menuicon

About the School

You are here:   Maths & Stats / About / News
Follow us_twitter

Old News

The Eleventh Annual Integrable Systems Workshop

The 11th Workshop on Integrable Systems was held in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, on 30th November and 1st December 2023.

"Computational Algebra and Magma" conference

Marking the 30th anniversary of the launch of the computer algebra system Magma, this meeting brought together a group of leading international researchers with many connections to Magma and its founder, Professor John Cannon. The conference was followed by a workshop on computational number theory. For more details see the conference webpage.

Geordie Williamson awarded 2022 NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Mathematics

Prof. Geordie Williamson has been recognised for his exceptional leadership as Director of the University of Sydney’s Mathematical Research Institute and for raising the profile of the field in NSW and Australia. He is one of three USyd academics who have been awarded NSW Premier's Prizes for Science & Engineering in 2022, read more in the University of Sydney news article. See also the Premier's Prizes webpage for more information about all prize winners in 2022.

School statisticians are recognised by the Statistical Society of Australia

To mark and celebrate the 60th anniversary of The SSA, the Statistical Society of Australia have put together a list of 60 historical and current prominent Australian statisticians. Our School has 6 current, honorary and former staff on it:

Public talk "The secrets of Pi (and other transcendental numbers)" with Frank Calegari

Professor Frank Calegari from the University of Chicago will give a public talk "The secrets of Pi (and other transcendental numbers)" at the University of Sydney on his 2022 Mahler Lecture Tour.

In this talk, the speaker will explore a conjecture, formalised by Grothendieck, which explains how seemingly different occurrences of Pi (as well as many other interesting mathematical constants) should all be related. These numbers are linked to some the biggest open problems in algebra and number theory.

This talk will be accessible to anyone with an interest in mathematics. Senior high school students are encouraged to attend and see integrals outside the classroom! See more details and register for the event via this page.

Date and time: 23 November, 18.00 (registration is required);
Venue: Messel Lecture Theatre in the Sydney Nanoscience Hub;
Organisers: Stephan Tillmann and AMSI.
Mahler Lecture Series webpage.

Jean Yang awarded an NHMRC Investigator Grant

Prof Jean Yang has been awarded an NHMRC investigator grant for the project "Statistical bioinformatics at single cell resolution" ($2.6M).

The list of all successful NHMRC Investigator Grant applications is available online at the NHMRC website.

Professor Dingxuan (DX) Zhou has officially commenced as the Head of School

On 5 October, Professor Dingxuan (DX) Zhou has officially commenced as the Head of School at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, ending the period of almost three years of interim Heads. Before arriving to Sydney, DX held various positions including Head of Department of Mathematics, Associate Dean of School of Data Science, and Director of the Liu BieJuCentre for Mathematical Sciences.

Kevin Coulembier awarded an ARC Future Fellowship

A/Prof Kevin Coulembier was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship 22 based on the project "Categorical geometry and perfect group schemes". He is one of three other recipients of this prestigious fellowship in Mathematical Sciences category this year.
The list of all successful Future Fellowship applications in 2022

Categorification in representation theory

A conference held at the University of Sydney on 13–17 February 2023. See the conference web page.

The Tenth Annual Integrable Systems Workshop

The 10th Workshop on Integrable Systems was held at the University of Sydney as a face-to-face event on the 1st and 2nd of December 2022. Thw workshop was organized by Harini Desiraju, Nalini Joshi and Milena Radnović.

The Limits of Predictability Conference

Held on 29 November 2022, this event was organized by Eduardo Altmann, Nam Ho-Nguyen, Dmytro Matsypura and the Biarri team. See theConference Webpage.

Tensor Categories in Sydney Conference

Held on 28 November – 2 December 2022, this conference was organized by Kevin Coulembier and Jack Hall. See the Conference webpage.

Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations Conference

Held on 21–25 November 2022, celebrating the 60th birthday of Professor Yihong Du, this conference was organized by Ting-Ying Chang, Florica Cirstea, Daniel Daners, Daniel Hauer, Wenjie Ni and Tim Schaerf. See the Conference Webpage.

Geordie Williamson is a finalist for the 2022 Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and Innovation

Prof Geordie Williamson has been nominated for the Department of Defence Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science and Innovation. He has made fundamental contributions to Australia’s research capacity in pure mathematics, while his unique leadership vision is transforming the discipline and helping shape the mathematical tools of the future.

Awarded annually, the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are Australia’s most comprehensive national science awards, and honour excellence across the areas of research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science. The winners of the 2022 Eureka Prizes will be announced on Wednesday 31 August at an awards ceremony held at the Australian Museum. An online livestream of the awards will also be open to all audiences to view on the night. Register for the livestream via this link.

For more details, visit the SMRI news post, which includes a short video about Geordie's recent work, and the University news announcement about all USyd Eureka Prize finalists.

Chan Zuckerberg Data insights funding for Shila Ghazanfar

The project "Multiscale Data Integration for Single-Cell Spatial Genomics" of Dr Shila Ghazanfar has been selected for funding by Chan Zuckerberg Data Insights initiative. This opportunity aims at supporting researchers and computational experts to advance tools and resources that make it possible to gain greater insights into health and disease from existing single-cell biology datasets. Shila's project is one of twenty that were selected. Project description on CZ Initiative website.

John Cannon elected as a Fellow of Australian Academy of Science

The Australian Academy of Science has announced that Prof John Cannon is elected as its Fellow. That is the recognition of John's tremendous work in Computational algebra. Official Announcement. SMRI Announcement

SMRI Ukrainian Visitor Program and International Visitor Program outcomes - February 2022 round

SMRI Has announced that there are 14 successful applicants in the SMRI International Visitor Program round which closed in February 2022, as well as 3 successful applicants in the rolling SMRI Ukrainian Visitor Program. Successful applicants will spend at least 4 weeks in Australia, of which at least two weeks will be at the University of Sidney.

IVP successsful candidates:

  • Changlong Zhong (State University of New York at Albany), USyd host Geordie Williamson
  • Andrew Bernoff (Harvey Mudd College), USyd host Robert Marangell
  • Robert Gray (University of East Anglia), USyd host David Easdown
  • Sergi Valverde (Spanish National Research Council), USyd host Eduardo Altmann
  • Bing Li (South China University of Technology), USyd host Dmitry Badziahin
  • Hassan Saoud (Lebanese University), USyd host Daniel Hauer
  • >Pavel Gapeev (London School of Economics and Political Science), USyd host Marek Rutkowski
  • Zoe Wyatt (King's College London), USyd host Nalini Joshi
  • Dmitry Ryabogin (Kent State University), USyd host Alexander Fish
  • Hoel Queffelec (CNRS), USyd host Zsuzsanna Dancso
  • Marc Burger (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich), USyd host Anne Thomas
  • Matthew Conder (University of Auckland), USyd host Anne Thomas
  • Alistair Savage (University of Ottawa), USyd host Oded Yacobi
  • Ben Webster (University of Waterloo), USyd host Oded Yacobi

UVP Successful candidates:

  • Olena Dehtiar, Yulyia Mishura, Kostiantyn Ralchenko (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv)

More details about the the research visits can be found on the SMRI visiting researchers webpage.

