. ing by direct debit will be debited with the (Portugal) appropriate amount on 15 January 2009. Vice-Presidents: Mina Teicher (Israel), Angel There are funds available to contribute to the expenses of members of the LMS or Other members should either enclose a Ruiz (Costa Rica) research students to attend the meeting and workshop. Requests for support can cheque (£ Sterling or US$) with their form Members at Large: Mariolina Bartolini Bussi be expressed on the on-line registration form. or, if they have a UK bank account and wish (Italy), Sung Je Cho (Korea), Roger Howe (USA), to take advantage of this convenient form Renuka Vithal (South Africa), Zhang Yingbo For information on scientific questions or for information onorganisational of payment, request a direct debit mandate. (China) matters contact V.A. Liskevich ([email protected]) or K. Zhang (k.zhang@ Although the facility to pay by credit card is The term of this next Executive Committee swansea.ac.uk). open to all members of the Society, it is our will start on 1 January 2010. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

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NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

RETIREMENT OF IVOR GODDARD FROM THE ROYAL conferences in mathematics (www.esf. THE ABEL PRIZE 2009 org/index.php?id=4602). Also, we now Call for nominations STATISTICAL SOCIETY have 56 national member societies from In October, the Royal Statisti- all over Europe, which brings huge The Norwegian Academy of Science and © RSS

cal Society says farewell to its © RSS opportunities for collaborative work of Letters hereby calls for nominations of can- Director General, Ivor Goddard, all kinds. didates for the Abel Prize 2009. The Abel who retires after 16 years of We would like to increase our indi- Prize, which was awarded for the first time service. Serving under nine RSS vidual membership, which now comes in 2003, amounts to NOK 6 million (approxi- presidents, Ivor’s term in office with free access to Zentralblatt (www. mately €750 000 or US$1.2 million). It is an saw significant changes to the zentralblatt-math.org/portal/en) as well international prize for outstanding scientific Society. as our superb Newsletter (www.ems- work in the field of mathematics, including After just a few months in po- ph.org/journals/journal.php?jrn=news) mathematical aspects of computer science, sition, he oversaw the merger and many other benefits, as you can see mathematical physics, probability numerical of the RSS with the Institute of from our new website (www.euro-math- analysis and scientific computing, statistics, Statisticians, changing the RSS soc.eu). and also applications of mathematics in from being a wholly learned Membership is not expensive, and join- the sciences. The prize is to recognize con- society to being both a learned ing is easy: you can do it either through tributions to mathematics and its applica- and professional organisation. I. Goddard M. Dougherty the London Mathematical Society or on tions of extraordinary depth and influence.  This led to a massive expansion the EMS web page. Such work may have resolved fundamen-  in the society’s activities, including ac- of policy issues. Ari Laptev, President tal problems, created powerful new tech- creditation programmes and introduction Ivor’s successor is Martin Dougherty, Pavel Exner, Vice-President niques, introduced unifying principles or of a code of professional conduct. who is now the Executive Director of the Helge Holden, Vice-President opened up major new areas. The intent is By 1995, the Society needed larger of- RSS. Dr Dougherty is a former research Stephen Huggett, Secretary to award prizes over the course of time in a fices, and Ivor managed the move to its fellow in tropical medicine, and has been wide range of areas of mathematics and its current Errol Street location. When Ivor a medical writer and director of a medi- applications. joined the RSS in 1992, its income was cal communications company. He joins the ECM PRIZE WINNERS 2008 The Abel Committee will submit a recom- £340k; in 2007 it was £1.73m. Over the RSS from the National Collaborating Cen- mendation of a candidate for the Abel Prize same period, the RSS’s fixed assets have tre for Women’s and Children’s Health, The EMS 2008 prize winners were to the Norwegian Academy of Science and grown from £0.77m to just over £3m. Dur- based in the Royal College of Obstetri- announced at the 5ECM in Amsterdam. Letters, which will select the Abel Laure- ing this time, the permanent staff more cians and Gynaecologists. The prize of €5,000 each is awarded to ate on the basis of this recommendation. than doubled. The LMS wishes Mr Goddard a long and mathematicians under 35 years of age The name of the Abel Laureate will be an- Other legacies that Ivor leaves are in happy retirement. working in Europe or born in Europe. The nounced in March 2009. The nomination let- outreach. The RSS is now regularly con- ten winners were: ter should contain a CV and a description of sulted by Parliament and government in • Artur Avila (CMI, Paris) the candidate’s works, together with names the formulation of policy involving inter- EUROPEAN • Alexei Borodin (Russia) of distinguished specialists in the field of pretation of statistical evidence. It now • Ben Green (Cambridge) the nominee who can be contacted for an has annual awards for statistical excel- MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY • Olga Holtz (TUB, Germany) independent opinion. The letter should be lence in journalism and publishes a glossy The European Mathematical Society is • Bo’az Klartag (Israel) sent no later than 15 September 2008 to magazine Significance for readers inter- increasing its activities and its member- • Alexander Kuznetsov (Russia) The Norwegian Academy of Science and ested in the use of statistics. ship. We are working harder than ever • Assaf Na’or (Czech Republic/Israel) Letters, Drammensveien 78, NO-0271 Oslo, In 2001, Ivor led the RSS into the Council to make sure that mathematics is repre- • Laure Saint-Raymond (ÉNS, Paris) Norway. It will also be possible to nominate for the Mathematical Sciences alongside sented properly when funding decisions • Agata Smoktunowicz (Edinburgh/Poland) candidates by using the online submission the LMS and Institute of Mathematics and are taken at a European level, and this • Cedric Villani (ÉNS, Lyon) form. For further information consult www. its Applications, with the aim of joining is beginning to bear fruit. An example is The Felix Klein Prize was awarded to Josse- abelprisen.no. up the mathematical science community the recent call by the European Science lin Garnier (Université Paris 7). Full citations Ole Didrik L�rum to work together to speak out on a range Foundation for proposals for research are at www.5ecm.nl/prizewinnersbook.pdf. President THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

THE CMS DIARY A key recommendation of the Cross-Cutting Review of Science and Research produced for Summer 2008 the Treasury in the run up to the Spending The Council for the Mathematical Sciences Review in 2002 was that Departments that met most recently on 28 May 2008. This issue use science should appoint a Departmental of the CMS Diary reflects business discussed at CSA, with this network headed by the Govern- several recent meetings and provides updates ment Chief Scientific Advisor (currently John on some recent developments in policy issues Beddington). CSAs have been appointed in 17 of interest to the CMS. Departments and the CMS hopes to establish a relationship with key players on this list to Funding for Equivalent or Lower Qualifications reinforce the importance of mathematical The CMS was pleased to note that its evi- sciences to evidence-based policy making and dence to the House of Commons Innovation, the economy in general. A working group is Universities, Science and Skills Select Commit- being assembled to discuss the best strategy tee inquiry into the withdrawal of funding and schedule for this and to ‘tune’ our mes- for Equivalent or Lower Qualifications (ELQs) sage to the role of each Department. had been referred to in the Committee’s report. The CMS had argued that the ELQ EPSRC Mathematical Sciences Programme 10 policy worked against government targets to The CMS learnt in January of the EPSRC Coun- 11 increase the number of specialist mathemat- cil’s decision to reduce Programme budgets as ics teachers by introducing financial barriers part of a restructuring of the budgets which to upskilling those who had already com- will see money directed towards research pleted a PhD in a different subject. However, relating to four multidisciplinary ‘themes’ the Government’s response to the report has that EPSRC is leading on: Energy, Nanoscience, affirmed that the policy will be implemented. The Digital Economy and Next Generation The CMS remains concerned that the attrac- Healthcare. Themes led by other Councils tiveness of integrated masters courses (and include Living with Environmental Change even a university’s willingness to promote and Global Threats to Security. The Math- them) will be threatened by the policy, given ematical Sciences Programme budget had that universities would not be entitled to been reduced to £16m, from £18.5 in 2007/08 claim HEFCE funding for students with this and more than £20m in previous years. The qualification who subsequently wished to CMS has been working with the Mathemati- study for an MSc course. Further informa- cal Sciences Programme team to understand tion on the implementation of the policy and the impact of these figures, and has written the exemptions and ‘targeted allocations’ to David Delpy (Chief Executive, EPSRC) to for Strategically Important and Vulnerable express concerns at the apparent shift away Subjects is available from www.hefce.ac.uk/ from funding fundamental research. How- pubs/circlets/2008/cl07_08; the Select Com- ever, it should be noted that the headline mittee’s report is available to view at www. figures for the Programme do not convey the publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmdius. whole picture. Notwithstanding the overall htm. reductions in budget, the Programme has maintained funding for responsive mode at Seeking meetings with Chief Scientific Advisors the 2007/08 level – in the recognition that For some time the CMS has intended to pur- Responsive Mode is the highest priority for sue arranging informal meetings with the the community. The Mathematical Sciences Government’s Chief Scientific Advisors (CSAs). Programme is striving to maintain and protect THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

