LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER No. 409 December 2011

Society LMS COUNCIL DIARY interpreted as teaching students, and therefore ‘working’), but a Meetings 7 October 2011 ‘scientific presentation’ (which is and Events A personal view not). We approved the Annual Ac- 2012 In these turbulent times there is counts, and the draft Trustees’ Friday 24 February always plenty to discuss in Coun- Report (subject to a few minor Mary Cartwright cil meetings. It will not be news amendments), for presentation Lecture, London to LMS members that the EPSRC to the AGM in November. The [page 3] Shaping Capability agenda is one Society is in a strong financial po- matter which worries us greatly. sition, mainly due to a significant 26–30 March While individual reactions prob- increase in publishing income. LMS Invited Lectures, ably range from outrage to de- We considered a draft Strategic Glasgow [page 17]  spair, and individual comments Plan prepared by the Executive Saturday 19 May from condemnatory to unprint- Secretary, Fiona Nixon, but rec- Poincaré Meeting, able, the LMS Council is keenly ognised that this requires more London aware of the need, through thought outside the meeting, be- CMS, to keep open lines of com- fore bringing a revised version to Wednesday 6 June munication with EPSRC, even if the new Council in January. Northern Regional our representations appear to be We considered briefly how to Meeting, Newcastle achieving little at present. Our respond to the Education Select Friday 29 June hopes rest mainly with The Royal Committee inquiry on ‘How should Meeting and Hardy Society, which is the only body examinations for 15–19 year olds Lecture, London with the breadth and the clout in England be run?’. The Education to be able to stand up to EPSRC. Committee will prepare a draft Monday 1 October Another recurring problem is response and circulate it to Council SW & South Wales the frequent refusal of visas for in the near future. So far our main Regional Meeting, short-term visitors on some of recommendation is the obvious Bristol our grant schemes. While on the one of separating the running of Friday 16 November one hand we are making high- examinations from the writing Annual General level representations to the UK and publishing of textbooks. If this Meeting, London Border Agency, at a practical lev- is implemented, of course, there el Marco Marletta explained to will suddenly be a big hole in the us some of the words that need textbook market, and we discussed to be used, or avoided, in visa ways in which we might help to applications and letters of invita- ensure that such a hole would be NEWSLETTER tion. For example, the applicant filled with good quality teaching must be an ‘academic visitor’ (not materials. Members of the Educa- ONLINE: a ‘visiting researcher’, which re- tion Committee will be develop- Go to www.lms.ac.uk/ quires a work permit), and must ing ideas in this direction. Another newsletter not be giving a ‘lecture’ (which is issue being actively considered by LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

Education Committee is that of training of Subscription forms, direct debit mandate lecturers. With the likely demise of the MSOR forms and further information about the network of the Higher Education Academy, the current subscription rates can also be down- LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY suggestion was made for the LMS to take over loaded from the LMS website at www.lms. the running of the induction day for new lec- ac.uk/content/paying-your-subscription. turers. This will be investigated. MARY CARTWRIGHT LECTURE An outline bid for a two-year extension to LMS PRIZES 2012 the LMS–EPSRC short courses was successful, AND SOCIETY MEETING Call for Nominations and work is going on to finalise details of the contract. We agreed in principle to support The London Mathematical Society welcomes Friday 24 February 2012 the annual Prospects in Mathematics meeting nominations for the 2012 prizes to recognise for final-year undergraduates thinking of do- and celebrate the achievements in and contri- Black Suite, BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP ing a PhD. Details of the scheme are still to be butions to all aspects of mathematics, including worked out, and it would of course be subject applied mathematics, mathematical physics and to review after a few years. Another possible mathematical aspects of computer science. Programme: new venture is in Undergraduate Research In 2012 the LMS Council expects to award: Bursaries, currently funded by the Nuffield • The in recognition of outstand- Pólya Prize 3.30 Opening of the meeting Foundation, who are withdrawing from the ing creativity in, imaginative exposition of,  scheme in order to concentrate their funding or distinguished contribution to, mathematics Tom Lenagan (Edinburgh)  at school level. We made no decision on this, within the United Kingdom as it would cost a significant amount of money, • The Senior Berwick Prize in recognition of Totally nonnegative matrices and we need time to weigh this up against a piece of mathematical research of the other ways this money could be used. highest quality actually published by the 4.30 Tea There was bad news from the Website Work- Society during the last eight years

ing Group, who unanimously recommended (i.e. between 1 January 2004 and 5.00 Mary Cartwright Lecture parting company with the developers we had 31 December 2011 for the 2012 award) Agata Smoktunowicz (Edinburgh) been using until now. This was agreed, but we • The Fröhlich Prize for original and now need to come up with a Plan B. extremely innovative work in any branch Old and new questions in

Robert Wilson of mathematics noncommutative algebra Post Evening Wales South the of Courtesy • The Whitehead Prizes for work in and LMS SUBSCRIPTION influence on mathematics Mary Cartwright giving a lecture The Prizes Committee is keen to increase the at Swansea University Reminder number of nominations it receives and, in particu- Members are reminded that their annual sub- lar, the number of nominations for women, which A reception will be held after the meeting at BMA House followed by a scription, including payment for publications, are disproportionately low each year. The prize dinner at the Number Twelve Restaurant, Ambassador Hotel, at a cost of for the period November 2011 – October 2012 regulations refer to the concept of ‘academic was due on 1 November 2011, and should be age’ – rather than date of birth – in order to take £32 per person, inclusive of wine. If you would like to attend the dinner, paid by 31 December 2011 at the latest. account more fully of broken career patterns. please contact Elizabeth Fisher ([email protected]) by 17 February. In the case of members who already have a For further information and nomination direct debit set up, no action need be taken. forms, please visit the LMS website (www.lms. There are limited funds available to contribute in part to the expenses of All members should now have received a re- ac.uk/content/nominations-lms-prizes) or con- minder via email or letter, detailing how to tact Elizabeth Fisher, Secretary to the Prizes members of the Society or research students to attend the meeting. pay their subscription. If you have not received Committee at the Society (tel: 020 7291 9973, Contact Duncan Turton/Elizabeth Fisher ([email protected]) for a reminder please contact the Membership email: [email protected]). further information. Department (email: [email protected]; The closing date for nominations is Friday tel. 020 7291 9973 or 020 7927 0808). 13 January 2012. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

Cecil King Travel Scholarship

The London Mathematical Society annually awards a £5,000 Cecil King Travel Scholarship in Mathematics to a young mathematician of outstanding promise. The Scholarship is awarded to support a period of study or research abroad, typically for a period of three months. Study or research in all areas of mathematics is eligible for the award.

The award is competitive and based on a written proposal describing the intended programme of study or research abroad and the benefits to be gained from such a visit. A shortlist of applicants will be selected for an interview during which they will be expected to make a short presentation on their proposal.

 Applicants should normally be nationals of the UK or Republic of Ireland,  either registered for or having recently completed a doctoral degree at a UK University.

Applications should be made using the form available on the Society’s website (www.lms.ac.uk/content/cecil-king-travel-scholarship) or by contacting [email protected]. The closing date for applications is LMS Newsletter www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter Friday 2 March 2012. It is expected that interviews will take place in Editorial office: [email protected]; London Mathematical Society, London in late April or early May. De Morgan House, 57–58 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HS (t: 020 7637 3686; f: 020 7323 3655) Events calendar: please send updates and corrections to [email protected] The Cecil King Travel Scholarship was established in 2001 by the Cecil General Editor: Mr A.J.S. Mann ([email protected]) King Memorial Fund. The award is made by the Council of the London Reports Editor: vacant Mathematical Society on the recommendation of the Cecil King Prize Reviews Editor: Dr C.M. Roney-Dougal ([email protected]) Administrative Editor: S.M. Oakes ([email protected]) Committee, nominated by the Society’s Education Committee. Typeset by the London Mathematical Society at De Morgan House; printed by Holbrooks Printers Ltd. Publication dates and deadlines: published monthly, except August. Items and advertisements by the first day of the month prior to publication, or the closest preceding working day. Notices and advertisements are not accepted for events that occur in the first week of the publication month. BRITISH POSTGRADUATE MODEL THEORY CONFERENCE Advertising: for rates and guidelines, see www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/ratecard.html News items and notices in the Newsletter may be freely used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, The second British Postgraduate Model Theory The conference fee is £10. For further in- although attribution is requested when reproducing whole articles. Contributions to the Newsletter Conference will take place at the University of formation email [email protected] or are made under a non-exclusive licence; please contact the author or photographer for the rights to Oxford from 4 to 6 January 2012. It is mainly visit the website at http://tcc.maths.ox.ac. reproduce. The LMS cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information in the Newsletter. aimed at postgraduate students and postdocs uk/bpgmt12. Registration is now open. The Views expressed do not necessarily represent the views or policy of the London Mathematical Society. working in model theory and related subject conference is supported by an LMS Post- Charity registration number: 252660. areas, but anybody interested in the subject graduate Research Conference Scheme 8 is very welcome. grant. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

