i “NLMS_484” — 2019/8/29 — 10:10 — page 1 — #1 i i i NEWSLETTER Issue: 484 - September 2019 ETHICS IN DRINFELD MODULES COMPUTERS MATHEMATICS AND FACTORISATION AND PROOF i i i i i “NLMS_484” — 2019/8/29 — 10:10 — page 2 — #2 i i i EDITOR-IN-CHIEF COPYRIGHT NOTICE Iain Moatt (Royal Holloway, University of London) News items and notices in the Newsletter may [email protected] be freely used elsewhere unless otherwise stated, although attribution is requested when reproducing whole articles. Contributions to EDITORIAL BOARD the Newsletter are made under a non-exclusive June Barrow-Green (Open University) licence; please contact the author or photog- Tomasz Brzezinski (Swansea University) rapher for the rights to reproduce. The LMS Lucia Di Vizio (CNRS) cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of Jonathan Fraser (University of St Andrews) information in the Newsletter. Views expressed Jelena Grbic´ (University of Southampton) do not necessarily represent the views or policy Thomas Hudson (University of Warwick) of the Editorial Team or London Mathematical Stephen Huggett (University of Plymouth) Society. Adam Johansen (University of Warwick) Bill Lionheart (University of Manchester) ISSN: 2516-3841 (Print) Mark McCartney (Ulster University) ISSN: 2516-385X (Online) Kitty Meeks (University of Glasgow) DOI: 10.1112/NLMS Vicky Neale (University of Oxford) Susan Oakes (London Mathematical Society) Andrew Wade (Durham University) NEWSLETTER WEBSITE Early Career Content Editor: Vicky Neale The Newsletter is freely available electronically News Editor: Susan Oakes at lms.ac.uk/publications/lms-newsletter. Reviews Editor: Mark McCartney MEMBERSHIP CORRESPONDENTS AND STAFF Joining the LMS is a straightforward process. For LMS/EMS Correspondent: David Chillingworth membership details see lms.ac.uk/membership. Policy Roundup: John Johnston Production: Katherine Wright Printing: Holbrooks Printers Ltd SUBMISSIONS The Newsletter welcomes submissions of fea- EDITORIAL OFFICE ture content, including mathematical arti- cles, career related articles, and microtheses London Mathematical Society from members and non-members. Submis- De Morgan House sion guidelines and LaTeX templates can be 57–58 Russell Square found at lms.ac.uk/publications/submit-to-the- London, WC1B 4HS lms-newsletter. [email protected] Feature content should be submitted to the Charity registration number: 252660 editor-in-chief at [email protected]. News items should be sent to [email protected]. Notices of events should be prepared us- ing the template at lms.ac.uk/publications/lms- COVER IMAGE newsletter and sent to [email protected]. p A formal proof that 3 is irrational. See the For advertising rates and guidelines see feature starting on page 32. (Image courtesy of lms.ac.uk/publications/advertise-in-the-lms- Zak Buzzard.) newsletter. i i i i i “NLMS_484” — 2019/8/29 — 10:10 — page 3 — #3 i i i CONTENTS NEWS The latest from the LMS and elsewhere 4 LMS BUSINESS Reports from the LMS 13 FEATURES The Importance of Ethics in Mathematics 22 Polynomial Factorisation using Drinfeld Modules 27 Computers and Mathematics 32 The Belgian Mathematical Society 37 EARLY CAREER Microthesis: Hypergraph Saturation Irregularities 38 REVIEWS From the bookshelf 40 OBITUARIES In memoriam 45 EVENTS Latest announcements 51 CALENDAR All upcoming events 54 i i i i i “NLMS_484” — 2019/8/29 — 10:10 — page 4 — #4 i i i 4 NEWS LMS NEWS LMS Elections and Donating to the LMS Annual General Meeting 2019 Making a donation to the LMS has just become easier! Voting for the LMS Elections for Council and There is now a ‘donate’ button on the main menu Nominating Committee will open on 25 Octo- bar near the top of the LMS webpage (lms.ac.uk), ber 2019. The slate of candidates can be found enabling anyone to make an online donation to the at lms.ac.uk/about/council/lms-elections and an Society. online forum for discussion is available at dis- cussions.lms.ac.uk/lmselections. The LMS gives grants totalling in excess of £680,000 per year to support many mathematical activities. In addition, members are to be asked to vote By far the greatest part of our income currently on changes to the LMS Standing Orders — the comes from publications, which one can view as a Royal Charter, Statutes, and By-Laws. The cur- way of recycling money from everyone’s work as rent Standing Orders, together with the proposed authors, editors and referees into the community. changes, can be found on the LMS website at However, as the publishing industry moves to vari- tinyurl.com/lmsstandingorders. ous forms of open access, the income we get from A vote on the proposed changes will be taken at this resource is likely signicantly to diminish. The the Annual General