ARC success for members of the School 2022

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded funding from the Australian Research Council for projects beginning in 2022:

Further information is available on our research grants web page.

Two DECRAs for the School of Mathematics and Statistics

Dr Shila Ghazanfar and Dr Ashish Goyal have have received funding from the Australian Research Council under the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award scheme.

Further information is available on our research grants web page.

Australian Laureate Fellowship for Helen Byrne

Professor Helen Byrne from Oxford has been awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship to join our School. See the announcement on the Australian Research Council website, and our research grants web page.

Kevin Coulembier awarded Christopher Heyde Medal

The Australian Academy of Science has announced that Dr Kevin Coulembier is one of two recipients of the Christopher Heyde Medal for 2021. The announcement mentions Kevin's solutions of several important problems in infinite-dimensional representation theory.

Virtual ICM

The official International Congress of Mathematics 2022 will now take place as a virtual event. See the SMRI web page ICM2022 Down Under: July for more information.

Machine learning as a tool for the mathematician

Public lecture by Professor Geordie Williamson.

Part of the virtual ICM, this event will take place at 20:00 on 8th July Sydney time.

See the announcement by the London Mathematical Society for more details.

Hendoff - a farewell conference for Anthony Henderson on behalf of SMRI Executive

The Hendoff is a celebration of Anthony Henderson's manifold contributions to mathematics in Australia, through both his research and service to the community. Anthony began his distinguished career at the University of Sydney as a postdoctoral scholar in 2001, and it culminated with his promotion to Professor in 2016 and becoming the inaugural Executive Director of Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI) in 2018. After over two years at the helm of SMRI and more than twenty years at Sydney, Anthony is stepping down.

The Hendoff will take place on 19 - 22 April at the University of Sydney.

Organisers: Gus Lehrer, Andrew Mathas, Geordie Williamson, Oded Yacobi

Asia-Pacific Analysis and PDE Seminar

Triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, this online seminar series will allow researchers in Analysis and Partial Differential Equations to maintain contact with colleagues, and establish new contacts, while working from home.

Please see the Asia-Pacific Analysis and PDE Seminar web page for the details.

ARC success for members of the School

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded funding from the Australian Research Council for projects beginning in 2021:

Further information is available on our research grants web page.

Workshop on Integrable Systems 2020

A workshop to be held at the University of Sydney, from 3 December to 4 December 2020.

This is the eighth annual workshop on integrable systems at the University of Sydney. Please see the website for the most up-to-date information.

Computational & Algorithmic Topology, Sydney

A workshop to be held at the University of Sydney, from 26 July to 30 July 2021.

The workshop will bring together experts and emerging researchers from Australia, the USA and Europe to report on recent results and explore future directions in computational and algorithmic topology and related areas. There is a website with more information.

ARC success for members of the School

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics were awarded funding from the Australian Research Council for projects beginning in 2020:

Further information is available on our research grants web page.

Research grants for Anna Aksamit and Ellis Patrick

Drs Anna Aksamit and Ellis Patrick have been awarded funding from the Australian Research Council in the Discovery Early Career Researcher scheme (2020 round 1). Dr Aksamit's project is "How to beat model uncertainty with more information", and Dr Patrick's project is "Statistical frameworks for high-parameter imaging cytometry data". Further information can be found on the ARC's funding announcements page.

Nalini Joshi awarded NSW Premier's Prize

Professor Nalini Joshi awarded the NSW Premier’s Prize for Excellence in Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Chemistry, or Physics. for 2019.

Alex Molev elected to the Australian Academy of Science

Professor Alex Molev has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science: see the citation on the Academy of Science website.

Australian Mathematical Society medal awarded to Geordie Williamson

Professor Geordie Williamson has been awarded the Australian Mathematical Society medal for 2018.

See the AMSI media release for information about this year's awards, and the list of former winners on the Australian Mathematical Society website.

Hyperplane Arrangements and Singularities

A meeting to bring together researchers in the theory of Hyperplane Arrangements with the eighth biennial Japanese-Australian workshop on Real and Complex Singularities, and a memorial conference for Stefan Papadima.

The meeting was hosted by the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Tokyo, Komaba Campus, from 2 December to 6 December 2019. Speakers from the University of Sydney included Laurentiu Paunescu, Anthony Henderson, Stephan Tillmann, Ruibin Zhang and Zhou Zhang.

The Seventh Annual Integrable Systems Workshop

Held at the University of Sydney on 28–29 November 2019.

See this web page for further information.

Workshop on Stochastic Partial Differential Equations

Held at the University of Sydney on 26–28 August 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

This Sounds Like Science: Why Music is Maths

A lunch-time talk by Prof Geordie Williamson, held in the City Recital Hall on 7th August 2019.

Flags, Galleries and Reflection Groups

Held at the University of Sydney on 5–9 August 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

Geometry and Integrable Systems Day

Held at the University of Sydney on 11 July 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

Groupoids, Graphs, and Algebras

This event was held at the University of Sydney on 1–5 July 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

Categories in Geometry and Representation Theory

This event was held at the University of Sydney on 24–29 June 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

Workshop on Mathematical Billiards

This event was held at the University of Sydney on 24–27 June 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

Dynamics and Number Theory 2019

This conference was held at the University of Sydney on 12–14 June 2019.

There is a web page with further information.

International Mathematical Union honours Nalini Joshi

Professor Nalini Joshi has been elected Vice-President of the International Mathematical Union, from the start of 2019. She becomes the first Australian to hold this position.

ARC success for members of the School

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics were awarded funding from the Australian Research Council for projects beginning in 2019:

Some further information is available on our research grants web page.

Launch of the University of Sydney Mathematical Research Institute

On Monday 12th November 2018 the University of Sydney's new Mathematical Research Institute was launched by the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Dr Michael Spence, and the Institute's founding director, Professor Geordie Williamson.

Geordie Williamson, plenary speaker at the International Congress

Professor Geordie Williamson has become the first Australia based mathematician to be a plenary speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicans. Organized by the International Mathematical Union, and held every four years, the ICM is the premier event on the calendar of mathematicians world-wide.

The ICM website has a page describing Professor Williamson's talk: Williamson: 'Semi-simplicity is like the air we breathe'. The slides from his lecture, Representation Theory and Geometry, are also available.

Geordie Williamson Fellow of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science

Professor Geordie Williamson has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, making him the Society's youngest living Fellow. He accepted his election at a ceremony in London in July 2018.