LMS GRANT SCHEMES Visitor From Three Institutions where Applicant Grant lectures are given Funds are available for the following mathe- • by a named mathematician from within A. Grigoryan Universität Bielefeld Oxford, Warwick, B. Zegarlinski £671 matical research visits (see further informa- the UK or abroad to the home base of Imperial College London, tion under Call for Applications on page 10). the grant holder. Cambridge N. Joshi University of Sydney UCL, Kent, F.W. Nijhoff £1,200 Visitors to the UK (Scheme 2) International short visits with the main focus Loughborough To provide partial support for visitors to the on Africa (Scheme 5) A. Karlsson University of Geneva Durham, Warwick, N. Peyerimhoff £1,100 UK, who will give lectures in at least three To support visits for collaborative research Bristol separate institutions. Applications should • by the grant holder to a country in D. University of the Heriot-Watt, Strathclyde, S. Foss £1,000 be made by the host in the UK. Africa (or countries where mathematics Konstantinides Aegean Edinburgh is in a similar position), or H. Long Florida Atlantic Swansea, Warwick, York Z. Brzezniak £1,200 Research in Pairs (Scheme 4) • by a named mathematician from a University To support visits for collaborative research country in Africa (or countries where A. Loskutov Moscow State Imperial College London, V. Gelfreich £950 • by the grant holder to another institution mathematics is in a similar position) to University Bristol, Warwick within the UK or abroad, or the home base of the grant holder. C. Mueller University of Manchester, Swansea, J.-L. Wu £1,150 Rochester Oxford The Society is pleased to report that in 2010–11 the Programme Committee awarded a total E. O’Brien University of Warwick, QMUL, D. Holt £1,000 of £59,021 for the following research visits:  Auckland Cambridge  Visitors to the UK H. Ombao Brown University, Warwick, Lancaster, J. Aston £700 Providence, USA Bristol Visitor From Three Institutions where Applicant Grant J-E. Pin University Paris Manchester, Heriot-Watt, V. Gould £819 lectures are given Diderot; LIAFA & CNRS York V. Rothos Aristotle University Nottingham, Imperial H. Susanto £1,000 T. Arakawa Kyoto University Manchester, York, A. Premet 1,200 £ of Thessaloniki College London, Surrey Edinburgh F. Santos University of UCL, Oxford, Cambridge I. Bárány £950 M. Bickis Saskatchewan, Durham, Newcastle, F. Coolen £1,200 Canatabria Canada Oxford Brookes S.H. Sargsyan Gyumri State Keele, Brunel, G. Rogerson £1,200 A. Biswas Kolkata, India Warwick, Birmingham, A. Guha £1,200 Pedagogical Institute, Imperial College London Aston Armenia M.G. Brin Binghamton St Andrews, Newcastle, C. Bleak £1,200 V. Schomerus DESY Theory King’s College London, A. Recknagel £1,200 University Southampton Group, Hamburg Durham, Heriot-Watt J. Burillo Universitat Polit�cnica Newcastle, Southampton, S. Rees £1,200 M. Schweizer ETH Zürich Imperial College London, H. Zheng £1,200 de Catalunya, St Andrews Warwick, Manchester Barcelona L. Vainerman Caen, France York, Nottingham, A. Daletskii £760 Swansea P. Cossey Australian National Birmingham, East Anglia, S.E. Stonehewer £1,200 University Warwick M. Xu Chinese Academy of Oxford, Imperial College Z. Qian £1,200 Science London, Loughborough M. Demers Fairfield University Loughborough, C. Dettmann £1,200 D. Yafaev Rennes King’s College London, A. Pushnitski 875 Surrey, Bristol £ Lancaster, Cardiff O. Derzo Memorial University Loughborough, UCL, R. Grimshaw 1,200 £ P. Zegeling Utrecht Leeds, Heriot-Watt, J. Niesen £466 of Newfoundland St Andrews Surrey E. Frenkel Moscow State Manchester, Heriot-Watt, A. Duncan £1,200 S. Zwicknagel Bonn Edinburgh, Glasgow, I. Gordon £500 University Newcastle Newcastle LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

Research in Pairs Applicant Institution Collaborator Institution Grant O. Makarenkov Imperial College J. Meiss University of Colorado £450 Applicant Institution Collaborator Institution Grant London R.J. Archbold Aberdeen A. an Huef Otago, New Zealand £640 S. Malham Heriot-Watt R. Marangell University of Warwick £273 S. Astill Bristol C. Parker, Martin Luther Universität £700 M. Mathieu QUB A.R. Sourour University of Victoria, £700 R. Waldecker Halle-Wittenberg, Germany BC, Canada W. Bahsoun Loughborough A. Ferguson University of Warwick £260 N. Mazza Lancaster S. Bouc Université de Picardie £700 W. Bahsoun Loughborough S. Vaienti Universite d’Aix-Marseille £700 A. Mijatovic Warwick M. Urusov Ulm, Germany £600 G. Barrenechea Strathclyde F. Valentin, LNCC Brazil, Universidad £600 V. Moroz Swansea C. Muratov New Jersey Institute £700 R. Araya de Concepción, Chile of Technology E. Parau East Anglia P. Guyenne University of Delaware 600 Y. Bazlov Manchester A. Berenstein University of Oregon, USA £700 £ S. Scott King’s College S. Rosenberg Boston University £700 M. Blyth East Anglia P. Trevelyan Université Libre de Bruxelles £300 London I. Cheltsov Edinburgh C. Shramov Steklov Mathematical £700 D. Strauss Leeds F.K. Dashiell Chapman University, 700 Institute, Moscow £ California C-H. Chu QMUL M.V. Velasco Universidad de Granada, £650  I. Todorov QUB M. Anoussis University of the Aegean £700  Spain D. Turaev Imperial College V. Rom-Kedar Weizmann Institute of £700 M. Crochemore King’s College M. Kubica Warsaw University 680 £ London Science, Israel London A. Turner Lancaster F. Viklund, Columbia University; £700 R. Curtis Birmingham J. Hall Michigan State University £700 A. Sola Oklahoma State University P.J. Davies Strathclyde H. Brunner Memorial University of £680 M. van den Bristol P. Gilkey University of Oregon £700 Newfoundland, Canada Berg G. Garkusha Swansea I. Panin Steklov’s Mathematical £620 S. Volkov Bristol P. Tarr�s Institut de Mathématiques £590 Institute, St Petersburg de Toulouse C. Iliopoulos King’s College J. Simpson, Curtin University, £700 S. Wainer Leeds D.C. Ding Nanjing University £700 London E. Chang Perth, Australia A. Jasra Imperial College N. Whiteley Bristol University £230 International Short Visits London Visitor Institution To Visit Applicant Grant J.R. Johnson QMUL G.O.H. Katona Alfred Rényi Institute of £600 Mathematics, Hungary T. Aboiyar Makurdi, Nigeria Leicester E. Georgoulis £1,900 K. Babalola Ilorin, Nigeria York, University College Cork B. Everitt 350 O. King Newcastle G. Marino Napoli £700 £ A. Chechkin Institute for QMUL R. Klages 1,840 V. Kisil Leeds O. Hutnik Cinvestav del IPN, Mexico £700 £ Theoretical Physics I. Kiss Sussex S. Peter Eötvös Loránd University, £525 NSC KIPT, Ukraine Budapest M. Elloumi University of Tunis King’s College London C. Iliopoulos £2,000 N.J. Laustsen Lancaster T. Schlumprecht, Texas A&M University; £300 El-Manar A. Zsak Cambridge A.E.M. Lewis Leeds C. Conidis Waterloo, Canada £600 Applicant Institution To Visit Grant S. Lind Manchester T. Phillips Cardiff University £290 R. MacKay Warwick J-P. Nguenang, University of Douala, Cameroon £902 LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