the core element of the Programme, and we Liaison with HEFCE Science from Oxford are grateful to David Harman and his team The CMS held its annual liaison with the Higher for their efforts to achieve this. In addition to Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) 1 Responsive Mode funding, it is important to on 25 June. Sir David Wallace, Peter Cooper appreciate the opportunities that the multi- and I met with Professor David Eastwood Wavelet Methods for Elliptic Partial disciplinary themes offer and take advantage (Chief Executive) and Dr John Selby (Director Differential Equations of these where possible. The CMS–EPSRC Liai- of Education and Participation) for a relatively Karsten Urban son Group has been discussing what kinds of informal discussion and exchange of ideas, pro- event can be organised to disseminate this viding CMS with an opportunity to give HEFCE A text based on the author's course that introduces graduates to the basics of wavelet methods for partial differential equations and describes the message and provide useful advice to the a ‘heads-up’ on current issues that were impor- construction and analysis of adaptive wavelet methods. community on how mathematical sciences tant to the mathematical sciences community research can obtain funding through these and to understand some of the pressures that NUMERICAL MATHEMATICS AND SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION themes. It is appreciated that encouraging HEFCE itself faced. Issues such as the develop- Oct 2008 | 978-0-19-852605-6 | Hardback | £65.00 researchers to look outside the Programme ment of the Research Excellence Framework will require a degree of ‘culture change’ by and the ELQ policy were high on the agenda, General Relativity and the Einstein Equations some – look out for further announcements along with the evolution of the Full Economic Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat in society newsletters and of course EPSRC’s Costing model and the extent to which this Aimed at researchers in mathematics and physics, this monograph, in which the Connect bulletins. shifted the balance of the Dual Support System author overviews the basic ideas in General Relativity, introduces the necessary 12 towards Research Council funding. It will be mathematics and discusses some of the key open questions in the field. 13 Mathematical Sciences throughout the UK important for the CMS to have a clear state- OXFORD MATHEMATICAL MONOGRAPHS Readers will be aware that the enhanced ment on the importance of Quality-Related Sept 2008 | 978-0-19-923072-3 | Hardback | £65.00 CMS membership helps us to ensure that funding to subjects that are not ‘project-rich’ to the CMS is effective in its role of pursuing feed into the next Spending Review. The meet- issues relating to mathematical sciences in ing also referred to data collected through the A Primer for Mathematics Competitions research, business and industry throughout CMS–HoDoMS annual survey of mathematical the UK. The Edinburgh Mathematical Society sciences departments; the response rate by Alexander Zawaira and Gavin Hitchcock keeps us in touch with issues north of the departments is still lower than in 2007; if they A comprehensive resource containing an entertaining selection of problems in border, but as there is no national mathe- have not already done so, I encourage any head mathematics. Including numerous exercises, illustrations, hints, and solutions, it is aimed at students of mathematics looking for an introduction to problem matical society for Wales, the Chair has writ- of department to complete a form for this year, solving in mathematics, as well as Mathematical Olympiad competitors and ten to heads of departments in Welsh HEIs to so that we can get an accurate picture of trends other recreational mathematicians. invite them to let CMS know direct if there in students, staff and the overall ‘health’ of Sept 2008 | 978-0-19-953988-8 | Paperback | £22.50 are issues of which CMS should be aware. departments to inform CMS policy statements Sept 2008 | 978-0-19-953987-1 | Hardback | £50.00 There are several areas where the separa- and interactions at meetings such as this. tion between England, Scotland, Northern Professor Eastwood was receptive to points Credit Risk Management Basic Concepts: Ireland and Wales has an impact on the CMS: that were raised and willing to engage with it is interesting to note, for instance, that the the CMS on these issues. It is encouraging that Financial Risk Components, Rating Analysis, Models, Scottish and Welsh Funding Councils (SFC the CMS is establishing itself as a contact point Economic and Regulatory Capital and HEFCW respectively) are not bound by for issues such as these and it is hoped that the Tony Van Gestel and Bart Baesens HEFCE’s development of the ‘Research Excel- relationship will be maintained with Professor This first of three volumes on credit risk management, providing a thorough lence Framework’ and will be making their Eastwood’s successor in April 2009, when he be- introduction to financial risk management and modelling. own decisions on whether to participate and comes the Vice-Chancellor at the University of Aug 2008 | 978-0-19-954511-7 | Hardback | £75.00 (if so) the timetable for using this to inform Birmingham. Liaison in this form is very helpful funding. Both ran their own consultations in raising the level of awareness of mathemati- on the issue in late 2007 and fed responses cal sciences within important organisations. back to HEFCE; the CMS sent its response to Martin Smith For more information and ordering details, all of these last year. CMS Secretariat please visit www.oup.co.uk/academic/science THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

Mathematics a substantial increase in numbers taking Culture, Gender and Math, appeared in ence report summary is now available AS mathematics and further mathemat- the 30 May 2008 issue of Science. (http://newsletters.royalsociety.org/c/ Policy Round-Up ics. Respondents told the MEI that math- The British Association Festival of Sci- 1xW8xS9k1BtxQ). This report is a brief In June, Sir Peter Williams published his ematics, along with other STEM subjects, ence in Liverpool this month (6–13 Sep- summary of the key messages from the Review of Mathematics Teaching in Early is now enjoying a much better profile and tember) will see the launch of the na- conference and of the main points raised Years Settings and Primary Schools. The more students are appreciating its value tional STEM Directories. Covering each by the speakers. government immediately responded, say- to them and that the present AS/A Level of Science, Mathematics, Engineering ACME has appointed a new Head of ing it would implement all ten of the syllabus, introduced in 2004, is working and Technology, the directories list over Secretariat, Nick Bowes, who came into report’s recommendations. These included well. To read the report, see www.mei. 270 schemes of enhancement and enrich- post at the end of July. This new position ensuring there is at least one mathematics org.uk/files/pdf/C1NumbersSurvey. ment activities. They are aimed at provid- should increase the capacity and exper- specialist in each primary school by upskill- The Qualifications and Curriculum Au- ing teachers and lecturers in schools and tise of the Secretariat and build on the ing 1,000 existing teachers per year for the thority (QCA, with the Welsh and North- colleges with the best models of how to sound working relationship with Gov- next 10 years to reach a total (including ern Irish equivalents) has launched a con- excite young people about STEM subjects ernment, thus helping to deliver even existing specialists) of 13,000 specialist sultation on the subject criteria for GCSE in an easily accessible form so that they greater success for ACME over the next mathematics teachers, for which the gov- Mathematics, English and Information can identify the initiatives and support three years. ernment has now pledged £24 million. Sir and Communications Technology. Subject that are likely to meet their needs. These In response to the publication of Sir Peter also recommended working with criteria set out the knowledge, under- include the LMS itself and the mathsca- Peter William’s report on primary math- parents alongside teachers to spark chil- standing, skills and assessment objectives reers.org.uk website. ematics, Professor Adrian Smith, Chair of 14 dren’s interest in mathematics, and called for specifications in each subject. In ad- To find out more, see www.stemdirec- ACME, said: “We fully support Sir Peter’s 15 for all children to be competent in basic dition, the Advisory Committee on Math- tories.org.uk recommendation for a maths specialist maths by the age of seven. Sir Peter said, ematics Education (ACME) has drafted Plus, the online mathematics maga- in every primary school. There is a real “The United Kingdom is still one of the criteria for the proposed two mathemat- zine run by the Millennium Mathematics need for a larger pool of knowledge- few advanced nations where it is socially ics GCSEs and is hoping to submit a math- Project, is polling readers for their favour- able and enthusiastic teachers of the acceptable to profess an inability to cope ematics community response to the crite- ite fictional mathematician. Currently, subject at this level, with the freedom with mathematics. We urgently need to ria over the summer period, led by the Charlie Eppes, a mathematician who helps to support the teaching of maths in their reverse this trend so every pupil leaves Joint Mathematical Council. To see the his FBI-agent brother solve crimes in the schools... .” primary school without a fear of mathe- QCA consultation, view www.qca.org. US drama Numb3rs is way ahead in the ACME’s funding for the next three years matics. To do that we need to get young uk/qca_18259.aspx, and to see the ACME lead, followed some distance behind by has been confirmed by both the Depart- graduates to see that joining the teach- plans, go to www.acme-uk.org/news. Square from the 1884 mathematical satire ment for Children, Schools and Families ing profession is valued by the people of asp?id=102. Flatland. See the poll and vote at http:// (DCSF) and the Gatsby Charitable Foun- this country and that it’s a great career A report published in Science in May plus.maths.org/blog/2008/07/who-is-your- dation (until 2011). ACME has now en- choice.” found that boys and girls perform equal- favourite-fictional.html tered Phase 3 of its work. Following an The report and the government re- ly well in mathematics in countries where Caroline Davis evaluation by Gatsby Charitable Foun- sponse can be viewed at www.teachernet. there is a culture of gender equality. Mathematics Policy and Promotion Officer dation completed in September 2007, it gov.uk/teachingandlearning/primary/ Based on research by the European Uni- was deemed necessary to modify ACME’s primarystrategy/mathsreview. versity Institute and Chicago and North- NEWS FROM ACME aim in order to focus more on proactive, Also in June, Mathematics in Education western Universities, the report said that high-level strategy for advice on a future and Industry (MEI) published an encour- in more gender-equal cultures the maths The Advisory Committee on Mathemat- mathematics education policy landscape. aging report looking into an increase in gender gap disappears, suggesting that ics Education (ACME) annual confer- ACME’s working practices will therefore the number of candidates sitting the first there is no biological basis for sugges- ence was held on 27 February 2008 at be proactive and forward looking, trying module of AS and A Level mathematics. All tions that boys have traditionally outper- the Royal Society in London. The con- to understand and influence policies be- three English examining boards reported formed girls in mathematics. However, ference, entitled Mathematics within fore they are set in stone. For example, an increase in candidate numbers (of 10– the researchers also found that in gen- STEM – a policy perspective, attracted ACME is now working on a project on 15%) in January 2008 compared with Jan- der-equal countries, the gender gap in- almost 250 delegates, including over Level 3 Mathematics and recently held a uary 2007. The MEI carried out an on-line creases in reading, with girls significantly 100 practitioners, and generated key workshop to gather some views and evi- survey and from the 171 responses found outperforming boys. The report, called messages for policy makers. The confer- dence from the mathematics community. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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THE SCOTTISH specialised courses that are already available. Technical equipment Future A typical student registers for three streams, Delivery of lectures by video-conferenc- Plans are already well underway for the next MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES leaving about 25% of their time to work ing (VC) was the only feasible option, since session. The SMSTC’s academic year will again TRAINING CENTRE with a research supervisor during their first otherwise either staff or students would open with a symposium (8–9 October 2008), six months. Each stream is self-contained, and have needed to travel (possibly large dis- with lectures running for nine weeks from 13 Background and aims consists of a team of people who are respon- tances) to give or attend lectures. The October, and resuming after a Christmas break The Scottish mathematical sciences depart- sible for producing comprehensive printed SMSTC departments have a large number on 12 January. We welcome enquiries (to Johan- ments have a history of collaborative gradu- course notes, and delivering the lectures. of leading experts across the mathematical na Kytöharju, [email protected]) ate training going back to the first Edin- These are two hours long and are held weekly sciences, and teaching by VC allows this col- from anyone outwith the partner departments burgh Mathematical Society postgraduate by video conference. Individual departments lective expertise to be available to all reg- who would be interested in finding out more conference in 1995 (these popular events at are also expected to provide students with istered students. We chose to use standard about the SMSTC, or registering for the next The Burn, near Edzell, are now held annu- local tutorial sessions to help promote under- (H.323-compliant) VC equipment because it or future academic years. We charge a regis- ally). Since then we have also initiated a standing and reinforce the lecture material. is already in widespread use and allows free tration fee to partially cover the staff costs of comprehensive joint programme of math- Each stream sets its own assessment: the aim multi-site connection over the UK academic lectures and administration associated with the ematically relevant generic skills, paid for is to ensure that the students actually learn internet. SMSTC, but would be happy to arrange a free by institutional Roberts’ funds. But we still something, and it typically involves a small sample lecture for anyone interested. did not realise exactly what we had let our- number of assignments for the students to Management and administration Penny Davies selves in for when we were awarded an work on. Student performance was generally An Academic Steering and Management Department of Mathematics 16 EPSRC grant to set up the Scottish Math- very good, with most scoring A or B grades. Group is responsible for the overall manage- University of Strathclyde 17 ematical Sciences Training Centre (SMSTC)! ment of the SMSTC and ensuring academic ([email protected]) It is one of the six Taught Course Centres Student meetings quality. It is convened by the Director, Tony funded by EPSRC’s Mathematical Sciences The SMSTC was launched with a two-day stu- Carbery (University of Edinburgh), and has Programme (a full list is available at www. dent symposium in October 2007. The meet- representation from each contributing uni- epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchFunding/Programmes/ ing featured a short ‘taster’ lecture from versity and broad subject area, and external Maths/Training/Courses.htm) to address the each of the eight streams, to provide infor- advisors. Non-scientific organisation and

