News and events

Pitman Medal to John Robinson

Congratulations to Professor John Robinson, who has been awarded the Pitman Medal for 2008. The medal is awarded by the Statistical Society of Australia, in recognition of outstanding achievement in, and contribution to, the discipline of Statistics.

Up to 10 awards (across all disciplines) will be offerred in 2009. Full information is available at
http://www.usyd.edu.au/research/fellowships/.
Note that all applicants should contact the Head of School before August 8th.

SUMS Problem Competition for 2008

The annual SUMS Problem Competition is open to all undergraduates at any Australian university or tertiary institution. Furthermore, there are prizes to be won!

See the SUMS competition web page for this year's problems.

Daniel Daners and James Kennedy receive Science Faculty awards

Congratulations to Daniel Danerswho is the recipient of a Faculty of Science award for excellence in teaching, presented at the Faculty's Prizes and Scholarships evening held on 8th May. These awards recognize the contributions of staff in the Faculty to high quality teaching and enhancing the student learning environment.

Congratulations also to James Kennedy, who has been awarded a Faculty of Science Postgraduate Research Prize. These prizes recognise outstanding postgraduate student achievements, particularly during the early phases of candidature. Up to 8 prizes are awarded annually.

School Prizes and Scholarships Evening

The School's annual Prizes and Scholarships Ceremony was held on April 28th, from 5.45 pm to 8 pm, in the Forum Restaurant at the Darlington Centre. See the list of prizewinners (with some photos taken on the evening).

Lecturers in Pure Mathematics appointed

Dr Florica Cirstea and Dr James Parkinson have been appointed to Lectureships in Pure Mathematics. Dr Cirstea, who currently holds an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship at A.N.U., will be transferring to the University of Sydney on 14 July 2008, and will take up her lectureship at the end of April 2009 (after completing the postdoctoral fellowship). Dr Parkinson, who is currently in Graz, Austria, will take up his lectureship on 1 January 2009.

Senior Lecturer in Statistics appointed

Dr Uri Keich, currently at Cornell University, has accepted the offer of a Senior Lectureship in Statistics.

Stewart Wilcox helps resolve long-standing conjecture

Former USyd honours student Stewart Wilcox – now a PhD student at Harvard – has helped prove a conjecture made in 1953 by Marshall Hall Jr and L. J. Paige. Stewart provided the key step that reduced the problem to the sporadic simple groups.

Prof Joshi elected Fellow of the AAS

Prof Nalini Joshi has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, in recognition of her work on the mathematical structure of nonlinear integrable systems. See the AAS website for the full list of new Fellows.

New appointments

The School welcomes two new appointees: Dr Samuel Müller and A/Prof Holger Dullin. Dr Müller, who joins the School's Statistics department, is from the University of Bern (via ANU and UWA); A/Prof Dullin, who joins the Applied Mathematics department, was previously at the University of Loughborough.

School of Mathematics and Statistics ARC success

Australian Research Council funded projects commencing in 2008 conducted by members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics:

• Prof John Cannon, Prof RP Brent and Dr D Stehlé: "Integral lattices and their theta series".
• Prof Norman Dancer: "Finite Morse index solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations".
• A/Prof Andrew Mathas: "Modular representations of cyclotomic algebras".
• Dr Alex Molev: "Quantum algebras: their symmetries, invariants and representations".
• Dr A Argyros, Dr Leon Poladian and A/Prof F Ladouceur: "Fabrication and design of spun and chiral microstructured fibres".
• Prof I Shparlinski, Dr C Doche and Dr David Kohel: "Mathematics of Elliptic Curve Cryptography".