Call for Applications • Visitors to the UK (Scheme 2) Applications to the LMS should include: Grants News Closing Date: 31 December 2011 • Research in Pairs (Scheme 4) 1. A brief academic case for the visit, includ- • International short visits with the main ing a description of your current research We would like to draw your attention to the Applications are invited for renewal of Joint focus on Africa (Scheme 5) interests, and an outline of your planned following: Research Groups (Scheme 3). • Young British and Russian Mathematicians work during the visit (no more than one ALL renewal applications MUST be accom- Scheme (see further details below) side of A4). Computer Science Small Grants (Scheme 7) panied by a financial and academic report For full details of these grant schemes, 2. A brief CV (no more than one side of A4). Funding for grants up to £500 is available to for the previous year’s activities. Please note and to download application forms, visit 3. A brief budget. support a visit for collaborative research at that full reports should always be submitted the LMS website (www.lms.ac.uk/content/ 4. An invitation from the host in Russia, the interface of Mathematics and Computer (‘light touch’ refers to the application proce- research-grants). which must state explicitly that your ac- Science either by the grant holder to another dure only). • Applications for renewal of Joint Research commodation and subsistence expenses institution within the UK or abroad, or by a Grant holders wishing to renew their ap- Groups (Scheme 3) must be received by 31 will be met by them. This should include named mathematician from within the UK plication may use the Light Touch Applica- December 2011 and will be considered at a provisional dates for the visit. or abroad to the home base of the grant tion Form if meeting in January. Financial and academic reports will be re- holder. The next deadline for applications the original or last full renewal applica- • Applications for the above grant schemes quired after the visit. is 31 January 2012 – please see the website tion was made in the last TWO years, and which are received by 31 January 2012 will In exceptional circumstances, applications for further details: www.lms.ac.uk/content/ NONE of the following have changed: be considered at a meeting in February. may be considered from strong research stu- computer-science-small-grants-scheme-7. • the grant holder, • Applications should be submitted well in dents who are close to finishing their doctor- 10 • the supporters, and advance of the date of the event for which ates. Applications should include a strong Small Grants for Education 11 • the amount requested funding is requested. case and the student should obtain a letter of Funding for grants up to £600 is available from Grant holders MUST use the Full Renewal • Normally grants are not made for events recommendation from his/her supervisor. the LMS Education Committee to stimulate in- Application Form if which have already happened or where terest and enable involvement in mathemat- the original or last full renewal applica- insufficient time has been allowed for Visits to Britain ics from Key Stage 1 (age 5+) to Postgraduate tion was made THREE years ago, and/or processing of the application. Under this Scheme, applications may be made level and beyond. Anyone working/based in ANY of the following have changed: Queries regarding applications can be ad- by any mathematician in Britain wishing to host the UK is eligible to apply for a grant. If the • the grant holder, dressed to the Grants Administrators (see a visit by a young Russian postdoctoral math- applicant is not a member then the applica- • the supporters or below) who will be pleased to discuss proposals ematician who wishes to spend a few weeks in tion must be countersigned by an LMS mem- • the amount requested informally with potential applicants and give Britain giving a series of survey lectures on the ber or another suitable person such as a Head If a renewal application is unsuccessful, nor- advice on the submission of an application. work of their Russian seminar. teacher or senior colleague. The next dead- mally the grant will be terminated at the end • Grants Administrators: Sylvia Daly and The LMS is offering grants to the host institu- line for applications is 31 January 2012. Please of the calendar year. A supplementary grant Elizabeth Fisher (tel: 020 7291 9971/3, tion to meet the visitor’s actual travel and ac- see the website for further details: www.lms. will be available to cover actual expenditure email: [email protected]) commodation costs of up to £1,500. ac.uk/content/small-grants-education for a meeting held during the autumn term. Applications should include the following: This will normally be the equivalent of the Young British and Russian 1. Name and brief CV of the visitor. Childcare Grants grant awarded for one meeting, e.g. £350, Mathematicians Scheme 2. A brief description of the course of lectures. The Society believes that all parents work- and will not usually exceed one third of the 3. A letter or email of agreement from the ing in mathematics should be able to at- previous year’s grant. Visits to Russia head of the host department, including the tend conferences and research meetings Applications are invited from young British proposed dates of the visit. without being hindered by childcare costs. Call for Applications postdoctoral mathematicians who wish to Financial and academic reports will be re- Institutions are expected to make provision Closing Date: 31 January 2012 spend a few weeks in Russia giving a series of quired after the visit. for childcare costs and parents are encour- survey lectures on the work of their school. Further details of the Scheme can be aged to make enquiries. However, where Applications are invited for the following grants: The LMS is offering grants of up to £500 to found on the LMS website: www.lms.ac.uk/ this is not available, the Society administers • Conferences and postgraduate research meet the travel costs, while the host should content/international-grants#YBR. a Childcare Supplementary Grants Scheme. conferences held in the UK (Schemes 1 apply to the Russian Academy of Sciences for Enquiries should be made to the Grants Ad- Further details can be found on the LMS and 8) funding towards local expenses for accom- ministrators: Sylvia Daly and Elizabeth Fisher website: www.lms.ac.uk/content/childcare- • Celebrating new appointments (Scheme 1) modation and subsistence. (tel: 020 7291 9971/3, email: [email protected]). supplementary-grants. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

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NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