issue raised in the 2004 International Review mation on the topics covered and allow the administration for the SMSTC is undertak- Ewan Crawford of UK Research in Mathematics that “New students to ask questions about prerequi- en by staff at the International Centre for PhDs from the UK usually have less breadth sites, content and assessment etc. (although, Mathematical Sciences (ICMS), one of the and experience than their peers from other as was stressed at the time, some details two EPSRC-funded mathematical research countries.” The SMSTC’s remit is to address were yet to be finalised). Interspersed with institutes in the UK. this by providing broad courses for first-year these were sessions covering introductory PhD students in fundamental areas of math- generic skills. The social highlight was an Website ematics and statistics. It is a collaborative ven- excellent dinner at a local restaurant, which The SMSTC’s website (www.smstc.ac.uk) is ture with lectures taught ‘live’ by video-con- both staff and students enjoyed. A second an important communication channel. It is ference, and this article is a brief description half-day symposium was held in February wiki-based and extremely easy to use, and of our first year of operation. 2008 in Edinburgh, and consisted of generic has been popular with both staff and stu- skills talks and an SMSTC discussion forum, dents. Students are given read-only logins Teaching and topics at which the students provided useful feed- and use the site to obtain general informa- The SMSTC’s portfolio consists of eight six- back on their experience so far. This was tion (on symposia, assignments etc.) and month streams (in algebra, geometry and followed by a wonderful lecture by Simon to download PDFs of the comprehensive topology, pure analysis, applied analysis and Singh on Fermat’s Last Theorem – Maths in lecture notes before each lecture. Staff in PDEs, applied mathematics methods, mathe- the Media, and a wine reception. As well ‘stream teams’ all have edit permission for matical modelling, probability, and statistics), as being enjoyable and useful events in their their pages, which enables them to upload