See the University of Sydney News story for further information.

Prof Williamson has also been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science: see the citation on the Academy of Science website.

Integrable Systems 2018.

Held in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, on November 29th and 30th 2018.

The 2018 edition was the sixth annual workshop in this series. See the Integrable Systems 2018 web site for more information.

Maths prodigy comes home

An article about Professor Geordie Williamson and the University of Sydney's new mathematics research institute was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 13 July 2018: Maths prodigy comes home to establish $5 million world-class maths centre.

Vale Leon Poladian (1964-2018)

We are deeply saddened by the untimely passing of our colleague A/Prof Leon Poladian, whose many contributions to the University of Sydney, and to the mathematical sciences in Australia, will be long remembered.

International meeting on Differential Geometry: January 22 to February 2

Held at the University of Sydney from 22 January to 2 February 2018.

A workshop and conference honouring Professor Gang Tian: see the web page for further information.

ARC grant successes for funding commencing in 2018

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded Australian Research Council funding for projects commencing in 2018:

  • Dr Oded Yacobi, Dr Kevin Coulembier and Professor Julia Pevtsova: New Dualities in Modular Representation Theory (Discovery Project).
  • Dr Anne Thomas, Dr Elizabeth Townsend Milicevic and Assistant Professor Petra Schwer: Affine flags, Euclidean reflection groups and folded galleries (Discovery Project).
  • Prof Georg Gottwald: Mathematical model reduction for complex networks (Discovery Project).
  • Prof Alexander Molev: Quantum vertex algebras (Discovery Project).
  • A/Prof Peter Kim, Dr Federico Frascoli, A/Prof Adelle Coster and Prof Chae-Ok Yun: Dynamical systems theory and mathematical modelling of viral infections (Discovery Project).
  • Prof Martin Wechselberger: A geometric theory for nonstandard relaxation oscillators (Discovery Project).
  • Prof Georg Gottwald, Dr Andrew Hammerlindl Dr Christian Bonatti and A/Prof Rafael Potrie: The Shape of Chaos: Geometric Advances in Partially Hyperbolic Dynamics (Discovery Project).
  • A/Prof Samuel Müller, Prof Alan Welsh, Dr Francis Hui and Prof Yanyuan Ma: Dimension reduction and model selection for statistically challenging data (Discovery Project).
  • Dr Alistair Senior: Diet, Variance and Individual Variability in Life-History (DECRA).
  • Dr Haotian Wu: Singularity Analysis for Ricci Flow and Mean Curvature Flow (DECRA).
  • Dr Ying Wang: Statistical theory and algorithms for joint inference of complex networks (DECRA).

See the School's Research Grants web page for more information.

Professor Norman Dancer awarded Juliusz Schauder Medal

The Scientific Council of the Juliusz P. Schauder Center for Nonlinear Studies at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, has awarded the Schauder medal for 2017 to Prof Norman Dancer. The medal is awarded every two years for scientific achievements and contributions to nonlinear analysis and its applications.

Geordie Williamson to be plenary speaker at ICM 2018

Professor Geordie Williamson will be one of the plenary speakers at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro in 2018. Held every four years, the International Congress is the world's most prestigious mathematical event, and Professor Williamson is the first Australian to be selected as a plenary speaker.

For the full list of plenary speakers at ICM2018, see the ICM2018 web site.

SIAM awards to Martin Wechselberger.

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Activity Group on Dynamical Systems (SIAG/DS) J. D. Crawford Prize for 2017 has been awarded to Prof Martin Wechselberger. The prize is awarded every two years, in recognition of recent outstanding work on a topic in nonlinear science.

Additionally, Prof Wechselberger and co-authors Theodore Vo and Richard Bertram are recipients of one of the three SIAM outstanding paper awards for 2017.

Geordie Williamson awarded New Horizons in Mathematics Prize

Associate Professor Geordie Williamson has been awarded a New Horizons in Mathematics Prize for his pioneering work in geometric representation theory, including the development of Hodge theory for Soergel bimodules and the proof of the Kazhdan–Lusztig conjectures for general Coxeter groups.

Nine academic positions advertised

Advertisements for four fixed term lectureships (two in mathematics, one in pure mathematics and one in statistics) and five postdoctoral research associates, all with closing dates around the end of January 2018.

Future Directions in Representation Theory.

Held at the University of Sydney from December 4th to December 8th 2017.

Information about this conference can be found on the conference web site.

Integrable Systems 2017.

Held in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, on December 7th and 8th 2017.

The 2017 edition was the fifth annual workshop in this series. See the Integrable Systems 2017 web site for more information.

Mathematical heroes and social justice: from victims to hell raisers

Tuesday 31 October 2017, 6:00–7:30 pm, New Law School Lecture Theatre 026, Eastern Avenue

Professor Nassif Ghoussoub, Scientific Director of the Banff International Research Station in Canada, described the rich and poignant history of mathematicians who confronted prejudices, injustices, and social stigmas.

Finding Fibonacci

Tuesday 3 October 2017, 6:00—7.30 pm, General Lecture Theatre, Main Quadrangle

Dr Keith Devlin of Stanford University spoke about Leonardo of Pisa, alias Fibonacci, the medieval mathematical genius who profoundly influenced the world in which we live.

The life of Hanna Neumann, Australia's first female professor of mathematics

July 5th 2017, 6:00pm – 7:30pm, Philosophy Room, Main Quadrangle

Hanna Neumann's extraordinary life, recounted by her son Peter Neumann OBE (Emeritus Fellow of Queen's College Oxford).

CATS 2017: Computational & Algorithmic Topology Sydney

Held at the University of Sydney from 27 June to 1 July 2017.

A workshop exploring recent results and future directions in computational and algorithmic topology. For more information see the web-page http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/tillmann/cats2017/.

International Conference on PDEs, Geometric Analysis and Functional Inequalities

Held at the University of Sydney from 7th to 10th March 2017, the aim of this conference was to demonstrate and strengthen connections between partial differential equations, geometry, and functional inequalities, as well as to foster and invigorate the Japanese–Australian partnership in mathematics, especially in nonlinear analysis.

See the conference web page for further information.

Network of Mind workshop

This four day interdisciplinary workshop on recent advances in theoretical and experimental neuroscience was held in Sydney from 31 January to 3 February 2017.

NHMRC grant success for funding commencing in 2017

The National Health and Medial Research Council will fund a research project entitled Dissecting Rapamycin sensitive and insensitive effects of mTOR, by Professor David James, Dr Jacky Stoeckli and Professor Jean Yang.

ARC grant successes for funding commencing in 2017

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded Australian Research Council funding for projects commencing in 2017:

Gus Lehrer awarded Szekeres Medal

Professor Gus Lehrer is one of two winners of the George Szekeres Medal for 2016. The medal is awarded for an outstanding contribution to the mathematical sciences in the 15 years prior to the year of the award.