MATHEMATICS POLICY ROUND-UP one of the biggest rises, with a 30 per cent in- RIGIDITY OF PERIODIC AND crease. As well as looking at the trends in HE November 2011 • “The UK has a lower share of articles pub- numbers, the report looks at patterns of insti- SYMMETRIC STRUCTURES lished than the global average in math- tutional diversity. The full report is available at RESEARCH ematics, physical sciences and engineering, http://tinyurl.com/67dewng. A Royal Society meeting on the Rigidity of although the share has grown slightly in Periodic Structures in Nature and Engineering Young mathematicians write to the Prime mathematics”; SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES will be held at the Kavli Royal Society Inter- Minister • “UK research strengths reveal some of the national Centre from 23 to 24 February 2012. Over 300 young mathematical scientists sent smaller disciplinary areas in which the UK How should examinations for 15–19 year Rigidity and flexibility are the heart of the a letter to the Prime Minister in October pro- has notable strengths relative to other olds in England be run? behaviour of designed and natural structures, testing against the EPSRC’s restrictions on countries, this includes topology.” In September 2011 the Education Select Com- machines and materials. Combining theories Fellowships, announced in July. The letter is The full report is available at http://tinyurl. mittee launched an inquiry ‘to consider the of symmetry and rigidity gives insights in all available at http://tinyurl.com/6kt2vrs. com/6cguabq. benefits and drawbacks of having several these fields. Periodic and repetitive structures awarding bodies for qualifications taken by 15– give new challenges, where open mathemati- Responses to Select Committee Peer Review EPSRC Physical Sciences Town Meeting 19 year olds and the extent to which the current cal questions have practical implications for report A Physical Sciences Town Meeting was held in system delivers the best and fairest educational engineers, material scientists and chemists; The Science and Technology Select Committee London on 26 September 2011 to communi- outcomes for young people’. The deadline for multidisciplinary combination of diverse ap- has received responses to the Peer review in cate details of the EPSRC’s Shaping Capability written submissions was 7 November 2011. The proaches shows the way forward. The speak- 14 scientific publications report published by the Strategy. A video of the meeting is available LMS prepared a response and the Committee’s ers are: 15 Committee on 28 July 2011. The response from at http://tinyurl.com/642vf2j. findings will be available in due course. • Bob Connelly (Cornell University) the government and Research Councils UK is • Gérard Férey (Université de Versailles) available at http://tinyurl.com/5syydzd. The LMS Royal Academy of Engineering launches HIGHER EDUCATION • Simon Guest (University of Cambridge) response to the original peer-review inquiry can Respected report for education • Stephen Hyde (Australian National be found at http://tinyurl.com/5rmho6n. Higher education in STEM subjects inquiry A report looking at which qualifications are University) launched highly regarded by the science, technology, • Mike O’Keefe (Arizona State University) David Willetts MP gives Third Roberts Science The House of Lords Science and Technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) commu- • Stephen Power (University of Lancaster) Policy lecture Sub-Committee has launched a new inquiry nity has been published by the Royal Academy • Elissa Ross (York University, Canada) In his lecture Willetts covered areas including into how the UK builds the educational foun- of Engineering. The full report Respected: • Bernd Schulze (York University, Canada) the Strength of the research base, Govern- dations it needs to face the challenges of the Technical qualifications selected for use in • Hellmuth Stachel (Technische Universität ment support for science, Impact, Peer review future. The inquiry will address higher educa- University Technical Colleges is available at Wien) and Science careers. A podcast and transcript tion in Science, Technology, Engineering and www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/pdf/691.pdf. • Mike Thorpe (Arizona State University) of the lecture are available at http://tinyurl. Mathematics (STEM) subjects. The deadline • Mike Treacy (Arizona State University) com/5u5gzy4. for responses is 16 December 2011. More in- Improving science in colleges • Nick Trianafyllidis (University of Michigan) formation is available at http://tinyurl.com/ Ofsted has conducted a survey of good prac- • Walter Whiteley (York University, Canada) The UK is a world leader in science and 6292rrm. The LMS is preparing a response. tice in science in general further education • Alphonse Zingoni (University of Cape Town) research and sixth-form colleges in England. The re- According to a new report from BIS, Interna- Trends in higher education port ‘identifies the factors that helped these Participation in the meeting is open to all. tional Comparative Performance of the UK Universities UK has published a report looking colleges to maintain the high standard or Further information can be obtained from the Research Base 2011, the UK is a world leader at Patterns and trends in UK higher education improve the quality of their science provi- conference website at http://royalsociety.org/ in science and research. The report shows that over the past decade, from 2000/01 to 2009/10. sion and makes recommendations for further events/Rigidity-of-periodic-and-symmetric- UK research attracts more citations per pound A breakdown of student numbers by subject improvement’. The full report is available structures, which includes the email address spent in overall research and development than area studied for 2009/10, with comparisons at www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/improving- for registration, or from the organizers, Dr any other country. It has also found that the UK against 2008/09 and 2003/04 shows that since science-colleges. Mathematics is mentioned Simon Guest ([email protected]), Professor research base is highly mobile, internationally 2003/04 student numbers across all subjects as part of the overall STEM programme. Patrick Fowler ([email protected]) competitive and diverse. In terms of mathemat- have increased by 13.3 per cent. Over the past Dr John Johnston and Professor Stephen Power (s.power@ ics the report states among other things: seven years the mathematical sciences shows Mathematics Promotion Unit lancaster.ac.uk). LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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6TH EUROPEAN CONGRESS Satellite conferences Mathematicians are in- Important dates and deadlines Register for the 6ECM at the website www. vited to organize satellite events (conferenc- 31 Dec 2011 announcement of the 6ecm.pl, where you’ll also find: OF MATHEMATICS es, etc.) close to the dates of the 6ECM. There scientific programme • names of the speakers Kraków, Poland, 2–7 July 2012 are already 12 satellite conferences that will 29 Feb 2012 application for the satellite • call for nominations of candidates for prizes be held before and after the Congress, in the events • list of satellite events The Congress The European Congress of Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, 1 Apr 2012 registration fee increases and much more. You can also ask questions Mathematics, a quadrennial general math- Poland and Romania. 30 Apr 2012 submission of posters via email to [email protected]. ematical meeting, is an important activity of the European Mathematical Society (EMS) Grants and financial support In order to which decides about the core of its scientific ensure broad participation and reduce eco- programme. The 6ECM is organized by the nomic barriers, a limited number of grants Polish Mathematical Society and the Jagiel- funded by the Foundation for Polish Science LMS INVITED LECTURER 2012 lonian University in Kraków. and the EMS will be offered, particularly for young mathematicians and for mathemati- Scientific programme There will be 10 ple- cians from Central and Eastern Europe. nary lectures, 34 invited lectures in parallel Professor Alexei Borodin (MIT) sections, approximately 20 mini-symposia as Exhibitions Space will be available for math- well as contributed poster sessions. Arrange- ematical societies, publishers and other Determinantal point processes and 16 ments will be made for informal discussions, companies. 17 talks and small working groups. representation theory Registration fee Until 31 March 2012 the fee Prizes 10 EMS Prizes for mathematicians not is PLN 1,050 (Polish Złoty) which currently is older than 35, the Felix Klein Prize in Appli- approximately €250; from 1 April 2012 it will 26–30 March 2012 cation of Mathematics and the Otto Neuge- increase to PLN 1,250. There is a reduced fee University of Glasgow bauer Prize for the History of Mathematics will for EMS individual members (PLN 900) and be awarded. The committees were appointed students (PLN 600). by the EMS. The winners will be announced Alexei Borodin will give a ten-lecture minicourse, at a level suitable for at the opening of the 6ECM and they will de- Social programme Social and cultural pro- graduate students, on Determinantal point processes and representation liver lectures during the 6ECM. grammes, promoting informal contacts theory. The lectures will explore the interactions between probability theory between participants and the rich cultural and algebra, which is a new fast-developing area. Proceedings The 6ECM Proceedings, pub- heritage of Kraków, will be important com- lished by the EMS Publishing House, will be ponents of the Congress activities. A wel- There will also be supplementary lectures by: available at a special price for the registered come reception and conference dinner are participants. The registered participants will planned. There will be a special programme • Neil O’Connell (Warwick) receive free access to the files of the proceed- for accompanying persons. • Patrik Ferrari (Bonn) ings papers. Logistics The Congress will be held in the Local B&B accommodation will be available. Auditorium Maximum of the Jagiellon- ian University, located close to the historic Limited financial support is available with preference given to UK old city. Several rooms will be booked for research students. Please contact the organisers for further details participants for the period of the Con- ([email protected]). gress in hotels and dormitories (of differ- ent standards) at convenient distance from For further details on the 2012 Invited Lectures please visit the Congress venue. Reservations will start in February 2012 via the 6ECM website, www.maths.gla.ac.uk/~mf/LMSLectures2012/index.htm. www.6ecm.pl. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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MATHEMATICS TODAY SCIENCE IN PARLIAMENT British mathematics has a stunning history, The mathematics community was given spanning at least 400 years. To understand the opportunity to contribute to the the motion of the planets, Isaac Newton Autumn 2011 issue of Science in Parlia- developed the mathematical tools that are ment (vol. 68 no. 4), the journal of the still used to describe the motion of almost Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. anything. In the 1860s James Clerk Maxwell This is a prestigious publication, which wrote down the relativistic equations of has two stated objectives: light and radio waves, anticipating aspects of Einstein’s theory by twenty years. R.A. Fisher • ‘to inform the scientific and industrial developed the mathematical theory of statis- communities of activities within parlia- tics in its modern form almost single-handedly ment of a scientific nature and of the in the 1920s whilst working at the Rothamsted progress of relevant legislation’; and Experimental Station; and Alan Turing used • ‘to keep Members of Parliament mathematics to decode the German Enigma abreast of scientific issues’. machines in the 1940s, developing the first The adjacent article has been re- computers in the process. In 1994, more than produced with kind permission of the 18 three hundred and fifty years after the prob- Parliamentary and Scientific Committee 19 lem was first posed, Andrew Wiles proved and the authors. It looks at the spe- Fermat’s Last Theorem; Wiles will return from cial history of mathematics and its the US to a post at Oxford later this year. major impact on our lives, and is avail- To assess the state of current mathematical able to download at www.vmine.net/ science, the Engineering and Physical Sciences scienceinparliament/sip68-4-14.pdf. Research Council (EPSRC) commissions regu- lar reports from international experts. The International Review of Mathematical Sciences with far-reaching and controversial changes 2010 (IRMS 2010, [1]), was published this in research funding policy signalled by the Easter, the first report since 2004. Its con- EPSRC’s ‘Shaping Capability’ agenda [2]. The clusion is that ‘UK mathematical sciences Research Council intends to take a more research is world-leading in some fields, out- pro-active role in commissioning and spon- standing in many others and strong overall’. soring research, identifying research areas The Executive Summary (p. iv) adds: for growth and special support, rather than “Two major factors that contribute to the simply supporting excellence as advised by present excellence of the UK academic academic and industrial experts. In what fol- mathematical sciences enterprise are its lows we shall try to explain how and why the diversity – in area, group size and size of mathematical sciences must exercise central institution – and its geographically distrib- roles in the culture and the economy of any uted nature.” successful modern society; and we shall also The report goes on to examine both the aim to show why EPSRC’s current strategy activity and the processes involved in mathe- risks making these roles unsustainable for UK matical research in the UK. Its publication mathematical science. provides an excellent opportunity for the UK It is hard to overstate the importance and mathematics community to reflect on recent the ubiquity of mathematics. The IRMS 2010 achievements and frame future prospects. expresses it well (again from the Executive Publication of the IRMS report coincides Summary): LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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“the mathematical sciences provide a uni- and compute the most efficient route from fundamental research to other countries and versal language for expressing abstrac- the blocked point. Kelly showed that the far focus on the applications. This is to misunder- tions in science, engineering, industry and simpler and more robust method of sending stand the nature of mathematical research: medicine; mathematical ideas, even the the call to a nearby node at random and then core and applied mathematics are inextrica- most theoretical, can be useful or enlight- taking the standard route from there was al- bly interlinked and, as we’ve tried to show, ening in unexpected ways, sometimes sev- most as efficient, far cheaper to implement, to spot the right mathematics for a given ap- eral decades after their appearance; the and far less likely to malfunction. This insight, plication requires immersion in the well and mathematical sciences play a central role that a less sophisticated, simple solution can can’t simply be done by wielding a ladle from in solving problems from every imaginable be almost as good and far cheaper than a above. Moreover, it often happens that deep application domain; and, because of the unity technically perfect solution, is now a recog- understanding of the mathematical science of the mathematical sciences, advances in nised design feature of networks. actually generates the application. A famous every sub-area enrich the entire field.” The intricate inter-dependence of funda- example is the PageRank algorithm at the However, mathematical science is also a mental mathematical science and applica- heart of Google, which relies on the same hugely important discipline in its own right, tion makes it very hard to steer mathematical matrix algebra that was crucial for quantum with its own culture and intellectual impera- research in any meaningful way. This doesn’t mechanics. tives, its own history over millennia, and its mean that we shouldn’t try, but it does sug- How do people actually do research in math- own ‘Grand Challenges’. It is important to gest that the best compass to use may be one ematics? The answer, typically, is: by reading a see mathematics in its entirety and not be which seeks out the highest quality and the bit, perhaps talking to colleagues and students 20 distracted by the crude and misleading dis- information hidden in huge data sets. This is most promising directions, in each particular (both down the corridor and across the planet), 21 tinction between theory and applications, one of the key challenges for genomic biology, field. Mathematicians and statisticians should and by thinking a lot. Consequently, the work- often expressed as ‘pure’ versus ‘applied’ and statisticians are currently making impor- continue to put huge efforts into seeking ing research mathematician’s requirements mathematics. tant advances in developing new methodol- solutions to society’s challenges, but the health are relatively few – good internet access, a Misled by its daily usefulness, we might ogy to address it. of the core discipline is a vital feature of a quiet and warm place to work, and plenty of see mathematical science as a stagnant well The well-and-ladle metaphor is grossly mis- country’s mathematical research framework. time and coffee! Except in some cases involv- of techniques from which one can ladle leading in a second way: it wrongly suggests It could be argued that given the severity ing large interdisciplinary activity, what she or out exactly what is needed to deal with a that those working on applications don’t of the current economic crisis we should leave he doesn’t usually need is a big team working given problem. This is far from the truth. The themselves produce fundamental mathemat- “right” mathematics may be languishing in ics. In fact the reverse is the case. Newton’s obscurity, having been developed many years discovery of the calculus is of course the first earlier; or it may be in a field with no appar- and greatest of many British examples. This ent connection with the matter at hand; or it age-old interchange between mathematical may well not yet have been discovered. science and physics continues undiminished Many examples can be given of each of today: stemming from the pioneering work these cases. For example, the medical imaging of Sir Michael Atiyah and his students, the techniques used every day in every hospital in UK has been a world leader for 50 years in the land depend crucially on abstract mathe- the convergence of parts of physics with the matical analysis of the early 20th century; and ‘purest’ reaches of algebra, geometry and the “matrix formulation of quantum mechan- topology. ics”, developed in the late 1920s, hinged on Mathematics doesn’t just solve problems, it the then very obscure – but now school-level – provides insights which can lead to more far- matrix algebra, studied by English algebraists reaching advances. In the 1990s Frank Kelly 60 years earlier. Of course quantum mechanics (University of Cambridge) worked on BT’s itself was in the 1920s regarded as completely new routing architecture where a major issue useless, but now underpins our digital uni- is how to deal with blockages in the network. (Above, and opposite) With minimal input, these intricately beautiful computer-generated fractal verse. A problem we still do not know how to The natural ‘technological’ solution is to have graphics are made by repeating simple geometrical operations many times. Behind them lie deep approach is that of extracting the important full knowledge of the state of the system mathematical discoveries of recent years. Reproduced from [10] with permission. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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on the same problems in the same place, or So much for the scale of the enterprise, excitement and applicability of mathematics in the hands of administrators, with pri- expensive equipment. These factors make it but what about diversity and quality? Given sites such as the excellent Mathematics orities such as the centralisation of research easy to achieve the diversity and geographic the size of the mathematics research com- Matters [8] of the Institute of Mathematics that do not necessarily fit the mathematics distribution highlighted as virtues by the IRMS munity it is not surprising that most areas of and its Applications point the way here. landscape. There is a real danger that the 2010. They also ensure that UK mathematical the discipline are represented within the UK. Although mathematics is relatively cheap geographically distributed excellence in UK scientists are well positioned, in terms both of British-based mathematical scientists are pio- compared with experimental science, mathematical science, developed over many geography and subject coverage, for the abso- neering world-class work in fields as diverse ‘cheap’ does not mean ‘free’ – money is years with the support of HEFCE and the lutely crucial task of teaching undergraduate as models of cancer growth and properties badly needed to maintain and widen the research councils, is about to be seriously and postgraduate students. of sequences of prime numbers. They are pipeline for fresh talent, from PhD training diminished. In both teaching and research UK mathe- involved in applications ranging from the through to postdoctoral fellowships and be- Acknowledgements. We are grateful to matics is a large activity: 1,129 international- analysis of option pricing to the assessment yond. Research grant support for established colleagues on the Council for Mathematical level mathematical scientists (FTE) were of medical procedures. And their excellence mathematical scientists gives them essential Sciences for comments and suggestions that submitted to the last research assessment is recognised up to the very highest level: six opportunities to interact on a global stage have been incorporated into this article. exercise compared with 729 in physics and UK mathematicians hold Fields Medals [6]. with their peers, and provides vital periods Ken Brown, University of Glasgow 957 in chemistry [3]. The dual funding This is officially known as the International of uninterrupted time for research. LMS Vice-President (Funding Council/RCUK) support for UK Medal for Outstanding Discoveries in Math- A crucial and more subtle point about Paul Glendinning, University of Manchester universities means that research and teach- ematics, but unofficially as the ‘Nobel Prize research council support is often missed IMA Vice-President ing are linked, so that students taking for mathematics’. Two or three of these are – namely, there are unintended negative 22 degrees in mathematical science have the awarded once every four years, for work consequences of low and reducing levels of 23 opportunity to see the subject as the living, done before the age of forty. funding, beyond the straightforward loss of References and notes developing discipline that it is. And it’s an British mathematical science wins finan- support for current research. University ad- 1. ‘International Review of Mathematical Sciences opportunity which more and more students cial backing not only from the HE Funding ministrations, under pressure to maximise 5–10 December 2010’, available at www.epsrc.ac.uk/ newsevents/pubs/corporate/intrevs/2010maths. are taking: there were 5,475 graduating stu- Councils and from the Research Councils, external funding, are increasingly reluctant 2. Details of the EPSRC Shaping Capability Policy are dents in mathematical science in the UK in but from European agencies, from charities, to make new appointments in fields where at www.epsrc.ac.uk/plans/implementingdeliveryplan/ 2007–8, almost as many as chemistry (2,965) from government and industry, and from research council support is low, so that, over goals/shapingcapability. The Council of Mathemati- and physics (2,765) combined. The figure for many outside bodies. To give just one recent time, the geographic and subject diversity cal Sciences (CMS) responses are at www.cms.ac.uk/ graduate mathematicians has been steadily and very notable example: the Oxford Cen- highlighted above will be threatened. submissions.html. rising for over a decade now: in 2000 it was tre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics We share the widespread fear that the 3. Figures were obtained by multiplying the per- 3,500 [4]. (OCCAM, [7]) has been created with £20m future of UK mathematical sciences is under centage of outputs in quality bands 3* and 4* by the Mathematics graduates are employed in backing from the King Abdullah University threat. The research grant commitment of number of academic staff in each RAE submission, banking, medicine, pharmaceuticals, manu- of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia). the EPSRC Mathematics Programme has and summing over all submissions. 4. Figures from HESA; see www.iop.org. facturing, communications and other ad- Inevitably there is room for improvement. been in decline since 2007–8, at a time when 5. Adrian Smith et al., ‘One Step Beyond: Making vanced technology, teaching, government The IRMS 2010 criticises the UK for the poor funding for other disciplines in EPSRC’s port- the most of postgraduate education’ (report, March departments, actuarial and accountancy as representation of women in mathematics, folio was still increasing. At a modest £12m, 2010), p. 94. well as going into business for themselves. and also points out that the brevity of UK it was the same in cash terms in 2009–10 as 6. Atiyah, Baker, Borcherds (based in the US), Mathematics is rightly seen as a challeng- doctoral training compared with mainland it had been in 2003–4. Over this same period Donaldson, Gowers and Roth. ing degree by employers and valued for Europe and the US can put young UK mathe- the total EPSRC research grant commitment 7. See www.maths.ox.ac.uk/groups/occam. its transferable skills; indeed postgraduate maticians at a disadvantage compared to increased from £378m to £459m, the latter 8. See www.ima.org.uk/i_love_maths/mathematics_ mathematical scientists have the highest their international peers. Both these are figure including £88m for physical sciences matters.cfm. average starting salary among all UK hold- points the community and the universities and £72m for ICT [9]. It is in this already very 9. Taken from Table 3 of ‘CMS submission to House ers of postgraduate degrees [5]. This crucial are addressing, but, particularly in the case challenging landscape that the EPSRC is now of Commons Select Committee inquiry on the Spend- ing Review 2010’, available at www.cms.ac.uk/files/ contribution to the country’s economy is of women in mathematics, there is some way rushing through its ill-considered ‘Shaping Submissions/article_4e92ed3406d890.06887894.pdf. only possible by virtue of the wide distribu- to go. Capability’ agenda. Assembled from tables in EPSRC Annual Reports. tion of research excellence which ensures Despite the best efforts of people such as This agenda is being implemented before 10. D. Mumford, C. Series and D. Wright, Indra’s that mathematics research and teaching are Marcus du Sautoy and Ian Stewart, we could the mathematics community has been prop- Pearls: The Vision of Felix Klein (Cambridge Uni- accessible throughout the country. do better in telling the public about the erly consulted. It places strategic decisions versity Press, Cambridge, 2002). LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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VISIT OF V. ROTHOS • University of Cambridge, Monday 13 February; contact Dr András Zsák Dr Vassilis Rothos (Aristotle University of ([email protected]) Thessaloniki) will visit the UK from 18 to 30 Professor Koszmider will be based at Lan- January 2012. During his visit he will be based caster University during his stay, hosted by at the University of Nottingham. The focus of Dr Niels Laustsen. The visit is supported by an the research during this visit will be on study LMS Scheme 2 grant. of travelling lattice solitary waves in discrete systems using dynamical system analysis. He will give lectures at: VISIT OF H. LONG • Loughborough, 16 January: Shilnikov chaos in parametrically-driven Professor Hongwei Long (Florida Atlantic coupled nonlinear lattices: Application in University) is visiting the UK from 1 to 23 two coupled rf-SQUIDs December 2011. Professor Long’s research in- • Imperial College London (Dynamical terests include Stochastic Analysis, in particu- Systems Seminar/Applied Maths), 18 January: lar filtering methods for stochastic differential Traveling waves in nonlocal lattice equations (both ordinary and partial). He will equations give the following talk Nadaraya–Watson 26 • Surrey (Mathematics), 20 January: estimator for stochastic processes driven by 27 Stationary and traveling waves in lattices stable Lévy motions on: with saturable nonlinearities • Thursday 8 December at 3 pm, Probability For more information contact Hadi Susanto Seminar, Mathematics Department, School ([email protected]). The visit is of Physical Sciences, Swansea University supported by an LMS Scheme 2 grant. • Friday 16 December at 3 pm, Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick • Monday 19 December at 3.15 pm, VISIT OF P. KOSZMIDER Mathematical Finance and Stochastic Analysis Seminar, Room G/013, Department Professor Piotr Koszmider (Institute of Mathe- of Mathematics, University of York matics, Polish Academy of Sciences) will visit For further information contact Zdzislaw the UK from 29 January to 14 February 2012. Brzezniak ([email protected]). The He is an expert in the application of set- visit is supported by an LMS Scheme 2 grant. theoretic methods in Banach space theory; he is particularly known for his constructions of compact Hausdorff spaces with the prop- CONFERENCE fACILITIES erty that the corresponding Banach spaces of continuous functions acting on them admit De Morgan House offers 40% discount on only ‘few’ operators in various specific ways. room hire to all Mathematical charities and During his visit Professor Koszmider will lec- 20% to all not-for-profit organisations. ture at the following places: Support the LMS by booking the next • University of Leeds, Tuesday 31 January; London event at De Morgan House. contact Dr Matt Daws Call us now on 020 7927 0800 or email ([email protected]) [email protected] • Lancaster University, Wednesday 1 February; to check availability, receive a quote or contact Dr Niels Laustsen arrange a viewing of the venue. ([email protected]) LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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ADDITIVE COMBINATORICS HIGHER ORDER PROBLEMS