each equivalent to a workload of about 25% own right, we hope that the symposia will lecture notes and any other material them- Adrian Bowman (University of Glasgow and leader of a student’s time. The aim is to provide a help students to become (and feel) part of selves, without needing to go through a of the SMSTC Statistics stream) gives a VC lecture, with broad training which complements the more the mathematical sciences community. web administrator. students from a remote site shown in the background. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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NEWS FROM EPSRC funding! op into the UK’s international research lead- ences interface to enable the most talented How to get involved: ers of tomorrow. They provide an opportunity new researchers to establish an independ- Mathematical Sciences Programme 1. Find out more about the priority themes to concentrate on research for the period of ent research career, shortly or immediately (Taken from the July issue of the EPSRC Mathemati- – look at our delivery plan: www.epsrc.ac.uk/ the award, as well as supporting all the costs after completing a PhD. The awards are for cal Sciences Programme email newsletter.) Publications/Corporate/DeliveryPlan2008-11. of the associated research for the full dura- a period of up to three years and primarily EPSRC plans to respond to the challeng- htm. The Mathematics team is planning a tion of the fellowship. cover the salary costs of the fellow, travel and es facing society and the economy, and workshop later in the year to provide the The expectation is that fellows will have subsistence. include encouraging ambitious programmes mathematics community with more informa- established themselves as leading researchers of research, a number of priority research tion regarding the themes – further informa- of international standing in their area by the Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematical themes and focusing on sustainability and tion will be available soon. end of the award, as well as demonstrating Sciences greater economic impact. In the EPSRC Deliv- 2. Look out for funding opportunities – see leadership within their institution and re- At least seven Fellowships will be awarded to ery Plan the research priorities for the period the EPSRC website and keep reading our search community. Closing date: 4.00 pm on candidates who can demonstrate excellence 2008–2011 are as follows. email newsletters! Thursday 9 October 2009. and originality in research within the remit • Energy – bringing together all aspects 3. Think about how the mathematical sci- of Mathematical Sciences. The Mathematical of energy-related research and training, ences can contribute to the research themes. Career Acceleration Fellowships Outline Call Sciences Programme encompasses all areas of including working with the new Energy 4. Talk to colleagues – not just in the math- Career Acceleration Fellowships provide up to novel mathematics (pure and applied), prob- Technologies Institute (£220 million). ematics department, but in the computing, five years’ funding to talented researchers at ability & statistics and operational research. • Digital economy – increasing the impact of engineering and physical sciences depart- an early stage of their career. They provide an The mathematical sciences programme would 18 ICT in transforming how business, govern- ments too. Can you form consortia to help opportunity to concentrate on research for particularly welcome applications in the areas 19 ment and society operate (£103 million). tackle the challenges in the priority themes? the period of the award, as well as supporting of applied mathematics, probability & statis- • Nanoscience through engineering to You are, of course, still able to apply to EPSRC all the costs of the associated research for the tics and operational research. In addition application – exploiting previous invest- through responsive mode and for many of full duration of the fellowship. The expecta- applicants are encouraged to take the oppor- ments to pull basic research through you this will be the most feasible funding tion is that fellows will have established an tunity to gain a wider research experience to application through a grand chal- opportunity. However, these research areas independent career of international standing by changing host organisations. For further lenge approach (£39 million). need mathematicians to get involved and we by the end of the award. Closing date: 4.00 information contact Mrs Janet Edwards (jan- • Towards next-generation healthcare – therefore urge you to think about whether pm on Tuesday 23 September 2008. [email protected]), tel. 01793 444066. working with partners to improve the you can contribute to them and make the pull-through of research results to clini- most of the funding available to support re- Call for Proposals Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Life Sciences cal products and practice (£36 million). search in these domains. Interface (supported by the Cross-Disciplinary There is significant investment being placed Energy Challenges for Complexity Science Interfaces Programme, C-DIP) in these research areas and we would encour- Leadership and Career Acceleration The EPSRC Cross-Disciplinary Interfaces Pro- Up to 10 Fellowships will be on offer to age you to think about whether you can Fellowships gramme and the cross-council Energy Pro- enable talented new researchers with a PhD contribute to these themes and apply for the (Items taken from the EPRSC Calls.) gramme invite adventurous, cross-disciplinary in a physical science (Chemistry, Physics, funding opportunities that will be available EPSRC intends to award up to 50 Fellow- proposals for research projects which develop Mathematical Sciences, Materials Science, in the next three years within these mission ships this year across the Leadership Fellow- and apply the tools and techniques of com- Information and Communication Technol- programmes. ships and Career Acceleration Fellowships plexity science to energy research challenges. ogy) or any engineering discipline, to de- Why get involved? schemes. The actual numbers of each type of Up to £4 million has been earmarked for this velop an independent career working at 1. These priority themes need the knowl- fellowship awarded will depend on the qual- targeted activity and it is anticipated that up the interface with the life sciences. Both the edge and expertise of mathematicians. ity of the proposals received and the level to four projects will be funded. Closing date: Medical Research Council and the Biotech- 2. There are interesting and deep research of resources requested. It anticipates strong 29 October 2008. nology and Biological Sciences Research challenges which are relevant to today’s competition for these fellowships. Council also offer postdoctoral fellowships, society. and applications deemed to be mainly or Postdoctoral Fellowships 3. Nearly £400 million is being invested in Leadership Fellowships Outline Call wholly within their remit will not be consid- these areas over the next three years (and EPSRC is offering Leadership Fellowships to EPSRC is offering Postdoctoral Fellowships ered under this call. Some aspects of Medi- probably more money will be invested be- provide up to five years’ funding to talented in theoretical physics, theoretical computer cal Engineering also fall outside the scope yond 2011) so it is a good source of potential researchers with the most potential to devel- sciences, mathematical sciences and life sci- of this call. Fellowship applications which THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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include exposure to different research en- VISIT OF PROFESSOR vironments are strongly encouraged. How- ever, this year it is not a mandatory require- A. THOMAS LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY ment that fellows spend time working at a Professor Anne Thomas (Cornell, Ithaca, NY) leading laboratory outside the UK during is visiting the UK during October. She will POPULAR LECTURES 2008 their fellowship. All applicants, in particu- speak at Glasgow on 15 October, Newcastle lar those not changing institution or seek- on 16 October and Oxford on 20 October. University of Birmingham – Thursday 25 September ing international research experience, must She will give a talk on Lattices in automor- demonstrate an ability to conduct original phism groups of right-angled buildings at and independent research. We particularly Glasgow and Newcastle. The choice of talk welcome applications in the following two at Oxford has yet to be determined. For fur- Dr Tadashi Tokieda, Trinity Hall, research areas: ther information contact Peter Kropholler University of Cambridge • Theoretical techniques for studying the ([email protected]). Dr Thomas’s Toy models complexity of biological systems visit is supported by an LMS Scheme 2 • The interface between Physics and the grant. ‘Come and see many toys that can be life sciences made in 10 minutes but, if played with If you have any queries regarding the remit VISIT OF PROFESSOR imaginatively, can inspire research for of this component of the call it is strongly rec- R. SRZEDNICKI 10 months and pose problems in 20 ommended that you contact Miss Samantha mathematics and mechanics, some still 21 Madden ([email protected]), tel. Professor Roman Srzednicki (Jagellonian unsolved.’ 01793 444463. Closing date: 4 pm on Tuesday University, Kraków, Poland) will be visiting 30 September 2008. the UK from 13 to 20 October. Professor Srzednicki’s research interests concern Dr Reidun Twarock, University of York Dynamical Systems. He is one of the Know your enemy – viruses under leading experts in the field of topologi- cal methods, especially the generalised the mathematical microscope Conley index. He will give talks entitled ‘Mathematics can help us understand the On geometric detection of periodic solu- structure of viruses and the principles tions and chaotic dynamics of ordinary responsible for their formation. Can this differential equations at knowledge be used to find their Achilles’ • York, Monday 13 October at 14:15 • Warwick, Wednesday 15 October at heel and develop new strategies for anti- 16:00 viral drug design?’ (Seminar room B3.02) • Imperial College, Friday15 October at 16:00 BIRMINGHAM Commences at 6.30 pm, refreshments at 7.30 pm, ends For more details see http://maths. at 9.00 pm. Admission is free. Enquiries to Dr Chris Sangwin, School of york.ac.uk/www/MFandSAseminars or Mathematics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT (email: http://www.hairer.org/seminar.html or [email protected]). contact Professors Zdzislaw Brzezniak, Martin Hairer or Boguslaw Zegarlinski The lectures are intended to be suitable for a general audience and no specific at respectively: [email protected],m. mathematical knowledge will be assumed. Although the talks are not primarily [email protected], b.zegarlinski@ intended for professional mathematicians, everyone is welcome and some members “A wonderful square root. Let us hope imperial.ac.uk. Professor Srzednicki’s may wish to apply for tickets for friends and relatives. it can be used for the good of mankind.” visit is supported by an LMS Scheme 2 © Sidney Harris grant. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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PROGRAMME COMMITTEE or the Secretary to Programme Committee, Applicant Title Grant Sylvia Daly (tel: 020 7291 9971, email: sylvia. LMS Grant Schemes 1-5 B. Schroers Noncommutative Deformations of Special Relativity £6,000 [email protected], Wednesday–Friday) who will Members are reminded of the Society’s be pleased to discuss proposals informally R. Plymen New Directions in Noncommutative Geometry £5,000 Schemes to provide conference grants with potential applicants and give advice on G. Williams SAGE – Semigroups and Groups In Essex £3,681 (Scheme 1), grants to visitors to the UK the submission of an application. T. Huettemann 23rd British Topology Meeting (BTM23) £5,000 (Scheme 2), grants to support joint research The next deadline for receipt of applica- groups (Scheme 3), collaborative small tions is 15 September 2008 and these will K. Cherednichenko Non-Classical, Boundary and Localisation Phenomena in £3,060 grants (Scheme 4) and international short be considered at a meeting on 9 October Mathematical Homogenisation visits (Scheme 5). 2008. Applications should be submitted D.W. Hoffmann Quadratic Forms, Algebraic Groups and Algebraic £5,910 For full details of all the Schemes, please well in advance of the date of the event Cobordism see the Society’s website (www.lms.ac.uk/ for which funding is requested. Normally S. Galbraith 2nd International Conference on Pairing-Based £390 grants/index.html). Queries regarding appli- grants are not made for events which have Cryptography (Pairing 2008) cations can be addressed to the Programme already happened or where insufficient Secretary, Stephen Huggett (tel: 01752 time has been allowed for processing of the N. Alechina British Logic Colloquium BLC2008 £3,693 586869, email: [email protected]) application. C-H. Chu Jordan Structures: Nonassociative Analysis and Geometry £1,821 Grants Awarded between November 2007 and June 2008 G.M. Stallard One Day Function Theory Meeting £1,010 22 Scheme 1 B. Reus Workshop Domains lX £4,290 23 Applicant Title Grant F. O’Rourke Centenary Symposium on Mathematical and Statistical £1,180 Modelling in Medicine and Health Science Y. Fu European Postgraduate Fluid Dynamics Conference 2008 £2,062 (Organiser: S. Metcalfe) P. Neumann Postgraduate Group Theory Conference 2008 £4,283 (Organiser: D. Craven) D. Croydon Probability: New Scaling Limits and Other Recent £1,000 Developments A. Scott One-Day Meeting in Combinatorics £2,000 C.M. Roney-Dougal Infinite Group Theory 4,940 X. Mao Stochastic Differential Delay Equations: Theory, Numerics £6,000 £ and Applications D. Kuhn Extremal Combinatorics £1,320 I.D. Abrahams 50th British Applied Mathematics Colloquium (BAMC) £6,000 G. Garkusha Workshop on Triangulated Categories £3,500 A. Wathen Oxford Golub-around-the-World Event £300 R. MacKay From Nonlinear Dynamics to Systems Biology £4,300 P.J. Cameron Karl Gruenberg: A Celebration £1,000 M. Mathieu 3rd International Workshop on Elementary Operators and £4,400 their Applications B. Zegarlinski Functional and Stochastic Analysis: Isoperimetry, Poincaré £1,250 (Organiser: J. Inglis) Inequalities and SDEs D. Duncan Scottish Computational Mathematics Symposium £1,970 J. Oakley Subjective Bayesian Methods £1,500 I. Potapov Workshop on Reachability Problems, RP2008 £3,600 A. Lacey 64th European Study Group with Industry £1,500 S. Weigert Quantum (Groups + Foundation + Information) £4,872 Symposium in Honour of the 65th Birthday of Professor R. Weston ICFT08: 12th Annual UK Meeting on Integrable Models, £2,485 Conformal Field Theory and Related Topics Anthony Sudbery K. Cherednichenko South-West UK Analysis Meeting 2,490 S. Cox Wales Mathematics Colloquium £2,221 £ K. Houston, M. Speight, Variational Problems in Differential Geometry 5,000 G. Brightwell Two linked one-day Combinatorics Colloquia £1,400 £ R. Bielawski W. Parnell New Directions in Analytical and Numerical Methods for £1,904 Forward and Inverse Scattering M. Hyland A Conference for Young Researchers in Mathematics £3,124 N.J. Cutland Logic and Mathematics 09 3,500 H. Broersma 34th International Workshop on Graph-Theoretic Concepts £3,800 £ in Computer Science (WG’08) P. Welch Mathematical Methods in Philosophy £3,334 THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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Scheme 2 Scheme 4