Integrable Systems 2016.

The fourth annual workshop in this series was held at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, on December 1st and 2nd 2016.

See the Integrable Systems 2016 web site for more information.

International conference on nonlinear partial differential equations

Celebrating the 70th birthday of Professor Norman Dancer, this conference was held at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia, on 21–25 November 2016.

See the conference web page for further details.

Ergodic Theory and its Applications.

This conference was held at the University of Sydney from 18th to 22nd July 2016. See the conference web page.

School advertising several positions

The School is seeking to make three continuing appointments and three fixed term appointments at the Lecturer or Senior Lecturer level, applications closing in January 2016. Two of the fixed term appointments are funded by a Fellowship awarded to Professor Jean Yang, and will focus on research in bioinformatics; the other is funded by a Fellowship awarded to Dr Zhou Zhang, and will focus on research in differential geometry.

Several fixed term Research Fellow or Research Associate appointments are also anticipated, funded by various research grants awarded to members of the School.

ARC Future Fellowship for Zhou Zhang

Dr Zhou Zhang has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship" valued at $764,960 for his project Comprehensive Study of Kahler–Ricci Flows.

Geordie Williamson awarded inaugural AMS Claude Chevalley prize

The American Mathematical Society has awarded Principal Research Fellow Geordie Williamson the 2016 Claude Chevalley prize in Lie Theory, for his work on the representation theory of Lie algebras and algebraic groups. The announcement mentions Geordie's proofs and reproofs of some longstanding conjectures, as well as spectacular counterexamples to the expected bounds in others, and says that his work has provided a new framework for thinking about these conjectures.

NHMRC grant awarded to Jean Yang

Jean Yang has been awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council grant for 2016–2019 for a project entitled "Statistical bioinformatics for network based prognostic and precision therapy in complex disease".

ARC Grant successes for funding in 2016

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded Australian Research Council funding for projects commencing in 2016:

  • Andrew Papanicolaou, Solving non-Markov optimistisation problems using forward-backward stochastic differential equations (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award);
  • John Cannon and Derek Holt, Composition algorithms for large matrix groups (Discovery Project);
  • Nalini Joshi and Kenji Kajiwara, Reflection groups and discrete dynamical systems (Discovery Project);
  • Peter Kim and Kristen Hawkes, Human longevity: Modelling social changes that propelled its evolution (Discovery Project);
  • Gus Lehrer, Anthony Henderson and Geordie Williamson, Algebraic Schubert geometry and unitary reflection groups (Discovery Project);
  • Mary Myerscough, Charlie Macaskill and Christina Bursill, Dynamics of atherosclerotic plaque formation, growth and regression (Discovery Project);
  • Joachim Rubinstein, Craig Hodgson and Stephan Tillmann, Invariants, geometric and discrete structures on manifolds (Discovery Project);
  • Thanh Tran, Beniamin Goldys, Zdzisław Brzeźniak, Andreas Prohl, Ernst Stephan and Salim Meddahi, Novel Approaches for Problems with Uncertainties (Discovery Project).

Nalini Joshi a Woman of Influence

Professor Nalini Joshi has been included in Australian Financial Review/Westpac list of 100 women of influence for 2015. For further details, see the University of Sydney News story.

Recent Trends in Nonlinear Evolution Equations

This workshop will be held at the University of Sydney on November 4th and 5th 2015. For more information, see the web page or contact Daniel Hauer.

BioInfoSummer 2015

This bioinformatics symposium will be hosted by the University of Sydney, from 7 December to 11 December 2015.

David Manescu and Uri Keich win best paper award

Recent statistics honours student David Manescu and senior lecturer Dr Uri Keich received the Best Paper award at RECOMB 2015, the 19th Annual International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology, held in Warsaw, Poland, from 12th to 15th April 2015.

Their paper was entitled "A symmetric length-aware enrichment test".

Professor Nalini Joshi appointed to Commonwealth Science Council

The Government has announced the formation of the Commonwealth Science Council, to be the pre-eminent body for advice on science and technology in Australia. Professor Nalini Joshi is one of the members of the Science Council.

Chaired by the Prime Minister, the Science Council will advise the Government on areas of national strength, current and future capability, and on ways to improve connections between Government, research organisations, universities and business. For more details, see the Government media release.

Australian Academy of Science awards to Gus Lehrer and Jean Yang

Prof Gus Lehrer has been awarded the Hannan Medal for 2015 (jointly with Prof Alan McIntosh) and A/Prof Jean Yang has been awarded the Moran Medal for 2015.

Hardy Fellowship for 2015 awarded to Nalini Joshi

The Hardy Fellowship is awarded by London Mathematical Society to a distinguished overseas mathematician. Details of the Fellowship can be found at www.lms.ac.uk/events/lectures/hardy-lectureship.

Optimising the future with mathematics

Professors John Rice and Nalini Joshi are contributors to this article, which is on "The Conversation" website. [Wikipedia information on "The Conversation".]

Theo Vo wins Faculty Postgraduate Research Prize

Theo Vo has been awarded the 2014 Faculty Postgraduate Research Prize.

The prize is awarded to postgraduate research students in recognition of outstanding academic achievement.

Simons Foundation deal makes Magma widely available in U.S.

An agreement has been concluded between the University of Sydney's Computational Algebra Group and the US-based Simons Foundation that will make the computer algebra system Magma much more widely available in the United States.

Specifically, the Simons Foundation will underwrite the distribution and maintenance costs associated with making Magma available to people employed by or studying at US educational or scientific research institutions (excluding certain government laboratories).

In January 2016 the initial agreement was extended for a further three years.

Magma is a computer algebra system that is designed to support computation in those areas of mathematics that are significantly underpinned by algebra. It has been developed by the Computational Algebra Group together with more than 300 international collaborators. It is now used in over 60 countries and so far it has been cited in more than 5000 papers and books. The Computational Algebra Group is part of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney.

The Simons Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation based in New York City, incorporated in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons. The mission of the foundation is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and in the basic sciences.

For further information see http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/simons_details or contact magma@magma.maths.usyd.edu.au.

Summer Research Scholarships 2015–2016

Formerly known as "vacation scholarships", these are scholarships for undergraduates who are gifted in mathematics or statistics and interested in undertaking a a six week study/research project during the summer vacation. Applications for 2015–2016 closed on August 28th.

See the Summer Research Scholarships page for more information.

2015 Eureka Prizes Finalists

The School has two finalists for the 2015 Eureka Prizes. Mary Myerscough, as part of the Bee Team, has been nominated for the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. Jean Yang, as part of Biocode, has been nominated for the Eureka prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research.