Additive Combinatorics in Paris 2012 will be IN GEOMETRIC ANALYSIS held at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris A workshop on Higher Order Problems in from 9 to 13 July 2012. The conference will be Geometric Analysis will take place at the dedicated to the memory of Yahya ould Ha- University of Bath from 5 to 8 June 2012. midoune, who passed away earlier this year. The aim of this workshop is to bring togeth- As such, the scope of the conference encom- er experts in geometric analysis and foster passes topics in additive and combinatorial interaction with researchers in neighbour- number theory, additive group theory, graph ing fields, such as differential geometry, theory and probabilistic combinatorics as well numerical analysis, or applied mathematics. as adjacent fields. The following keynote The focus is on problems giving rise to par- speakers have confirmed their attendance: tial differential equations of higher order. • Noga Alon (Tel Aviv University) Speakers include: • Emmanuel Breuillard (Université Paris-Sud, • John Barrett (Imperial College London) Orsay) • Anna Dall’Acqua (University of Magdeburg) • Alfred Geroldinger (Universität Graz) • Klaus Deckelnick (University of Magdeburg) • Tim Gowers (University of Cambridge) • Andreas Gastel (University of 28 • Ben Green (University of Cambridge) Duisburg-Essen) 29 • Melvyn Nathanson (CUNY/Lehman College) • Udo Hertrich-Jeromin (University of Bath) • Oriol Serra (Universitat Polit�cnica de • Ernst Kuwert (University of Freiburg) Catalunya) • Tobias Lamm (University of Frankfurt) • Benny Sudakov (UCLA) • Andrea Malchiodi (SISSA, Trieste) • Tamar Ziegler (Technion) • Jan Metzger (University of Potsdam) In addition, there will be shorter lectures. • Tristan Rivi�re (ETH Zürich) For further information visit the website at • Frédéric Robert (Henri Poincaré University, http://caparis2012.wordpress.com. Nancy) • Melanie Rupflin (Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam) • Friedemann Schuricht (TU Dresden) • Michael Struwe (ETH Zürich) • Paweł Strzelecki (University of Warsaw) The programme will start on Tuesday afternoon (5 June) and end on Friday afternoon (8 June). For further information contact the organisers Peter Hornung, Roger Moser and Hartmut Schwetlick (geometric- [email protected]) or visit the website at http://people.bath.ac. uk/rm257/geometric_analysis. The event is supported by the © ScienceCartoonsPlus.com EPSRC. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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CELEBRATION OF THE HEILBRONN QUANTUM 70TH BIRTHDAY ALGORITHMS DAY OF ELMER REES The 2nd Heilbronn Quantum Algorithms Day The Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical will take place at the University of Bristol on Sciences, University of Bristol, is planning 1 February 2012. Following on from the success to hold a short conference to celebrate the of last year’s event, the aim of this colloquium 70th birthday of Elmer Rees, to honour his is to showcase recent research in quantum al- academic achievements and to acknowl- gorithms. The day will consist of a number of edge his success as the first Director of the talks from invited speakers who include: Institute. The conference will take place at • Scott Aaronson (MIT) the University of Bristol from 20 to 21 April • Matty Hoban (Oxford) 2012. Confirmed speakers are: • Ashley Montanaro (Cambridge) • Sir Michael Atiyah • Martin Roetteler (NEC Labs, Princeton) (University of Edinburgh) • Miklos Santha (LIAFA, Paris) • Sir John Ball There is no conference fee; however (University of Oxford) registration is mandatory and intending 30 • Victor Buchstaber (Steklov Mathematical participants are requested to email quantum- 31 Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences) [email protected]. The deadline • John Jones (University of Warwick) for registration is 31 January 2012. The or- • Angus Macintyre ganisers may be able to offer limited travel (Queen Mary, University of London) support to students who are unable to find • Andrew Ranicki funding from their home institutions. The (University of Edinburgh) organisers are Steve Brierley, Noah Linden There will be four lectures on Friday fol- and Oliver Gray. Further information is avail- lowed by a dinner in the evening. On the able at www.maths.bris.ac.uk/~maowg/q-alg- Saturday morning there will be lectures with 2012/q-alg-2012.html. the conference ending with lunch. All lectures will be about one hour and will be of general interest. There is no registration fee but to enable estimation of numbers, in- tending participants are requested to inform Claire Barr (claire.barr@ bristol.ac.uk). Dinner on the Friday evening will be at The Royal West of Eng- land Academy and there is a charge of £25 per person for at- tendees and guests. Further infor- mation and registration forms are available at www.maths.bris.ac.uk/ events/meetings/meeting/index. php?meeting_id=76. The organiser is Nelson Stephens. LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