Applicant Visitor To Visit Grant Applicant Institution Collaborator Institution Grant V.V. Kisil S.A. Plaksa Leeds, London, Cardiff £1,090 B. Nucinkis Southampton D.H. Kochloukova State University of £600 L. Parnovski Y. Karpeshina University College London, Cardiff, Bath £700 Campinas, Brazil M.V. Lawson D.G. FitzGerald St Andrews, Heriot-Watt, York £1,200 J. Einbeck Durham L. Evers Bristol £250 A. Fokas J. Bona Cambridge, Reading, Bath £1,000 S. Guillas University M-J. Lai Georgia £600 College London F. Coolen D. Skulj Durham, Liverpool, Nottingham £560 J. Chubbuck Aberdeen N. Iwase Kyushuy, Japan £400 J. Kaplunov E. Its Brunel, Keele, Imperial College £1,200 A. Bartels Imperial College A. Henriques Utrecht, Netherlands £300 P. Kropholler A. Thomas Newcastle, Oxford, Glasgow £1,200 P. Figueras Durham B. Kol Hebrew, Jerusalem £600 A.W. Mason B. Sury Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester £1,200 M. Mathieu QUB E. Ortega Southern Denmark £575 S. Coombes C. Laing Heriot-Watt, Leeds, Nottingham £1,200 H. Touchette QMUL E. Cohen Rockefeller, New York £500 Z. Brzezniak R. Srzednicki York, Warwick, Imperial College, Kings £470 College London, University College London N. Snashall Leicester E.L. Green Virginia Tech £600 24 S. White K. Dykema Oxford, Belfast, Glasgow £440 N. Dirr Bath N.K. Yip Purdue, Indianapolis £600 25 J.A. Sherratt M. R. Myerscough Heriot-Watt, Dundee, Glasgow and £700 K. Liu Liverpool J. Li Yunnan, China £600 Strathclyde S. Scott King’s College X. Dai California £600 Z. Brzezniak L. Tubaro York, Warwick, Swansea £1,050 London I. Barany R. Meshulam UCL, Oxford, Cambridge £1,000 A. Glass Cambridge V. Bludov Irkutsk, Russia £500 S. Stonehewer P.J. Cossey Manchester, Birmingham, Warwick £1,200 T. Lenagan Edinburgh K.R. Goodearl California at Santa £600 Barbara Scheme 3 S. Kolb Edinburgh J. Stokman Amsterdam £600 Applicant Institution Title Grant J. Bolton Durham L. Fernandez New York £600 R. Klages QMUL London Dynamical Systems Group (LDSG) £1,400 T.D.H. Hall Liverpool A. de Carvalho Universidade de Sao £300 Paulo, Brazil D. Mond Warwick Singularity Theory and Applications £618 J. Siemons East Anglia F. Dalla Volta Universita La Bicocca, £400 C.M. Wood York Yorkshire Durham Geometry Days 1,050 £ Italy J. Bennett Birmingham The UK Harmonic Analysis and PDEs Research £1,050 M. Blyth East Anglia C. Pozrikidis California £600 Network D.R.J. Chillingworth Southampton P. Piiroinen NUI, Galway £500 B. Schroers Heriot-Watt North British Mathematical Physics Seminar £1,050 A. Gorodnik Bristol A. Nevo Israel Institute of £600 A. Sevastyanov Aberdeen Algebra and Representation Theory in the North £1,400 Technology (ARTIN) A. Parry Imperial College C. Rascon Madrid £600 C. Parker Birmingham Group Theory and Applications £691 T. Jordan Bristol K. Simon Budapest £300 D. Loghin Birmingham Midlands Numerical Analysis Group (MIDNAG) £1,000 G. El Loughborough V. Khodorovskii St Petersburg £600 L. Bogachev Leeds Stochastic Analysis on Configuration Spaces £300 and its Applications A.V. Mikhailov Leeds V.S. Gerdjikov Bulgaria £380 T. Forster Cambridge CAMELEON £350 (continued on the next page) THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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Scheme 4 (continued)

Applicant Institution Collaborator Institution Grant ISAAC NEWTON INSTITUTE FOR MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES J.R. Partington Leeds P. Gorkin Bucknell, USA 600 £ ALGEBRAIC LIE STRUCTURES WITH ORIGINS IN PHYSICS M. Nazarov York O. Ogievetsky Marseille £450 D. Davis Liverpool M. Ruas Brazil £600 23–27 March 2009

in association with the Newton Institute programme entitled Scheme 5 Algebraic Lie Theory (12 January – 26 June 2009) Applicant To Visit Grant A. Macrina University of Witwatersrand and a conference on Mathematics in £1,220 Workshop organisers: P. Etingof (MIT), A. Kleshchev (University of Finance 2008, Kruger Park, South Africa Oregon), M. Nazarov (University of York) and A. Premet (University of Manchester). EXTREMAL COMBINATORICS REACHABILITY PROBLEMS Theme of conference: This conference will bring together mathemati- 26 cians and mathematical physicists working in such (overlapping) areas 27 There will be a workshop on Extremal The 2nd International Workshop on Reach- as W-algebras, Yangians, vertex algebras, characteristic p, Lie theory, Combinatorics in Birmingham from 15 to 16 ability Problems (RP2008) will take place from conformal algebras, chiral algebras, quantum groups, Hecke algebras, September 2008. The invited speakers are: 15 to 17 September 2008 at the University Cherednik algebras, infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, as well as related • David Conlon (University of Cambridge) of Liverpool. RP2008 is specifically aimed at representation theory, geometry, combinatorics, and applications. We • Jan van den Heuvel (LSE, London) gathering scholars from diverse disciplines believe the meeting will provide rare and very important opportunities, • Peter Keevash (Queen Mary, and backgrounds interested in reachability especially for young researchers. It will bring together people working in University of London) problems that appear in Algebraic struc- • Mathias Schacht (Humboldt-Universität, tures, Computational models, Hybrid systems, different areas of Lie theory, mathematical physics, and representation Berlin) Verification. theory. • Miklos Simonovits (Hungarian Academy The programme will consist of four invited of Sciences) and 14 contributed papers. Also one section Speakers will include: T. Arakawa (Nara Women’s University), J. Brundan • Jozef Skokan (LSE, London) of the workshop will be devoted to infor- (University of Oregon), M. Finkelberg (Independent University of Moscow), • John Talbot (University College London) mal presentations. The invited speakers will V. Ginzburg (University of Chicago), I. Gordon (University of Edinburgh), Time for some shorter contributed talks has include: D. Hernandez (Université de Versailles), A. Joseph (Weizmann Institute of been reserved. If you would like to give one • Parosh Aziz Abdulla (Uppsala University) Science), V. Kac (MIT), S. Khoroshkin (Institute of Theoretical and of these, email [email protected] as • Juhani Karhumäki (University of Turku) Experimental Physics), E. Ragoucy (Université de Savoie) and V. Serganova soon as possible (with a title of the talk and a • Colin Stirling (University of Edinburgh) (University of California, Berkeley). short abstract). There are limited funds from • Wolfgang Thomas (RWTH Aachen University) the London Mathematical Society to support This meeting is supported by an LMS con- Further information and application forms are available from the web the expenses of graduate students based in ference grant. Limited funds are available to at: www.newton.cam.ac.uk/programmes/ALT/altw02.html. Completed the UK. students for attending the event. The actual application forms should be sent to Tracey Andrew, Programme & To register (£20), send an email to programme of the workshop, registration [email protected]. The organizers are forms and travel information can be found Conference Secretary, Isaac Newton Institute, 20 Clarkson Road, Demetres Christofides, Nikolaos Fountoulakis, at www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~rp2008. Further details Cambridge CB3 0EH or via email to: [email protected]. Daniela Kuehn and Deryk Osthus. Details are available from RP2008 organizers Igor about the workshop can be found at http:// Potapov and Vesa Halava ([email protected]. Closing date for the receipt of applications is 31 December 2008. web.mat.bham.ac.uk/ecw08. ac.uk). THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