Five minutes with Mary Myerscough

An interview in University of Sydney News.

Representation Theory Day

A one day workshop held on 21st August 2015, organized by Andrew Mathas and Oded Yacobi.

Forum: Exploring the Creativity of STEM in the classroom

This forum discussion on creative approaches to teaching in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines was held in the Law School Foyer on Friday 21 August 2015, 6.00–7.30 pm. Leon Poladian was one of the panelists.

Breaking the Barriers

This newspaper article by Nalini Joshi on barriers faced by women in mathematics is accessible via University of Sydney login, or, for those with a subscription to "The Australian", via this link.

A Game of Homes: how honeybees choose a nest

This Sydney Science Forum Lecture by Mary Myerscough took place on Wednesday March 25th 2015.

Social insects—ants, bees, termites and wasps—live in colonies of thousands, sometimes millions, of simple individual insects that interact in basic ways, but together they form a colony that is capable of finely tuned, sophisticated behaviour. Discover how maths provides a powerful tool to help us explore the links between simple individuals and complex, self-organising colonies.

A video about this is available: see this item on University of Sydney News.

ARC success for School Members

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded Australian Research Council funding for projects commencing in 2015.

Integrable Systems 2014

This workshop was held at the University of Sydney, School of Mathematics and Statistics, on 4 and 5 December 2014. See the Integrable Systems Group web site for more information.

Position advertised: Professor and Head of School

Applications closed on 12th October 2014.

Postgraduate Teaching Fellowships

Up to three positions. Applications closed 10/10/2014.

Geometric and harmonic analysis meets PDE

On October 1st 2014, a joint day of seminars of the geometric analysis group at the University of Wollongong, the harmonic analysis group at Macquarie University and the nonlinear analysis group at the University of Sydney.

See the WOMASY web page for more information.

Maths and Science Ambassador a perfect post for Adam Spencer

Adam Spencer has been appointed as the University of Sydney's Mathematics and Science Ambassador, the first time such a role has been created at an Australian university.

See University of Sydney News for more details.

Computational & Algorithmic Topology Workshop

Held on 2–4 April 2014. See the webpage for the details.

Supervisor and student both win best talk prizes at ANZIAM 2014

PhD student and Postgraduate Teaching Fellow Matthew Chan won the T.M. Cherry prize for the best talk by a student at the ANZIAM 2014 conference held at Rotorua, New Zealand. Matthew's talk was entitled "Modelling the Spread of a Deliberate Wolbachia Introduction"; an abstract of his talk is available on-line.

At the same conference Matthew's supervisor Peter Kim won the "Cherry Ripe" prize for the best non-student talk. The title of Peter's talk was "Modelling evolution of post-menopausal human longevity: The Grandmother Hypothesis", and an abstract of Peter's talk is also available.

Sydney Random Matrix Theory Workshop

This workshop, organized by Sheehan Olver, was held on 13–16 January 2014. There is a web page with further information.

ARC success for School Members

The following members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded Australian Research Council funding for projects commencing in 2014.

Postgraduate Teaching Fellowships

Up to four positions. Applications closed 11/10/2013.

Limits of Control: Testing the extremes of human movement in mid-air

(Sydney Science Forum, 11th September 2013.)

How do cats manage to land on all fours, regardless of the direction of their body when they fall?

How do divers, skiers and gymnasts change their shape and orientation when in similar free flight situations?

In this talk Holger Dullin described how mathematicians, engineers and sports scientists are collaborating with the NSW Institute of Sport to answer these questions.

In the "Bodies in Space" research project, researchers are using geometric mechanics to model the aerial motion of athletes and simulate their movements using computers. A greater understanding of this science will help to optimise performance and stretch the limits of human movement in mid air.

Jenny Henderson awarded OAM

The 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List includes a Medal of the Order of Australia for Jenny Henderson. The citation is as follows.

For service to education through the promotion of the study of mathematics.

  • Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney School of Mathematics and Statistics, since 2012.
  • Former Pro-Dean, Faculty of Science and Senior Lecturer, Pure Mathematics; Associate Dean of Publicity and Marketing, Faculty of Science.
  • Co-Founder and Organiser, Sydney University Tertiary Mathematics Education Group, 1992-2012.
  • Coordinator, University of Sydney Open Day, School of Mathematics and Statistics/interaction mathematics display.
  • Coordinator, Science Week/interaction mathematics display.
  • Representative, International Congress on Mathematics Education, Quebec City 1992, Seville 1996, and Tokyo 2000.
  • Administrator and Newsletter Editor, Mathematics Enrichment Groups for high school students, 1992-2004.
  • Chief Organiser, Topic Group on Mathematics Clubs, 8th International Conference on Mathematics Education, 1996.

Awards/recognition include:

Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Sydney, 1997.

Maths & Science Combinations NSW HSC 2001–2011 by Gender

As an analysis of mathematics/science subject combination choices made by NSW HSC students 2001-2011, this study by John Mack and Barry Walsh examines the proportions of the corresponding Year 8 cohort sizes electing to study maths/science subject combinations for the HSC. See www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SMS/MWW2013.pdf.

Australian Research Council Grants for School members

The following projects have been awarded funding from 2013 under the ARC "Discovery Projects" Scheme:

  • Prof JJ Cannon and Prof DF Holt: Constructive Representation Theory.
  • A/Prof S Yan, Prof EN Dancer and Prof Y Du: Singularity, degeneracy and related problems in nonlinear partial differential equations.
  • Prof N Joshi: Critical solutions of nonlinear systems.
  • Prof JH Rubinstein, A/Prof CD Hodgson and Dr S Tillmann: Triangulations in dimensions 3 and 4: discrete and geometric structures.
  • Prof A Ward, A/Prof MR Myerscough, Prof J Kruse and Dr J Buhl: Leadership matters: the emergence of informed leaders and their influence on group movement.
  • A/Prof Q Wang, Prof W Liu and Prof C Tudor: Asymptotics in non-linear cointegrating regression: theory and applications.
  • A/Prof J Yang, Dr S Müller and Prof GJ Mann: Vertically integrated statistical modelling in multi-layered omics studies.

Additionally, two School members have been granted Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards.

  • Dr Sheehan Olver: A new class of fast and reliable spectral methods for partial differential equations,
  • Dr John Ormerod: Scalable Bayesian model selection for massive data sets.

Giles Gardam programming competition success

Pure mathematics honours student Giles Gardam, with fellow "Brogrammers" George Karpenkov and Bin Zhou, will compete in the next year's world finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, having won the South Pacific Regional Contest.

For more information see the University of Sydney News.

