Department of Mathematics Report to Dean’s Forum, February 2008 1. Recent Successes • Rod Gover has been offered membership of IAS Princeton for three months at the end of the year. • Edward Huang has won a Japanese SPS Postdoctoral Fellowship which he will take up in September. • Antonio Politi, a current post-doc, has won the Reinhart Heinrich Doctoral Thesis Award. This prize is awarded (by the European Society of Mathematical Biology) to the student with the best PhD in Mathematical Biology across the world. 2. Initiatives – Teaching & Research Teaching • Judy Paterson is organising In-Service Mathematics courses for secondary teachers through the Department. Over 20 teachers have registered for the first session to be given by James Sneyd. Research • The New Zealand Institute of Mathematics 2008 Worskshop was held in Nelson (6-12 January 2008) as part of the Conformal Geometry programme directed by Rod Gover and Gaven Martin (Massey). The speakers were world-renowned, international guests and the audience was formed by postgraduate students and New Zealand based academics in equal proportions. • The Department hosted LOGOS 15, the workshop of the Mathematics Education Pipeline Project. Pipeline is a pilot project of the International Commission for Mathematics Instruction (ICMI), including half-dozen countries, amongst which New Zealand. This is a preliminary project of a long-term project to document, on a worldwide scale, the numbers of students studying mathematics as they transition from secondary school to tertiary institutions to workplaces, including mathematics teaching. Special Items • Following the Public Lectures by John Conway (Princeton), Marcus du Sautoy (Oxford), C.R. Leedham-Green (London) and Ian Stewart (Warwick), the Department hosted a public lecture by Vaughan Jones, entitled Flatland, a great Place to do Algebra on December 6, 2007. The following visitors have been in the department working on collaborative projects: • Professor Arnoud C.M. van Rooij, Radbound University Nijmegen, hosted by David Bryant. • Professor Chris Godsil, University of Waterloo, Canada, hosted by Marston Conder • Professor Tomaz Pisanski, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, hosted by Marston Conder • Florina Halasan, University of British Columbia, Canada, hosted by Boris Pavlov • Dr V Lakshmana Gomathi Nayagam, Nat. Inst. Tech. Tiruchirappalli, hosted by David Gauld • Professor Melvin Leok, Purdue University, USA, hosted by Shixiao Wang • Professor Jim Ho Kwak, Com2Mac Centre, Postech, Korea, hosted by Marston Conder • Professor Tommy Dreyfus, Tel Aviv University, Israel, hosted by Mike Thomas • Diego Dominici, State University of New York (New Paltz), hosted by Shayne Waldron • Professor Uzy Smilanskiy, Weizman Institute, Israel, hosted by Boris Pavlov • Professor Martin Liebeck, Imperial College, London, hosted by Eamonn O’Brien • Professor Peter Brooksbank, Bucknell University, hosted by Eamonn O’Brien • Professor Michael Eastwood, University of Adelaide, hosted by Rod Gover • Professor Julian West, University of Victoria, Canada, hosted by Eamonn O’Brien • Professor Gary Seitz, University of Oregon, hosted by Eamonn O’Brien • Professor Peter Fleischmann, University of Kent, hosted by Eamonn O'Brien • Professor Rene Huijsmans, TU Delft, hosted by Mike Meylan • Professor Robert M. Corless, University of Western Ontario, visiting John Butcher • Professor Diana Coben, King's College London, visiting Barbara Miller-Reilly • Professor Robert Raphael, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, hosted by Ivan Reilly • Professor R Grant Woods, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, hosted by Ivan Reilly • Professor Maximilian Ganster, Technische Universitat Graz, Graz, Austria, hosted by Ivan Reilly • Professor Josef Siran, Open University, UK, hosted by Henrik Baarnhelm. • Assoc. Prof David Liberles, University of Wyoming, hosted by David Bryant • Professor Willard Miller, University of Minnesota, visiting Rod Gover • Professor Gary Seitz, University of Oregon, visiting Eamonn O'Brien • Prof Peter Bates, Michigan State University, hosted by James Sneyd • Professor Diana Coben, Kings College London, hosted by Barbara Miller-Reilly • Dr Josef Silhan, International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy, and Masaryk Universit • Dr Daniel Weiss, University of Cologne, hosted by John Butcher • Professor Steve Linton, University of St Andrews, hosted by Marston Conder • Professor Wolfgang Arendt, University of Ulm, hosted by Tom ter Elst • Dr Felicien Bonnefoy, Ecole Centrale Nantes, hosted by Mike Meylan • Professor Grant Woods, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, hosted by Ivan Reilly 3. Staffing Matters • We farewelled three members of staff in December/January. Boris Pavlov retired after fifteen years in the department, and Ivan Reilly and Barbara Miller-Reilly retired after over thirty years service to the university. Farewell seminars were held for all three retirees, with several visitors coming form overseas for the occasions. • Rowena Knight-Brown has left the department to follow her husband into a University management position in Wales. The recruiting process for a new secretary/PA is underway. • We have two Royal Society visitors, Sue Noble, Parnell College, and Neelam Taneja, Randwick Park School, Manurewa. • Marina McFarland and Anne Blundell both from Auckland Girls' Grammar School are with us for 2008 on Ministry of Education Study Awards. • Daniel Weiss and Henrik Baarnhielm are welcomed to the Department as new Psot-doctoral students. • Isabell Hubard is welcomed as a temporary lecturer to substitute for Paul Bonnington. • Jari Kaipio (Finland) will take up a position in the Applied Mathematics Unit during Semester 1. • The second appointee in Applied Mathematics, Claire Postlethwaite, will arrive in Semester 2. • Bill Barton has been awarded a Hood Fellowship to spend 3 months at the University of Oxford. • Paul Bonnington has left the Department to take his Professorship at Monash. • We congratulate our promoted members of staff: David Bryant to Associate Professor, Warren Moors over the Senior Lecturer bar, Hannah Bartholomew and Tom ter Elst as Senior Lecturers, Jamie Sneddon and Greg Oates over bars in the Senior Tutor scale. 4. Notable events • On 29th Feb the Department organised, (in collaboration with the School of Engineering) a Commemorative Day to honour a prominent researchers in numerical analysis, Gene Golub. The Gene Golub Around the World Day was organised in 30 universities, from Oxford to Adelaide.

Bill Barton January 08