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CULTURE OF BEING A The meeting will consist of invited speak- take place on 4 March prior to the meeting. universities around the UK. Professor Geoff ers and registered participants, though will Some financial assistance is available -to as Whittle is the first holder of the Aitken Lec- MATHEMATICIAN be limited to 100 people. The schedule will sist graduate students who attend both the tureship and he visited the UK in October to Tony Mann (University of Greenwich) and allow for a number of poster presentations. training workshop and the conference. The give a series of talks at the universities of St Chris Good (University of Birmingham) are The invited speakers are: Tutorial Day organiser is Dr Mark van Rossum Andrews, Manchester, Cambridge, Oxford working on a project to produce teaching • Paul Bressloff (University of Utah) (Edinburgh). and QMUL. materials on “the culture of being a mathe- • David Cai (Courant Institute of Mathematical For further details and how to register visit Whittle is professor in the School of matician”. The project is supported by Science, New York University) the website at http://icms.org.uk/workshops/ Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Re- the Mathematical Sciences HE Curriculum • Dmitri Chklovskii (Howard Hughes Medical neuro2012. Enquiries should be addressed to search at the Victoria University of Welling- Innovation Project as part of the National HE Institute, Janelia Farm) Audrey Brown ([email protected]). ton, New Zealand and a Fellow of the Royal STEM Programme, acting on a recommenda- • Claudia Clopath (Université Paris Descartes) Society of New Zealand. After graduating, tion from the HE Mathematics Curriculum • Carina Curto (University of Whittle began his career teaching in high Summit (LMS Newsletter 401, March 2011, Nebraska-Lincoln) FIRST AITKEN LECTURER school but soon returned to the University p. 9). We would like to interview a small • Ila Fiete (University of Texas at Austin) of Tasmania to study for his PhD and he number of mathematicians on this subject, • Toni Guillamon (Universitat Polit�cnica de VISITS THE UK has now been an academic mathematician with a view to making the results available as Catalunya) In 2009, the London Mathematical Society for over 20 years. During his career Whit- a teaching resource. If you might be interest- • Boris Gutkin (École Normale Supérieure) and the New Zealand Mathematical Society tle has developed an interest in matroids. ed in taking part, please contact Tony Mann • Rachel Kuske (University of British agreed to set up a new lectureship named As he says, “during the late 1980s and early 34 ([email protected]) for more information. Columbia) after Professor A. Aitken, one of New Zea- 1990s matroid theory was stagnating to 35 • Khashayar Pakdaman (Université Paris land’s great mathematicians. some extent but during the 1990s I started NEURODYNAMICS Diderot/CNRS) The Aitken Lectureship takes place every to make significant progress on some long- • Stefan Rotter (University of Freiburg) two years (in odd-numbered years) when a standing problems. This led to a collabora- A workshop on heterogeneity, noise, delays, • Nicholas Swindale (University of British mathematician from New Zealand is invited tion with Jim Geelan and Bert Gerards, with and plasticity in neural systems will take Columbia) by both Societies to give lectures at different the recent work on the so-called Matroid place in Edinburgh from 5 to 7 March 2012. • Jonathan Touboul (INRIA/ENS Paris) Minors project being the most significant Although mathematical work on Neurody- • Martin Wechselberger (University of achievement”. namics has increased in recent years, the Sydney) Whittle is no stranger to the UK, having study of heterogeneity, noise, delays, and • Fred Wolf (Max Planck Institute for Dy- visited on many occasions and frequently plasticity needs much further attention. A namics and Self-Organisation) worked with ‘the inspirational’ Dominic firmer mathematical frame- Registration is now open, Welsh at Oxford. During his visit as Aitken work for treating dynamical closing on 6 January 2012. The Lecturer, Whittle gave two presentations systems with these attributes registration fee for the con- entitled Well-quasi-ordering binary ma- will pave the way for a more ference is £100. This event is troids and Matroid representation over infi- comprehensive understanding sponsored by the EPSRC in as- nite fields. The lectures were well attended, of the dynamic states of bio- sociation with the UK Mathe- with a significant number of graduate stu- logical neural networks, and matical Neuroscience Network dents. Whittle was very enthusiastic about their role in facilitating natu- (http://mathneuronet.org.uk). his visit to the UK. “The lectureship is a ral computation. This three- The scientific organizers are good arrangement and provides a fantastic day conference will bring Professor Stephen Coombes opportunity for mathematicians to interact together experts in these key (Nottingham) and Dr Yulia and learn from each other. I hadn’t ventured areas to seed a new phase of Timofeeva (Warwick). north of Cambridge on my previous visits to theoretical work to develop A Tutorial Day, covering the UK and the opportunity afforded me by those pieces of mathemati- key concepts in heterogene- the Aitken Lectureship has certainly been cal theory which are critical ity, noise, delays, and plastic- an enriching experience.” for future realistic modelling ity in neural systems, for PhD John Johnston studies of the brain. © www.xkcd.com students and post-docs, will Geoff Whittle (Aitken Lecturer) Mathematics Promotion Officer LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