Anthony Henderson wins Australian Mathematical Society Medal

Assoc Prof Anthony Henderson has been awarded the Australian Mathematical Society Medal for 2012. In part, the citation reads as follows:

Anthony Henderson is known for his deep and highly original work in representation theory. He has successfully combined methods at the crossroads of algebraic geometry, combinatorics and representation theory to solve a number of important problems in the field. Of particular significance is his joint work with Pramod Achar, in which they introduced the enhanced nil cone. This has led to a purely geometric interpretation of Shoji's generalised Kostka polynomials for the hyperoctahedral group.

For more information see the University of Sydney News.

Georgina Sweet Fellowship awarded to Nalini Joshi

Prof Nalini Joshi has been awarded the 2012 Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship. Her project is entitled "Geometric construction of critical solutions of nonlinear systems".

Further information is available from the Australian Research Council website.

Future Fellowship awarded to Martin Wechselberger

Assoc Prof Martin Wechselberger has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship for a project on geometric methods in mathematical physiology.

The project will develop new geometric methods for the analysis of multiple-scales models of physiological rhythms and patterns, and will design diagnostic tools to identify key parameters that cause and control these signals.

E. J. G. Pitman Prize awarded to Garth Tarr

Garth Tarr was awarded the E. J. G. Pitman Prize at the Australian Statistical Society Conference held in Adelaide on 9–12 July.

Office for Learning and Teaching Grant

First year Mathematics Director A/Prof David Easdown will work with colleagues from the University of Melbourne, the University of Adelaide and Curtin University on a $220,000 Office of Teaching and Learning funded project entitled "Building leadership capacity in university first year learning and teaching in the mathematical sciences".

Sheehan Olver awarded Adams Prize

The Adams Prize is one of the oldest and most prestigious prizes of the University of Cambridge. It is awarded jointly each year by the Faculty of Mathematics and St John's College to a young (normally under 40 years of age), UK-based researcher doing first class international research in the Mathematical Sciences. The 2011–12 prize was awarded jointly to Sheehan Olver (Cambridge University), who has since joined us, and Dr Françoise Tisseur (University of Manchester).

Professor Arieh Iserles, Chairman of the Adams Prize Adjudicators, said:

"Dr Olver has been a driving force behind a new methodology using the Riemann–Hilbert transform in the computation of Painlevé equations and problems originating in random matrix theory. Addressing exceedingly difficult challenges, he developed and analysed algorithms of great efficacy and profound mathematical beauty. His work is setting the standard in an important new area of computational mathematics, with a wide range of applications, from number theory to theoretical physics.

"Dr Tisseur engaged with one of the outstanding computational challenges in linear algebra, the calculation of the spectra of polynomial eigenvalue problems. She has developed and investigated families of numerical methods which evaluate the eigenvalues of matrix pencils in a stable manner, robustly and at low computational cost. This work has had wide impact in many applications and will soon be incorporated into the leading software packages for numerical algebra.

"Sheehan Olver and Françoise Tisseur work in different corners of computational mathematics and scientific computing, yet they have both demonstrated their excellence in developing powerful algorithms and subjecting them to deep and effective mathematical analysis."

(Taken from University of Cambridge News.)

Fixed term lectureships

  • Two-year lectureship in Pure Mathematics (applications closed 21 November 2012).
  • Four-year lectureship in Applied Mathematics (applications closed 19 November 2012).

Postgraduate Teaching Fellowships

Applications closed 9 November 2012.

Research and Postdoctoral Fellowships

  • Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow In Representation Theory of Quantum Groups. (Lehrer/Zhang, 5 November 2012)
  • Research Fellow and/or Postdoctoral Research Associate in Integrable Systems and Near-Integrable Systems. (Joshi, 31 October 2012)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate in Stochastic Games. (Rutkowski, 16 October 2012)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate in Stochastic PDEs. (Goldys, 5 September 2012)
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dynamical Systems. (Gottwald, 6 February 2012)

SUMS Problem Competition 2012

The SUMS Problem Competition for 2012 has been released. It is open to undergraduates at any Australian university, and there are prizes to be won!

Prizes and Scholarships for 2011–2012

The School's Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening was held on May 8th. In the Darlington Centre. For more details, including the list of prize and scholarship winners, see the Prizes and Scholarships page.

Research and Postdoctoral Fellowships

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dynamical Systems. (Gottwald, 6 February 2012)

New lecturer in Pure Mathematics

Dr Alexander Fish, whose main research interests are in ergodic theory and its applications to additive number theory, has accepted an offer of a Lectureship in Pure Mathematics. He is currently at the University of Wisconsin, and will be taking up his position here in July 2012.

New Senior Lecturer in Statistics

Dr Reiichiro (Ray) Kawai, who is currently the Deputy Director of the Institute of Finance at the University of Leicester, has accepted appointment as a Senior Lecturer in Statistics.

Ray's research interests are Levy processes and infinitely divisible distributions and their applications in financial mathematics and mathematical biology. He will be joining our staff in July 2012.

Australian Research Council Grants for School members

Anthony Henderson has been awarded a Future Fellowship for a project entitled "Springer fibres, nilpotent cones and representation theory"

Peter Kim has received a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for a project entitled "Mathematical modelling of breast cancer immunity: guiding the development of preventative breast cancer vaccines".

The following projects have been awarded funding from 2012 under the ARC "Discovery Projects" Scheme:

  • Florica Cirstea: "Analysis of nonlinear partial differential equations describing singular phenomena".
  • Georg Gottwald and Gary Froyland: "Extracting macroscopic variables and their dynamics in multiscale systems with metastable states".
  • Gus Lehrer and Ruibin Zhang: "Quantised algebras, supersymmetry and invariant theory".
  • Marek Rutkowski "Multi-person stochastic games with idiosyncratic information flows".
  • Maria Byrne, Jean Yang and Gregory Wray: "Heads or tails – which did echinoderms lose in the evolution of radial symmetry?"

J B Douglas success for Emi Tanaka

The NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia held the annual J B Douglas Postgraduate Awards Ceremony at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management on 23 November 2011. Emi Tanaka was awarded second prize for a talk entitled "Improved similarity scores of comparing motifs".

Leon Poladian receives teaching award

The Australian Learning and Teaching Council has awarded Leon Poladian a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

New Lecturer in Pure Mathematics

Dr Leo Tzou, whose research interests lie in the connection between geometry and inverse problems in partial differential equations, has accepted a lectureship in Pure Mathematics. Leo obtained his PhD at the University of Washington in 2007.

Prizes and Scholarships for 2010–2011

The School's Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening was held on May 9th. For a list of the award winners see the Prizes and Scholarships 2010-2011 page.

SUMS Problem Competition 2011

The SUMS Problem Competition for 2011 has been released. It is open to undergraduates at any Australian university, and there are prizes to be won!

Research project on cell cooperation in cancer

The Human Frontier Science Program Organization has awarded US$300,000 p.a. for three years to the School's A/Prof. Mary Myerscough and her collaborators Guy Lyons (University of Sydney Central Clinical School) and Silvio Gutkind (National Institute of Health, Bethesda USA), for their project cell cooperation in cancer.