GROUP THEORY MEETINGS • D. Macpherson (Leeds) IN EDINBURGH • J. Mitchell (St Andrews) Quantization and coherent states: these • G. Pfeiffer (Galway) are families of discretely Preliminary Announcement • T. Riley (Bristol) Arithmetic supported measures on the line, transforming in specifi c Unterberger, A., Université de ways under the part of the Two related meetings on group theory will be The invited talks will be accessible to post- Reims, France metaplectic representation held in Edinburgh in December 2008. This is a graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and or, more generally, representations from the preliminary announcement and fuller details researchers in all areas of group theory. There The primary aim of this discrete series of SL(2,R), will be published in the October Newsletter. will also be contributed postgraduate talks book is to create situations lying above an arithmetic and a postgraduate poster session. We expect New in which the zeta function, group such as SL(2,Z). Series or other L-functions, will Edinburgh Mathematical Society – to have some financial support for postgrad- appear in spectral-theoretic 2008. 147 p. Softcover London Mathematical Society meeting uate students. questions. A secondary aim is GBP 30.50 / EUR 39.90 There will be a joint meeting of the Edin- Organising Committee: Kenny Brown (Glas- to connect pseudo-differential ISBN 978-3-7643-8790-7 analysis, or quantization PDO — Pseudo-Differential burgh Mathematical Society and the London gow), Iain Gordon (Edinburgh), Jim Howie theory, to analytic number Operators, Vol. 1 Mathematical Society on Friday and Saturday, (Heriot-Watt), Tom Lenagan (Edinburgh) and theory. Both are attained 12–13 December. The meeting will take place ColvaRoney-Dougal (St Andrews). For more through the analysis of operators on functions on on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. information, email [email protected] or the line by means of their The topic of the meeting is Group Theory and go to www-groups.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~colva/ diagonal matrix elements there are four speakers: edconf.html. 28 against families of arithmetic 29 • Laurent Bartholdi (Göttingen) Automatically presented groups SCOTTISH COMPUTATIONAL • Martin Bridson (Oxford) Dimension, MATHEMATICS SYMPOSIUM geometry, analytic geometry, fractal rigidity and fixed point theorems Patterns of geometry, and set theory. In this The 17th Scottish Computational Mathematics • Alain Valette (Neuchâtel) The Haagerup Change development the mathematicians Symposium will take place on Wednesday changed the very way of constructing property and its stability properties Linguistic Innovations 10 September 2008 at 10:00–17:00 at Heriot- geometric fi gures. As illustration of • Efim Zelmanov (San Diego) Asymptotic in the Development of Watt University, Riccarton Campus, Edinburgh. changes of the second kind, called properties of finite groups and finite- relativization, is the development of The speakers are: Classical Mathematics dimensional algebras synthetic geometry along the line: • Rob Beardmore (Imperial College, London) Kvasz, L., Comenius Euclid’s geometry, projective geometry, University, Bratislava, Slovakia, non-Euclidean geometry, Erlanger For more information, contact Tom Lenagan • Evelyn Buckwar (Heriot-Watt) and Charles University, Praha, program up to Hilbert’s Grundlagen ([email protected]). • Ping Lin (Dundee) Czech Republic der Geometrie. Changes of the third • Jared Tanner (Edinburgh) kind, called re-formulations are for Infinite group theory and related topics • Françoise Tisseur (Manchester) The book offers a instance the changes that can be seen reconstruction of linguistic on the different editions of Euclid’s workshop The Scottish Computational Mathematics innovations in the history of Elements. Perhaps the best known Immediately preceding the joint EMS–LMS Symposium (SCMS) one-day meetings are among them is Playfair’s change of mathematics. It argues that meeting, a workshop on Infinite group theory held every year in September with the aim of there are at least three ways the formulation of the fi fth postulate. in which the language of and related topics will be held in Edinburgh bringing together mathematicians and others mathematics can be changed. 2008. XVIII, 261 p. Hardcover from the morning of Wednesday 10 December who develop and/or use computer algo- GBP 74.50 / EUR 99.00 As illustration of changes until lunchtime on Friday 12 December. rithms to solve mathematical problems. The of the fi rst kind, called re- ISBN 978-3-7643-8839-3 codings, is the development SNHS — Science Networks. Historical Invited speakers include: meetings are open to everyone interested. along the line: synthetic Studies, Vol. 36 Register by 1 September. Registration and • L. Bartholdi (Göttingen) all other details are at www.ma.hw.ac.uk/ • T. Burness (Southampton) scms. The organisers are Dugald Duncan All prices are net prices subject to local VAT, recommended and subject to change without notice. • P. Dehornoy (Caen) (Heriot-Watt) and John Mackenzie (Strath- • B. Eick (Braunschweig) clyde). The meeting is supported by an LMS www.birkhauser.ch • M. Geck (Aberdeen) conference grant. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

FROM NONLINEAR VIBRATIONS IN Mathematics. MATHEMATICAL METHODS The symposium aims to reflect DYNAMICS TO ROTATING MACHINERY Professor Sudbery’s diverse re- IN PHILOSOPHY SYSTEMS BIOLOGY The 9th international conference on Vibra- search achievements during his dis- A meeting on Mathematical Methods in tions in Rotating Machinery will take place tinguished career. His research Philosophy will take place from 19 to 21 In celebration of David Rand’s 60th birthday, from 8 to 10 September 2008 at the Univer- interests span many areas of pure and September 2008 at the School of Math- achievements and influence, an LMS sup- sity of Exeter. The LMS is co-sponsoring this applied mathematics, ranging from ematics, University of Bristol. This is the ported workshop will be held in the Mathe- event, whose primary focus is on the latest quantum groups and exceptional Lie fourth in a series of meetings exploring matics Institute, University of Warwick on 1–2 research and case studies of vibration in algebras to foundational questions in mathematical methods in epistemology, December, entitled From Nonlinear Dynamics rotating machines and its influence on quantum mechanics and quantum infor- semantics, theories of truth, and philos- to Systems Biology. their commercial viability, life, reliabil- mation theory. Speakers will include: ophy of mathematics in a British Acad- Areas to be covered include renormalisa- ity and environmental impact. The confer- • A. Beige (Leeds) emy funded research project. This meet- tion of dynamical systems, singularities and ence will be addressing the following key • I. Bengtsson (Stockholm) ing is further supported by the London bifurcations, time series analysis, game theory areas: • K. Brown (Glasgow) Mathematical Society and the British in economics, finance, epidemiology, ecology, • Smart machines • E. Corrigan (Durham) Logic Colloquium. Confirmed speakers biophysics, and biological regulation. Many • Blades • A.J. Macfarlane (Cambridge) are: of the talks will be of a survey nature. Con- • Analytical Methods • S. Majid (London) • Riccardo Bruni (Firenze) firmed speakers include: • Experimental Methods • C. Manogue (Oregon) • Martin Fischer (Leuven) 30 • B.D. Mestel (Open University) • Instabilities • S. Popescu (Bristol) • Harvey Friedman (Ohio State) 31 • A. Pinto (University of Minho) • Electrical machines • J. Ryan (Arkansas) • Dan Isaacson (Oxford) • T. Bohr (Technical University, Lyngby) • Case Studies from a variety of • R. Tucker (Lancaster) • Peter Koellner (Harvard) • A. Kirman (Université Aix-Marseille III) industries Most of them have collaborated • Ofra Magidor (Oxford) • D.S. Broomhead (University of Manchester) • Faults with Tony Sudbery at some point of • Jeff Paris (Manchester) • M. van Baalen (Université Pierre et • Cracks his career. The broad range of topics • Richard Pettigrew (Bristol) Marie Curie) • Turbochargers they represent will provide a stimu- • Gabriel Uzquiano (Oxford) • A.J. Millar (University of Edinburgh) • Diagnostics lating background for the interac- • Jouko Väänänen (ILLC Amsterdam) • E.C. Zeeman (University of Oxford) • Damping technologies tion of research communities often • Andreas Weiermann (Ghent) • C. Bauch (University of Guelph) • Misalignment separated by discipline boundaries. • Alan Weir (Glasgow) • P.J. Holmes (Princeton) • Fluid-film The meeting will also give opportu- There is a registration fee of £20 with a • D.R.J. Chillingworth (University of • Balancing nities for graduate students to ex- reduced fee of £10 for students and post- Southampton) • Rotordynamics change ideas with well-established graduates. There are some grants for post- • H.B. Wilson (University of Queensland) For further information visit www.imeche. colleagues in their fields and to ac- graduates to cover the registration fees, All are welcome to attend, including re- org/events/virm9. quaint themselves with other math- travel and accommodation costs from the search students, for whom some financial ematical topics. Financial sup- LMS funding. Apply early by email to Philip assistance has been provided if your own port is available to help them Welch ([email protected]) to avoid dis- institution is unable to meet the full cost. QUANTUM attend the symposium. appointment. It is expected to start after lunch on Monday Details about registration, poster Further timetabling and titles, etc., will be 1 December, with a buffet dinner that even- (Groups + Foundations and FestSchrift contributions, support placed on the meeting webpage at http:// ing and ending around 5 pm on Tuesday 2 + Information) for graduate students, accommodation users.ox.ac.uk/~sfop0114/rg/meetings/ December. There will be a registration fee of and the conference dinner are avail- bristol08.html. Contact Helen Craven (tel: £10 per day attended. Please notify mrc@maths. A symposium to celebrate the able at http://maths.york.ac.uk/www/ +44 117 928 7978, email: helen.craven@ warwick.ac.uk by 1 November if you would achievements of Professor Anthony TonySudberyFest. This meeting is sup- bris.ac.uk) with technical and administra- like assistance with reserving accommodation Sudbery on the occasion of his ported by an LMS conference grant tive questions or for help concerning the and in any case by 21 November so we can plan 65th birthday will be held at the and by the Mathematical and Theoreti- conference. Visitor information including catering. The organisers are R.S. MacKay, S.J. University of York on 29–30 September cal Physics Group of the Institute of maps can be found at www.maths.bris. van Strien, N.J. Burroughs and M.J. Keeling. 2008, organised by the Department of Physics. ac.uk/events/info/. THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