Meeting, but LMS Council has threat to publications income, combined with the agreed that members who are unable to attend current unpredictability of the nancial sector, mean will be able to place an online proxy vote from 25 that this aspect of our income has become crucial. October to 25 November, through the indepen- Additional donations will help the Society maintain dent Electoral Reform Services, or if preferred and if possible increase its level of support for all of by completing a hard copy proxy voting form that its objectives. will be available from the LMS website. In the past the Society has benetted from donations Instructions for each of the ballots i.e. a) the from many individuals. Two in particular stand out: elections to Council and Nominating Committee £1,000 from Lord Rayleigh in 1874, which supported LMS Proceedings and b) by proxy on the changes to the Standing the printing of the and rescued the Orders, will be sent to members by email or post Society from collapse, and the bequest of £50,000 before the ballots open. Members are encour- by G.H. Hardy in 1963 which was completely trans- aged to check that their contact details are up formative for the Society. to date at lms.ac.uk/user. Alongside the suggested amounts for donations, you This year the AGM will be held at Goodenough will also see a line for a ‘De Morgan Donation’ of College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB £1865 or more (no prizes for working out where this on Friday 29 November at 2.30 pm. Please note notable number comes from!) This is a new venture the change of date to the end of the month and which it is hoped will encourage anyone with the the slightly earlier start time. All those attend- resources to do so to support the Society with a ing the AGM will be required to register on the substantial donation. In recognition of their support, day. The registration desk will be open from 1.30 De Morgan Donors will from time to time receive pm to allow enough time for members to verify invitations to lectures and other special events. their details and receive voting cards prior to the For those in a position to do so, you are also encour- start of the meeting. The results of the Coun- aged to think about leaving a legacy to the LMS in cil and Nominating Committee elections will be your will. Advice on how to do this can also be found announced at the meeting, as will the results of on the web page. the vote on the changes to the Standing Orders. Of course, a donation can also be added when you pay the annual membership fee. Whether your Fiona Nixon donation is large or small, the Society really does Executive Secretary value your support. i i i i i “NLMS_484” — 2019/8/29 — 10:10 — page 5 — #5 i i i NEWS 5 Stop Press! DeMorgan@21 This proportion is remarkably uniform across the 32 departments with EU postdocs. The results showed Unfortunately the big People’s Vote march in Lon- that there was a greater percentage of UK nationals don recently changed its date to October 19th which in the postdoc population in northern areas of the means that transport in and out of London is likely to UK than in southern areas. be very crowded on that day. Those planning to come to DeMorgan@21 are therefore advised to reserve Funding source: sources of funding were gathered train seats and hotels well in advance. We apologise into 8 groups. The diversity of sources was rather to anyone who was planning to go on the march. encouraging. As expected, EPSRC was by far the largest single funding source at 34% (being twice as Registration for this event has re-opened with space big as any other category); the EU, other Research for another 20 participants. These will be allocated Councils, and the postdoc’s own institution were the on a rst-come-rst-served basis. If you are inter- other main categories, at about 17% each. In several ested please register at tinyurl.com/y4r935w9. of the larger departments the amount of EU and EPSRC funding was about the same. The eect of losing EU funding is likely to be signicant. The survey Survey of Mathematics Postdocs also identied the proportion of funding to dierent elds, both overall and per funding source. Generally, The LMS has recently published the results of its 2017 the patterns here conformed to expectations. Survey of Postdoctoral Researchers in the Mathemat- ical Sciences in the UK. This survey was undertaken Gender: the survey looked at gender balance both by by the LMS Research Policy Committee in recognition department and by eld. The departmental balance of the fact that there was little overall understanding showed that the overall average percentage of female of postdoctoral activity in the UK, in terms of the postdocs was 23%.