New lecturer in Pure Mathematics

Dr Stephan Tillmann, a PhD graduate of the University of Melbourne, will be joining the School in December as a lecturer in Pure Mathematics.

Stephan is a topologist with several recent papers on 3-manifolds.

"Periodic table of shapes" project uses Magma software package

The School's Computational Algebra group is collaborating with geometers at Imperial College London in a project that aims to classify higher-dimensional Fano varieties. For more information, see the article in the Science magazine Cosmos

Two new lecturers in Applied Mathematics

Dr Sheehan Olver and Dr Peter Kim have been appointed to lectureships in Applied Mathematics.

Sheehan Olver, who is currently at St John's College Oxford, is a numerical analyst. He has recent research interests in the areas of integrable systems and random matrix theory. Sheehan will be joining the School in November 2011.

Peter Kim is currently at the University of Utah. He works in mathematical biology, including topics such as mathematical immunology, cancer and virus dynamics, as well as dynamical systems. Peter will be joining the School in July 2011.

T.M. Cherry Prize 2011

Samuel Butler was awarded the T.M. Cherry Prize for the best student talk at the ANZIAM 2011 conference held in Adelaide. The title of Samuel's talk was "Solitons and the discrete Korteweg–de Vries equation".

Frank Calegari: Special public lecture

(Frank Calegari, from Northwestern University is visiting the University of Sydney from April 30th to June 4th.)

  • Date: Tuesday 24 May 2011
  • Light refreshments at 17:00, lecture commences at 17:30
  • Venue: Old Geology Lecture Theatre (Ref D15 on campus map).
  • Title: How to solve equations in rational numbers

For more details, see the seminars page

Inaugural Heyde Medal awarded to Anthony Henderson

In its media release of 8/12/2010 the Australian Academy of Science announced that the Christopher Heyde Medal for 2011 has been awarded to Anthony Henderson.

This inaugural award was for research in pure mathematics. The citation reads as follows:

Anthony Henderson has made fundamental contributions in representation theory, an area which concerns the algebraic patterns underlying collections of geometric transformations. He has invented geometric spaces which give new information about common symmetry types, and has introduced new methods for performing calculations in existing geometric spaces which take their symmetry into account. His work combines ideas from different areas of mathematics, and provides explicit formulas for use in a wide range of problems which involve observations on spaces with symmetry.

The purpose of the award, which honours the contributions to mathematics by Professor Christopher Charles Heyde AM, DSc, Hon DSc(Syd), is to recognise distinguished research in the mathematical sciences by a researcher under the age of 40. The award carries a prize of $10,000.

J B Douglas awards to Anna Campain and Joanna Wang

The NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia held the annual J B Douglas Postgraduate Awards Ceremony at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management on November 25th. Two of the three $750 prizes awarded were won by Anna Campain and Joanna Wang, PhD students in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney.

Prestigious teaching award to David Easdown

David Easdown was presented with a 2010 NSW Quality Teaching Award for the tertiary sector at a ceremony at Government House, Sydney, on 5 November 2010.

These awards, under the auspices of the Australian College of Educators, and administered through the NSW Department of Education and Training, are among the most prestigious awards for teaching in Australia. The rigorous and comprehensive assessment process involves in-class observation by ACE experts, and interviews with students and professional colleagues, as well as refereeing.

School of Mathematics and Statistics ARC success

Members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have received funding from the Australian Research Council for the following new research projects, commencing in 2011.

Poster prize for Ellis Patrick

Ellis Patrick was awarded the student poster prize at the Australian Microarray and Associated Technologies Association Inc 2010 conference (AMATA 2010) held in Hobart from September 14th to 17th.

His poster was entitled "Optimising a Genomic Annotation for the Analysis of RNA-Seq Data".

Research project to study aerial dynamics of athletes

Associate Professor Holger Dullin, in collaboration with Dr Surya Singh from the Australian Centre of Field Robotics, Dr Peter Sinclair from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Dr Damien O'Meara from the NSW Institute of Sport, has obtained an ARC Linkage for a project entitled "Bodies in Space". The team summarize the project as follows:

By investigating how a change in shape of the human body can produce a change in spatial orientation, the project will bring a fundamental advance of knowledge in the intersection of applied mathematics, sports science and mechanical engineering. These knowledge advances will lead to a novel theory regarding the control of the aerial dynamics of athletes, specifically springboard and platform divers. When applied in collaboration with world class Australian athletes, this theory will result in innovative platform and springboard diving techniques and improved performance. The reach of new insights generated by this work extends to many other fields, including robotics, spacecraft dynamics and nano technology.

See also the University News story describing the project.

Congratulations to Leon Poladian and Libo Li

At the Faculty of Science Awards Night Leon Poladian received a Faculty of Science citation for Excellence in Teaching, and Libo Li won a Faculty Postgraduate Research Prize recognizing "outstanding postgraduate achievements, particularly during the early phases of candidature."

Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening

The School's annual Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening was held on Monday May 10th in the Darlington Centre. For a list of the award winners see the Prizes and Scholarships 2009-2010 page.

T.M. Cherry Prize 2010

Lewis Mitchell was awarded the T.M. Cherry Prize for the best student talk at the ANZIAM 2010 conference in Queenstown. Samuel Butler received honourable mention for his presentation.

Tenurable Lectureships in Pure Mathematics

The School advertised for two lecturers in Pure Mathematics, closing date 5/12/2010.

Tenurable Positions in Statistics and Applied Mathematics

The School advertised for a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Statistics (closing date 16/9/2010) and a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics (closing date 1/10/2010).

School of Mathematics and Statistics ARC success

The School of Mathematics and Statistics has received funding from the Australian Research Council for the following new research projects, commencing in 2010

  • Constructive Module Theory for Algebras (Prof JJ Cannon, Prof J Carlson and Prof DF Holt),
  • Transitions and singular behaviour in nonlinear partial differential equations (Prof EN Dancer, Pro Y Du and Dr S Yan),
  • Quantitative and qualitative aspects of Asian and Australian options (Dr C Ewald),
  • Stochastic methods in mathematical geophysical fluid dynamics (Dr G Gottwald)
  • Statistical methods for analysing multi-source microarray data and building gene regulatory networks (Dr V Jayaswal),
  • The canonical stratification of jet spaces (Dr L Paunescu),

Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening

The School's annual Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening was held on Monday April 27th in the Darlington Centre. For a list of the award winners see the Prizes and Scholarships 2008-2009 page.

Invited speaker, former Sydney Grammar Mathematics Master Bill Pender, said that universities should "take back their stewardship over school syllabuses". The text of Bill's speech is available.