and was entitled Spectral properties of matrices associated with some directed RECORDS OF PROCEEDINGS graphs. He described the spectral be- haviour of a class of highly non-self- AT MEETINGS adjoint square matrices as the size of these matrices becomes asymptotically REGIONAL ORDINARY MEETING large. In particular he considered a sparse perturbation of a certain Jordan held on Monday 9 June 2008 at the University of Birmingham. About 40 members and matrix, and showed that a successful visitors were present for all or part of the meeting. way of studying the eigenvalue prob- The meeting began at 2.00 pm, with the President, Professor E.B. DAVIES, FRS, in the lem is to consider a directed graph as- Chair. Twelve people were elected to Ordinary Membership: A. Blanco, R. Bogni, sociated to the perturbed matrix. K.D. Cherednichenko, T.M. Jordan, A.A. Korobkin, I.D. Marshall, K. McGerty, The last speaker of the afternoon was N. Mladenovic, C. Nehaniv, J. Ross, J.A. Valiente Kroon, J. Zhang; and two people were Luis Vega (Universidad del País Vasco), elected to Associate Membership: V.R. Neale, I. Papageorgiou. who spoke on Convexity and uniqueness for some evolution equations. His talk was The Records of the Proceedings of the Society Meetings held on 8 February and 31 motivated by Hardy’s uncertainty princi- F. Ricci E.B. Davies L. Vega March 2008 were signed as correct records. ple cast in the language of free solutions to the Following the meeting, many members and Four members signed the book and were admitted to the Society. 32 Schrödinger equation on the whole space, stat- guests enjoyed drinks and a dinner at Staff 33 Dr J. BENNETT introduced a lecture given by Fulvio Ricci on Commutative Fourier ing that if a solution behaves like a Gaussian House at the University of Birmingham. analysis on nilpotent Lie groups. initially and at some positive time, then the so- The subsequent three days brought recog- lution is identically zero if the decay of the Gaus- nised experts from all over the world to dis- Dr Bennett introduced a lecture given by Brian Davies on Spectral properties of sians is large enough. Professor Vega described cuss some of their current research in the areas matrices associated with some directed graphs. a variant of this result allowing for the inclu- of harmonic analysis and partial differential After tea, Dr Bennett introduced a lecture given by Luis Vega on Convexity and sion of a class of potentials in the Schrödinger equations. Here is a selection of topics covered uniqueness for some evolution equations. equation with a sharper bound on the decay. in the talks to give a flavour of the workshop: This can be used to deduce new compari- • recent progress on norm estimates for the Professor Davies expressed the thanks of the Society to the local organisers and the son principles for nonlinear Schrödinger extension operator for the Fourier transform other speakers for putting on such an excellent meeting. equations. and related work on Strichartz estimates; After the meeting a dinner was held at the Staff House, University of Birmingham.

MIDLANDS REGIONAL MEETING 2008 9 June 2008 the first talk of the afternoon, entitled Com- The 2008 Midlands Regional Meeting of the mutative Fourier analysis on nilpotent Lie London Mathematical Society was held on groups. A fundamental fact of Euclidean Monday 9 June in the Watson Building at the Fourier analysis is that the Fourier transform University of Birmingham. It was the opening maps the Schwartz space of rapidly decreas- event of a workshop on Harmonic Analysis ing functions onto itself. Professor Ricci ex- and Partial Differential Equations. The plained how this result could be generalised President of the LMS, Professor E.B. Davies, to certain nilpotent Lie groups, and stated a opened the meeting and welcomed several positive result in the case of the Heisenberg new members of the LMS. group. With the business taken care of, Fulvio The second talk of the meeting was deliv- Ricci (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) gave ered by Brian Davies (King’s College, London) Caption needs to be supplied for this picture THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

• analysis of multilinear operators; into uniformly convergent Fourier series. • pointwise behaviour of the Green’s func- This diverse collection of talks gave a fasci- RECORDS OF PROCEEDINGS tion of an elliptic operator; nating snapshot of some of the most interest- • norm estimates for the wave operator on ing and challenging problems being consid- AT MEETINGS Lie Groups; ered in analysis today. • characterising the homomorphisms which Ben Jaye ORDINARY MEETING map the absolutely convergent Fourier series University of Birmingham held on Friday 4 July 2008 at University College London. About 100 members and visitors were present for all or part of the meeting. The meeting began at 3.30 pm, LMS GRADUATE STUDENT AND SOCIETY MEETINGS with the President, Professor E.B. DAVIES, FRS, in the Chair. 4 July 2008 outlined a proof of a conjecture in multi- Three people were elected to Ordinary Membership: T.T. Berger, E. Gasparim, A London Mathematical Society Meeting dimensional sum-free sets. T.S. Wilde; and one was elected to Associate Membership: G. Clews. took place on the afternoon of Friday 4 In the ‘topology room’ Alex Coward gave Four members signed the book and were admitted to the Society. July at University College London. It was a talk on knot theory and hyperbolic geom- preceded by a Graduate Student Meet- etry, and Julia Collins described the problem On a recommendation from Council it was agreed to elect Professor A.R. Camina and ing, which included introductory talks to of determining knots which bound discs in 4 Professor P.T. Saunders as scrutineers in the forthcoming Council elections. the afternoon lectures. There was also an dimensions. Stuart Hall gave a talk on The President, on Council’s behalf, proposed that Professor Mikhael Gromov of the opportunity for graduate students work- the link between the homology of mani- IHÉS and Professor Karen Uhlenbeck of the University of Texas in Austin be elected to 34 ing in topology and combinatorics to give folds and the combinatorics of polytopes; 35 Honorary Membership of the Society. The President read short versions of the citations, short talks on their own research. Isidoros Strouthos described Wall’s D(2) to be published in full in the Bulletin. The Graduate Student Meeting was at- problem, a conjecture in algebraic topol- The President then announced the awards of the prizes for 2008: tended by around 50 people, and began ogy, and Johannes Nordström explained a at 10.00 with a talk by Graham Brightwell method used to deform compact 7-dimen- Pólya Prize Professor David Preiss, FRS (University of Warwick) (London School of Economics) entitled An sional manifolds with G2 holonomy. Fröhlich Prize Professor Nicholas Higham, FRS (University of Manchester) introduction to entropy. The talk included After a break for lunch, the prizes for the Senior Berwick Prize Professor Kevin Buzzard (Imperial College London) a comprehensive introduction to discrete best graduate student talks were awarded to Whitehead Prizes Dr Timothy Browning (University of Bristol) entropy, as well as an overview of the Laurence Rackham and Julia Collins. There Dr Tamás Hausel (University of Oxford) many ways in which the notion of entropy was then a short, informative presentation Dr Martin Hairer (University of Warwick) appears in mathematics. There were many on How to get your papers published by Dr Nina Snaith (University of Bristol) worked examples, making the concepts Susan Hezlet (LMS Publisher). The President read short versions of the citations, to be published in full in the easily accessible. The Graduate Student Meeting ended Bulletin. Then the student talks began. They were with a talk by Richard Thomas (Imperial split into those that were combinatorial College London) which was Introduction to The President announced that Professor Angus Macintyre FRS was to be proposed for and those that were topological and were Morse theory. Professor Thomas described the Presidency from November 2009. given concurrently in two separate rooms. the main constructions of Morse Theory, The President reported that the Council had agreed to commend to the membership The choice of areas was intended to reflect using illuminating examples to illustrate a Report describing the creation of a new single society for mathematics and to the nature of the talks at the Society Meet- how Morse theory can be used to pick out institute a consultation with the members on the proposals. ing. In each room, there were five talks, the underlying structure of manifolds. The President introduced a lecture given by Professor Béla Bollobás on Projections, and a prize was on offer for the best grad- After the Graduate Student Meeting, entropy and some applications. uate talk, as voted for by the audience. everyone moved to the J.Z. Young Lecture In the ‘combinatorics room’ there were Theatre for the Society Meeting. The After tea, the President introduced the 2008 Hardy Lecture given by Professor talks by Luke Kelly, Andrew Treglown and meeting began at 15.30 and was attended Shmuel Weinberger on Complexity, entropy, and variational problems. Simon Griffiths on properties of cycles in by around 100 LMS members, visitors and After the meeting, a reception was held at De Morgan House, followed by a dinner graphs, given conditions on the degrees of graduate students. at the Old Amalfi restaurant. vertices. Viresh Patel gave a talk on simul- After official LMS business, which in- taneous graph cuts, and Laurence Rackham cluded the announcement of the Society THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 373 September 2008