WAVELETS AND MATLAB REVIEWS major colleagues, especially with astronomers. Cows in the Maze and other mathematical Some of these texts came out from another explorations by Ian Stewart, 2010, Oxford A workshop on Wavelet Analysis with MATLAB On Gauss and Cows Leipzig house, Engelmann, including several University Press, 320 pp, £8.99, ISBN 978- will take place at Northumbria University Gauss items in their important series of source 0-19-956207-7. from 19 to 21 December 2011. The aim of this Carl Friedrich Gauß: Biographie und Docu- books ‘Ostwalds Klassiker’, as is duly noted in Cows in the Maze is a collection of 21 workshop is to introduce wavelets as a tool mente by Hans Wußing, 2011, EAGLE 051 20 pages of reproduced title pages of ‘Leipzig articles from the author’s Mathematical for data analysis for a number of applications Leipzig, 279 pp, €26.50, ISBN 978-3-937219- reference books’. Since 1962 the Gauss Gesell- Recreations column in Scientific American such as signal and image processing, commu- 51-6. schaft has published a useful series of slim magazine. As one might expect, they are nication systems, engineering, mathematics, This book first appeared in 1974 in a series Mitteilungen. All of this distinguished historical pitched at the intelligent, but not necessarily computing, physics, biology medicine and of popular short biographies of major scien- scholarship is at least noted bibliographically mathematically educated, reader. finance. The workshop will cover the mathe- tists published by the Leipzig house Teubner. in this sequence of 25, much of which is little The articles cover a variety of topics, most matical background of wavelet analysis and It consisted of ten chapters that ran efficiently known to those Gauss enthusiasts who do not of them well within the traditional scope of will introduce examples of 1D and 2D discrete through the main features of the life and espe- read the language; again some short passages “recreational mathematics”, but none the and continuous wavelet transforms with cially the work of its subject, and ended with a from historical texts are photo reproduced. worse for that. The stock-in-trade of the genre applications. timeline and a bibliography, mostly of histori- This half-century of additions more than (from knots to knight’s tours, and magic squares The introduction to Wavelet Analysis with cal literature. It was reprinted four times, to doubles the length of the book; while the to tilings) is all present, but the exposition here MATLAB will be on Tuesday 20 December 1989; but this edition is substantially different. order somewhat resembles a random walk, is outstanding, and in many cases the author 2011 from 10.00 to 17.00. The workshop will The chapters read more or less as before, but much useful information on Gauss is made finds a new slant to interest even those famil- 36 be presented as a mixture of lectures and lab- the text contains far more illustrations, espe- available. The book ends with illustrations of iar with the basic ideas. For example, while the 37 oratory sessions for approximately six hours cially likenesses of Gauss and others, and title Gauss, especially in stamps (where the author counterintuitive consequences of Bayes’ theo- per day. The laboratory sessions will require pages of some publications and manuscripts. draws upon his own splendid collection for sci- rem have been covered many times before, the the participants to have a working knowl- The first main change is the addition of 25 ences and scientists), banknotes, coins, medals presentation here features a fascinating discus- edge of MATLAB. short ‘documents’ concerning ‘Gauss in his intel- in Gauss’s honour, and statues, and the lifeline. sion of its implications in the legal world, with Advanced sessions for those already famil- lectual and private circumstances’. The author, One hopes that someone will be inspired to well-researched reference to real-life cases. iar with Wavelet will be held on Wednesday often quoting contemporaries or historians, draw upon all these resources and produce or Three articles in the middle of the book make 21 December 2011 from 10.00 to 17.00. writes several of them; the rest are passages edit the definitive Big-Book(s) biography that a detour into theoretical physics, forming a For participants not familiar with MATLAB, photoreproduced from historical writings, Gauss deserves. short(ish) story in which the characters discuss the there will be a half-day course on the MATLAB ending with one by the author. The preface of this book is dated February possibility of time travel in a relativistic universe. on Monday 19 December between 14.00 and The second change is a further 25 documents 2011; as is noted on the next 17.00. on contacts between Gauss and Teubner, page, Wussing died in April Participants with knowledge of MATLAB prepared in part to celebrate in 2011 the bi- after a long fight against can- may wish to attend the Tuesday and Wednes- centenary of the house. Although they did not cer. A leader of the history of day sessions only. publish Gauss’s own books, they dominated science in the German Demo- Registration deadline is 10 December 2011. the publication of Gauss scholarship, which cratic Republic for decades, he The registration fee for the entire workshop began soon after his death in 1855. Gauss’s was also a major figure in the is £300, the two-day workshop is £250 (Wave- compatriots produced a fine edition of his history of mathematics, receiv- let basics and advanced) and for a single-day Werke in 12 large volumes between 1863 and ing the May Medal in 1997 for workshop £150 (Wavelet basics or advanced). 1933, including many manuscripts as well as his services to the field. He was The registration fee covers handouts for the his publications (which are far more numerous also a substantial author in the workshop, use of MATLAB toolboxes, lunches than is suggested by his famous conceit ‘pauca popularisation of science and and refreshments. sed matura’). Large supplements to volumes 10 especially mathematics; for For further information visit the web- and 11 constituted (some reprints of) articles example, this book was one of site at http://group28.northumbria.ac.uk or and monographs on aspects of his work that several that he contributed to contact Dr Sujan Rajbhandari (tel: 0191 227 were produced in a project directed by Felix Teubner’s series. 3901, email: sujan.rajbhandari@northumbria. Klein. In addition, there have been editions of I. Grattan-Guinness ac.uk). the main (and massive) correspondences with Middlesex University LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter [email protected] No. 409 December 2011

