LONDONLONDON MATHEMATICALMATHEMATICAL SOCIETYSOCIETY NEWSLETTER No. 439 September 2014 Society Meetings HIGHEST HONOUR FOR UK and Events MATHEMATICAN Professor Martin Hairer, FRS, 2014 University of Warwick, has become the ninth UK based Saturday mathematician to win the 6 September prestigious Fields Medal over Mathematics and the its 80 year history. The medal First World War recipients were announced Meeting, London on Wednesday 13 August in page 15 a ceremony at the four-year- ly International Congress for 1 Wednesday Mathematicians, which on this 24 September occasion was held in Seoul, South Korea. LMS Popular Lectures See page 4 for the full report. Birmingham page 12 Friday LMS ANNOUNCES SIMON TAVARÉ 14 November AS PRESIDENT-DESIGNATE LMS AGM © The University of Cambridge take over from the London current President, Professor Terry Wednesday Lyons, FRS, in 17 December November 2015. SW & South Wales Professor Tavaré is Meeting a versatile math- Plymouth ematician who has established a distinguished in- ternational career culminating in his current role as The London Mathematical Director of the Cancer Research Society is pleased to announce UK Cambridge Institute and Professor Simon Tavaré, Professor in DAMTP, where he NEWSLETTER FRS, FMedSci, University of brings his understanding of sto- ONLINE: Cambridge, as President-Des- chastic processes and expertise newsletter.lms.ac.uk ignate. Professor Tavaré will in the data science of DNA se- (Cont'd on page 3) LMS NEWSLETTER http://newsletter.lms.ac.uk Contents No. 439 September 2014 15 44 Awards Partial Differential Equations..........................37 Collingwood Memorial Prize..........................11 Valediction to Jeremy Gray..............................33 Calendar of Events.......................................50 News LMS Items European News.................................................16 HEA STEM Strategic Project............................ LMS Announces Simon Tavaré as 6 Highest Honour for UK Mathematician.......... President-Designate........................................1 4 Mathematics Policy Round-up........................ LMS Council Diary.............................................13 7 New International Women in Maths 2 LMS Elections 2014...........................................11 Website............................................................ LMS Grant Schemes..........................................8 6 LMS Honorary Membership 2014....................5 Obituaries Newsletter on-line.............................................6 Broomhead, D...................................................42 Open House 2014..............................................13 Sankaran, S........................................................43 LMS Meetings Readers' Opinions Mathematics and the First World War.............15 Challenges for UK Scientists in Higher Popular Lectures 2014.......................................12 Education........................................................39 LMS Records of Proceedings Challenges for UK Scientists in Higher Education: Response........................................ Joint Meeting with the Royal 41 Fall in Numbers of Applications by Meteorological Society....................................18 Foreign Students to UK Universities............. Midlands Regional Meeting 2014....................19 38 Meetings Reports Bianchi and Siegel Modular Forms............... Analysis Day.......................................................32 26 EMS Meeting of Council................................ BCS-FCS Evening Seminar.................................36 16 Brian Hartley Memorial Meeting....................37 LMS Midlands Regional Meeting 2014.........20 Bruhat-Tits Buildings........................................32 LMS Popular Lectures 2014...........................20 CERME 9............................................................31 Projection and Slicing Theorems in Cluster Algebras and Preprojective Fractal Geometry..............................................22 Algebras.........................................................29 Representations of Hecke Algebras.............25 Continued Fractions and Geometry Spectral Analysis and Differential of Lattices.........................................................32 Equations.........................................................24 Derived Categories Introductory School.......33 Reviews Evolution Equations.........................................37 How Not to be Wrong....................................46 INI Engineering and Control of Natural Our Mathematical Universe.............................45 and Synthetic Microbial Communities..........34 Radical Geometry: Modern Art of INI Periodic, Almost-Periodic, and South America..................................................43 Random Operators..........................................34 The Man of Numbers.........................................47 INI Random Geometry Programme................35 Visits Integrable Systems in Newcastle..................38 Ghandehari, Mahya..........................................29 Multiscale PDE Systems...................................37 Putnam, Andrew...............................................29 [email protected] No. 439 September 2014 quencing to understand cancer biology. first volume in the EMS Monographs in Simon Tavaré obtained his PhD in prob- Mathematics series. ability and statistics in 1979 from the Univer- Simon Tavaré is recognised as an inter- sity of Sheffield. He then began his research nationally excellent communicator. He is career in the US where he held positions at invited to give this year’s Einstein Lecture the University of Utah and Colorado State to the American Mathematical Society, one University, moving to the University of of the most prestigious of the AMS lectures; Southern California (USC) where he held a other recent speakers were Tao and Simons. professorship in mathematics as well as the Professor Tavaré said "I am honoured to be Kawamoto Chair in Biological Science. the next President of the LMS. An important In 2003 Professor Tavaré returned to the UK role for the office is promoting the central from his distinguished chair at USC to take importance of mathematics in society and up joint roles at the University of Cambridge the necessity of ensuring the overall health as Professor in the Department of Applied of the discipline, and, with the help of the Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and LMS members and the wider mathematical Professor of Cancer Research (Bioinfor- community, I hope to continue Terry’s efforts matics) in the Department of Oncology. In in this direction." 2006 he was appointed to the Cambridge Professor Lyons said "I am delighted that Research Institute, which became the Simon has accepted the nomination to Cambridge Institute when it merged with become the next LMS President. Simon per- the University in January 2013. In February sonifies the way that mathematics can con- 2013, Professor Tavaré became Director of tribute to the wider society at a high level; 3 the new Institute. In 2009 Professor Tavaré he brings deep expertise in data science, and was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of a strong background in rigorous mathemat- Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and in 2011 he ics, to his research into critical questions in was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society cancer. He is a tremendous communicator (FRS). and has experience in making the case for Professor Tavaré would be the first to ac- Mathematics with ministers and funders. I knowledge that his current work relies on am confident that his presidency will bring strong training in combinatorics and proba- a great deal to the society, to our members, bility theory; in his earlier years he published and to the wider mathematical communi- papers in the Annals of Probability and the ties." 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