Prizewinners for 2008, there was a talk by REVIEWS holds that observations indicate that the fun- zero curvature and no identifications is diffi- Béla Bollobás (Cambridge University), the damental group of our universe is perhaps cult to reconcile (but not absolutely impossi- 2007 Senior Whitehead Prize Winner, on The Wraparound Universe by Jean-Pierre the binary dodecahedral group and so our ble) with the fashionable theory of inflation, Projections, entropy and some applica- Luminet, A.K. Peters, 2008, 336 pp, £22.95, space is a homology sphere. If true, then in- there is much at stake here. tions. The talk guided us through the de- $39.00, ISBN 978-1-56881-309-7. deed Poincaré did not labour in vain. These are indeed exciting times for those velopment of projection inequalities for All cosmologists agree that to lowest ap- What is perhaps more important than the interested in the interface between physics n-dimensional bodies, their connections proximation, at any given (‘cosmic’) time, the disagreement is the agreement that what has and geometry. The author is to be thanked with results on the entropy of random geometry of three-dimensional space is given hitherto been a purely metaphysical debate is for providing a timely update of the first 2001 variables, and their use in other problems. locally by one of the three congruence ge- now a matter for observation to decide. The French edition, translated into English. The Professor Bollobás gave a sense of the vi- ometries: Hyperbolic space, Euclidean space, fact that the universe is expanding means material, which is treated intuitively, is very brant development of results in this area, or Spherical space. The galaxies and clusters that it was hotter and denser in the past well presented at a popular level, with many and ended his talk by giving some current are at rest with respect to these spaces but and among the relics of that hot early state fascinating historical and sociological asides. open problems. the distances between them increase uni- are the 3-degree Kelvin Cosmic Microwave It should be accessible to any first-year under- The Society Meeting ended with the formly in proportion to a universal function Background (CMB) photons. Satellite and bal- graduate or sixth-former. It would certainly 2008 Hardy Lecture, given by Shmuel of time called the scale factor. This basic and loon observations, with acronyms like COBE, be of interest as supplementary reading to Weinberger (University of Chicago and extremely well verified observational fact is BOOMERANG, MAXIMA and WMAP, have anyone taking a first course in geometry or Hebrew University), on the subject of referred to as the Hubble expansion, after the been used to place limits on the curvature relativity and should appeal to any mathe- Complexity, entropy, and variational prob- first person to discover it, some ten years after and fundamental group of the universe. The matically literate person in search of the ‘Big 36 lems. Professor Weinberger gave a descrip- Einstein’s formulation of General Relativity in so-called concordance models are consistent Picture’. 37 tion of his own research in topology, and terms of the pseudo-Riemannian geometry of with a flat spatial geometry and place lower G.W. Gibbon a sense of the richness and interplay of four-dimensional spacetime. In this picture, limits on any repeat distance but certainly do Cambridge the ideas used to study problems on mani- due to Friedmann and Lemaître, spacetime is not definitively exclude what the author calls folds, ranging from Morse theory to con- a product of time with spatial sections of con- a “wraparound universe”. Indeed certain Number Story: From counting to cryptography cepts in geometric group theory. Further, stant time corresponding to our traditional puzzling features of the data, if real, can- by Peter M. Higgins, Springer, 2008, 336 pp, he described how a computational, vari- notion of space. Thus were the epic labours not easily be explained on the concordance £13.00, €19.95, US$25.00, ISBN 978-1-84800- ational approach could be used to inves- of Lobachevsky, Bolyai, Gauss, Klein as well as model. With the launch of the PLANCK satel- 000-1. tigate problems relating to the deforma- Clifford and Cayley and many others on the lite on 31 October of this year, we shall have This is an excellent book which has, to use a tions of loops on spaces. foundations of geometry neatly incorporated even more accurate and precise observations cliché, something for everyone. It is an ‘easy to Overall, both meetings proved to be into a fully relativistic and consistent dynami- and almost certainly will be able to check the read’ account of the development of numbers. popular, and were conducted in a friend- cal theory of gravitation. dodecahedral hypothesis. Since anything but Furthermore, until the last chapter which is ly and exciting atmosphere. As graduate Among the many things that cosmologists ‘for the connoisseurs’, it manages to students, it was especially helpful to have disagree about is not only which of these avoid using complex mathematical attended the Graduate Student Meeting, three possibilities holds, i.e. whether the notation which so frequently deters which was organised by John Talbot (Uni- spatial curvature is negative, zero or positive the uninitiated from exploring the versity College London) and Andrew Lobb respectively, but what is the global geometry subject. (Imperial College London). This provided of the spatial sections. Do we take the sim- In the preface there is an assertion an opportunity for graduate students to ply connected covering spaces or should we that it is ‘natural to try and under- meet and learn about research done on identify under some discrete subgroup of the stand them [numbers] as much as we various topics, and the introductory talks, isometry group? If the curvature turns out to can’. This book is a significant contri- by Graham Brightwell and Richard Thomas, be positive, for example, should we take it to bution to that noble objective. familiarised us with the notions necessary be given by the three-sphere, by real projec- The overall theme is a narrative in order to appreciate the talks at the tive space, or even some more exotic space that tells the story of the develop- Society Meeting. We hope that this format such as Poincaré’s famous dodecahedral ment of numbers from Pythagoras will continue for future LMS events. space? to the modern concept of public-key Rahil Baber and Isidoros Strouthos The author of this exciting and attractively cryptography. However, in addition University College London written book, unlike many of his colleagues, to the expected historical anecdotes THE LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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and facts, the narrative is full of ‘magical’ tricks CALENDAR OF EVENTS 14-18 EUROMECH Fluid Mechanics DECEMBER 2008 that amuse, and intriguing puzzles of varying Conference, Manchester (372) 1-2 From Nonlinear Dynamics to Systems level of difficulty. This calendar lists Society meetings and 14-19 Phenomena in High Dimensions Biology Workshop, Warwick (373) The author has the ability to take a series of Workshop, Lancaster University (364) other events publicised in the Newsletter. 1-5 Large Amplitude Internal Waves, ICMS complex issues and, without resorting to inac- Further information can be obtained from the 15 LMS SW & South Wales Regional Workshop, Edinburgh (369) curacies or sleight-of-hand, make them intelli- appropriate LMS Newsletter whose number Meeting, Swansea (373) gible to a wide audience. He manages to avoid 5-12 Partial Differential Equations and is given in brackets. A fuller list of meetings 15 First Rankin Lecture by John Baez, mathematical notation and still successfully ex- Applications Conference, Hong Kong (372) and events is given on the Society’s website Glasgow (372) plain such diverse and often potentially difficult 8-12 Rotating Stratified Turbulence and (www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/calendar.html). 15-16 Extremal Combinatorics Workshop, topics as The Hilbert Hotel, the real number line Birmingham (373) Turbulence in the Atmosphere and Oceans, and imaginary numbers. SEPTEMBER 2008 INI Workshop, Cambridge (371) Although much of the book adopts a pure 15-17 Reachability Problems, Liverpool 1-3 Pairing 2008 Conference, Royal 10-12 Infinite Group Theory and Related mathematical approach and studies numbers as (373) Topics Workshop, Edinburgh (373) being a fascinating topic that is of interest in its Holloway, University of London (368) 15-19 Algebraic Groups and Related Topics, 12-13 Joint Meeting with the Edinburgh own right, the author also considers a number 1-5 Topics in Geometric Group Theory, LMS–EPSRC Short Course, Birmingham (372) of real-world applications. The two main fields LMS–EPSRC Short Course, Heriot–Watt 16-18 The Calculus of Variations and Mathematical Society, Edinburgh (373) here are probability, with its application to University (372) Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations 15-19 Classical and Quantum Transport chance and gambling, and modular arithmetic, 3-5 Numerical Linear and Nonlinear Workshop, Swansea (372) in the Presence of Disorder, INI Conference, 38 with its application to public -key cryptography. Stochastic Programming Workshop, 17 Second Rankin Lecture by John Baez, Cambridge (372) 39 The review so far is restricted to the first 12 Edinburgh (372) Glasgow (372) 16-18 Mathematics in Signal Processing chapters of a 13-chapter book. As has been 4-6 British Logic Colloquium, Nottingham 19 Third Rankin Lecture by John Baez, IMA Conference, Cirencester (370) stated they are easy to read and accessible to (370) Glasgow (372) anyone with an interest in the subject. Most 5-6 Jordan Structures: Nonassociative 19-20 Heilbronn Institute Annual Conference, of them would make excellent reading for the JANUARY 2009 Analysis and Geometry Meeting, Queen Bristol (371) enthusiastic sixth-former. However, the 13th 5-9 Dense Granular Flows, IMA Conference, Mary, University of London (370) 19-21 Mathematical Methods in Philosophy, chapter, ‘For Connoisseurs’, is somewhat dif- INI Cambridge (370) 6-11 British Association Festival of Science, Bristol (373) ferent. Here the author reverts to use of stand- 22-24 Domains IX Workshop, Sussex (372) ard mathematical notation and often assumes Liverpool (372) 22-26 Higher Dimensional Algebraic MARCH 2009 considerable mathematical maturity from the 8 Function Theory Meeting (372) Geometry, ICMS Workshop, Edinburgh (369) reader. It contains a number of proofs of claims 8-9 Shaping the Future of Maths & Stats in 23-27 Algebraic Lie Structures with Origins 25 LMS Popular Lectures, Birmingham (373) that were made in the earlier chapters and ex- Higher Education, CETL-MSOR Conference, in Physics Workshop, INI, Cambridge (373) 26 What Works in the Classroom, London plains some of the more difficult concepts in Lancaster (371) (372) more detail. 8-10 Vibrations in Rotating Machinery, 29-30 QUANTUM Symposium, York (373) APRIL 2009 This is a book that can be recommended to Exeter (373) 29-3 Oct Inertial-range Dynamics and 6-9 BMC, Galway anyone with an interest in mathematics. They 8-12 Wall Bounded Shear Flows: Transition Mixing, INI Workshop, Cambridge (368) 7-9 BAMC, Nottingham (370) are likely to find it stimulating, possibly addic- & Turbulence, INI Workshop (367) tive, and may find themselves wanting to know 8-12 Grothendieck–Teichmüller Theory of more. The aim of the book can be summarised Dessins d’Enfants, ICMS Workshop, OCTOBER 2008 AUGUST 2009 by the following quote from its dust jacket. Edinburgh (369) 28 Mathematical and Statistical Modelling 1-15 Groups St Andrews 2009, Bath (372) “As our understanding of numbers continues in Medicine and Health Science Symposium, to evolve, this book invites us to rediscover the 10 Scottish Computational Mathematics Belfast (372) mystery and beauty of numbers and reminds us Symposium, Heriot–Watt University, AUGUST 2010 that the story of numbers is a tale with a long Edinburgh (373) 19-27 International Congress of way to run… .” 10-11 New Directions in Skew Product NOVEMBER 2008 Mathematicians 2010, Hyderabad, India Fred Piper Dynamics Workshop, Manchester (369) 21 LMS AGM, London (365) Royal Holloway, University of London C.A. SCOTT LMS member 1881–1914 Albert Sachs, Bradford

The first woman to join the London Mathematical Society was Charlotte Angas Scott,an outstanding mathematician who, despite having been placed “equivalent to eighth Wrangler” in the Cambridge Tripos exam of 1880, being a woman, was not included on the list of graduates. Scott’s participation at LMS meetings was impaired by the difficulty she experienced in gaining college-level employment in Britain. In 1885, four years after her election to the Society, she accepted a post at Bryn Mawr College in Philadelphia, and soon became an active member of the American Mathematical Society, to whose Bulletin she contributed several papers.