A number of the other articles also take the form CALENDAR OF EVENTS 13-17 Symmetries of Discrete Objects 17-19 Frontiers of Nevanlinna Theory 3: of dialogues or short stories. One can see how Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand Applications of Nevanlinna Theory to this would draw in the casual reader of a non- This calendar lists Society meetings and other (406) Differential and Functional Equations, specialist publication, but the willing purchaser mathematical events. Further information 21 Let’s Twist Again, Gresham College University College London (401) of an entire volume on mathematics can prob- may be obtained from the appropriate Lecture, Museum of London (409) 20-21 Elmer Rees’ 70th Birthday Celebration ably do without this kind of insulation from the LMS Newsletter whose number is given in 23-24 Rigidity of Periodic and Symmetric Conference, Bristol (409) subject matter, and might prefer to see things brackets. A fuller list of meetings and events Structures Meeting, Kavli Royal Society 24 Final Score, Gresham College Lecture, presented in a more straightforward way. is given on the Society’s website (www.lms. International Centre, Newport Pagnell (409) Museum of London (409) The only topic to leave me completely cold ac.uk/newsletter/calendar.html). 24 LMS Meeting and Mary Cartwright was that referred to by the title: an extraordi- Please send updates and corrections to Lecture, London (409) MAY 2012 [email protected]. narily complicated self-referential “logic maze”. 19 LMS Poincaré Meeting, London For me, elegant and simply stated mathemati- MARCH 2012 28-1 Jun Boundary Value Problems for DECEMBER 2011 cal problems naturally cry out for attention, 4 Neurodynamics Workshop Tutorial Day, Linear Elliptic and Integrable PDEs: while more technical ones have to earn their 5-9 Mathematical Models of Cognitive Edinburgh (409) Theory and Computation ICMS Workshop, crust by virtue of some external importance. Architectures Workshop, CIRM, Marseille (406) 5-7 Neurodynamics Workshop, Edinburgh Edinburgh (405) This seems to be a problem crafted for the spe- 11 Everything and Nothing Performance, Bob (409) 28-1 Jun Infinite Ergodic Theory Workshop, cific purpose of being convoluted and difficult Kayley Theatre, Reading (408) 14 Combinatorics Meeting, Oxford Surrey to understand, and I couldn’t summon up the 12 Profinite Completions of Groups Meeting, 14-16 Pattern Formation: The Inspiration of 38 enthusiasm necessary to get to grips with it. Imperial College London (408) Alan Turing INI Satellite Meeting, Oxford (408) JUNE 2012 39 That said, the prominence given to it suggests 12-16 Inverse Problems in Science and 15-17 The Big Bang Science and Engineering 2-3 Numerical Linear Algebra, Control that the author feels it is a strong selling point Engineering INI Workshop, Cambridge (401) Fair, NEC Birmingham (407) Theory and Data Assimilation Conference, of the book, so perhaps I am missing the point 13 David and Goliath, Gresham College 21 Zeeman Medal 2011 Award Ceremony, Reading and everyone else will love it! Lecture, Museum of London (409) The Royal Society, London (409) 5-8 Higher Order Problems in Geometric While the articles themselves are outstanding, 16-17 LMS Prospects in Mathematics Meeting, 21-22 Young Functional Analysts’ Workshop, Analysis Workshop, Bath (409) the volume as a whole is perhaps not quite the Bristol Oxford 6 LMS Northern Regional Meeting, sum of its parts. Each article is simply presented, 19-21 Wavelet Analysis with MATLAB 26-30 LMS Invited Lectures, Alexei Borodin, Northumbria University, Newcastle with minimal editing, as a chapter. The only sig- Workshop, Northumbria (409) Glasgow (409) 11-12 Numerical Analysis of Stochastic Partial nificant additions to each are a brief discussion 27 On the Waterfront, Gresham College Differential Equations, Warwick Lecture, Museum of London (409) of feedback received by the author after publi- JANUARY 2012 12-15 The Incomputable Workshop, cation and a list of websites for further reading. 27-29 BAMC 2012, University College London Chicheley Hall, North Buckinghamshire (407) A general lack of progress or development be- 4-6 British Postgraduate Model Theory (409) 12-15 Chaotic Modeling and Simulation tween chapters inevitably makes the book feel Conference, Oxford (409) International Conference, Athens, Greece disconnected, and a little unsatisfying to read 4-8 String Theory, Geometry, and APRIL 2012 18-20 Frontiers of Nevanlinna Theory 4: Mathematical Physics UK–Japan Winter Nevanlinna Theory and Number Theory, from cover to cover. On the other hand, the 2-3 Biological Flow Conference, Cambridge School, Oxford (407) University College London (401) format (the only edition available seems to be 2-4 Young Researchers in Mathematics 8-11 Free Boundary Problems in Fluid 18-23 Turing Centenary Conference, a paperback with black and white illustrations) Conference, Bristol Mechanics Meeting, Nottingham (406) Cambridge (407) does not naturally make it the kind of book one 2-5 British Colloquium for Theoretical 29 LMS Meeting and Hardy Lecture, would treasure and dip into from time to time, 17 Citius, Altius, Fortius, Gresham College Computer Science, Manchester London or keep out on a coffee table. Lecture, Museum of London (409) 10-13 Formal and Computational In summary, the articles collected are undoub- 31-2 Feb Cryptographic Theory INI Cryptographic Proofs INI Workshop, tedly a masterclass in mathematical writing Workshop, Cambridge (404) Cambridge (408) JULY 2012 for the casual, non-specialist reader, but I am 16-19 BMC 2012, University of Kent, 2-7 6th European Congress of Mathematics, not persuaded that simply collecting them in a FEBRUARY 2012 Canterbury (409) Kraków, Poland (409) paperback volume does them justice. 1 Heilbronn Quantum Algorithms Day, 16-20 Noncommutative Geometry INI–WIMCS 9-13 Additive Combinatorics in Paris 2012 Mark Kambites Bristol (409) Meeting, Cardiff Conference, Paris, France (409) University of Manchester J. WOLSTENHOLME LMS member 1871-1885, 1887-1891 Hills & Saunders, Eton

Rev Joseph Wolstenholme, MA, FCPS Fellow, Christ’s College, Cambridge Professor of Mathematics, Royal Indian Engineering College