Norman Dancer awarded D.Sc. by University of New England

The award of an honorary degree of Doctor of Science to Professor Norman Dancer has been announced in the University of New England News.

Success in ARC Future Fellowships Scheme

School of Mathematics and Statistics members Georg Gottwald and Jean Yang have been awarded Future Fellowships by the Australian Research Council.

Australian Learning and Teaching Council citation for David Easdown

Recognizing A/Prof Easdown's excellence in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.

See also the University News story.

Journal of Algebra honours John Cannon

A special issue of the Journal of Algebra is dedicated to Prof John Cannon and Prof Derek Holt.

Journal of Algebra honours Gus Lehrer

A special issue of the Journal of Algebra marks the 60th birthday of Prof Gus Lehrer.

AM for Terry Gagen

In the recently announced Queen's Birthday Honours, A/Prof Terry Gagen has been made a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia. The citation reads as follows:

Associate Professor Terence Matthew Gagen, Sydney, NSW. For service to higher education in the field of mathematics and as an educator, researcher and mentor through the National Mathematics Summer School.

Science Faculty Awards to members of School

At the Faculty of Science Prizes and Scholarships Ceremony held on 14 May,

Norman Dancer honoured by Australian Academy of Science

Professor Norman Dancer has been awarded Hannan Medal for 2009. The award recognizes Professor Dancer's achievements in the areas of nonlinear analysis and nonlinear differential equations, and the affect his ideas have had on nonlinear analysis internationally.

See the AAS website for more information on the Hannan Medal.

A disturbing set of numbers

An article on the current state of mathematics education, by Professor Nalini Joshi, appeared in The Australian on Februrary 18th.

Nalini Joshi becomes president of the Australian Mathematical Society

Professor Nalini Joshi's inauguration as president of the Society took place at the Society's Annual General Meeting held on December 11th 2008. Professor Joshi, who will serve a two-year term as president, said "I would like to entice more younger mathematicians to join the Society – especially those who join banks, government organisations or companies where they continue to do mathematics and modelling that is so essential to our economy, security and well-being."

Richard Finlay wins a J.B. Douglas Postgraduate Award

These prizes are awarded by the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia, for the best presentations by postgraduate students. (Richard Finlay has subsequently been awarded a PhD: his thesis was entitled "The variance gamma module with long range dependence".)

Richard's talk was entitled "Option pricing with a long range dependent VG model".

School of Mathematics and Statistics ARC success

Congratulations to A/Profs Ruibin Zhang and Andrew Mathas who have been awarded Australian Professorial Fellowships commencing in 2009. In addition, Dr Sanjiban Santra will be returning to the School in 2009 to take up an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship, and Dr Anthony Henderson, Professor Nalini Joshi, Dr Mary Myerscough and Dr Jean Yang have been awarded grants under the Discovery Projects scheme.

The titles of the projects are as follows:

  • "The geometry of exotic nilpotent cones". Chief Investigator: Dr A. Henderson.
  • "Integrable Lattice Equations", Chief Investigator: Prof N. Joshi.
  • "Pyramids and decomposition numbers for the symmetric and general linear groups". Chief Investigators: A/Prof A. Mathas and Dr A. Henderson.
  • "House hunting honey bees: speed-accuracy trade-offs in collective decision-making". Chief Investigators: A/Prof M Beekman and Dr M. R. Myerscough.
  • "Blow-up phenomena in semilinear elliptic partial differential equations". Chief Investigator: Dr S. Santra.
  • "Statistical and computational methods using a multiscale approach for protein". Chief Investigators: Dr J. Y. Yang and Dr J. W. Arthur.
  • "Noncommutative geometry in representation theory and quantum physics". Chief Investigator: Prof R. Zhang.

SUMS problem competition results released

The results of the 2008 SUMS problem competition have been released: see http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/SUMS/.

Neil Saunders wins prize for best student talk

Postgraduate student Neil Saunders has been awarded the GB Preston prize for the best student talk at the 2008 Algebra Conference of Victoria. His talk was entitled "Minimal permutation degrees of irreducible Coxeter groups."

This is the second time Neil has won this prize – he also won it in 2006!

Jennifer Chan receives a Chinese National Science Award

Jennifer Chan is one of the members of a team that received a National Science Award for 2008 from the Ministry of Education in the People's Republic of China. The award is for her work on Geometric Processes.

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.

See the story in the University of Sydney News.

Daniel Daners and James Kennedy receive Science Faculty awards

Congratulations to Daniel Daners who 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, will take up her lectureship at the end of April 2009. 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.

Level B/C/D Positions in Statistics and Financial Mathematics

The School advertised three positions, at Lecturer, Senior Lecturer or Associate Professor level. Applications closed 24/10/2008.

Vacation Scholarships

See the Vacation Scholarships web page for more information. (Applications for the December 2008 – February 2009 vacation closed on 26/9/2008.)

University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellowships

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

nGAME seeks Research Associate, Technical Officer and Administrative Officer

(Applications closed 27/4/2008)

Special Public Lecture by Fields Medallist Terence Tao

Structure and Randomness in the Prime Numbers, 7 February 2008, 5:30–6:30pm, in the General Lecture Theatre. More details are available.

ANZIAM 2008 at Katoomba

The Australasian Applied Mathematics Conference, ANZIAM 2008, was held in Katoomba from 3rd to 7th February 2008. See the website http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/ANZIAM2008/ for more information.

Tenure track positions in Pure Mathematics advertised

(Applications closed 20/1/2008)

Executive officer sought for Access Grid project

(Applications closed 20/1/2008)

Recent Advances in Asymptotic Probability and Statistics

The School of Mathematics and Statistics hosted a workshop entitled Recent Advances in Asymptotic Probability and Statistics, with Time Series Applications, on 10th to 12th December 2007.

Death of Peter Wilson

With great sadness we report that Emeritus Professor P. R. Wilson passed away on the morning of Sunday 11 November 2007.

Sydney students win prizes for best student talks

At the Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society Neil Saunders was awarded the B.H. Neumann prize, jointly with Norman Do from the University of Melbourne. Neil's talk was entitled "The Minimal Permutation Degree for a Class of Finite Complex Reflection Groups". Tegan Morrison was given an honourable mention for her talk entitled "Tronquee Solutions of Higher Order Painleve Equations".

And Shona Yu won the G.B. Preston Prize for her talk "The Cyclotomic Birman-Murakami-Wenzl Algebras" at the Algebra Conference of Victoria.

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".

BH Neumann Award to Dr Bill Palmer

Bill Palmer is a recipient of a BH Neumann Award for 2007, awarded by the Australian Mathematics Trust.

Lectureship in Statistics advertised

(Applications closed 5/11/2007)

University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellowships

(Applications now closed.)

Up to 10 awards will be offerred in 2008. Full information is available at
http://sydney.edu.au/research_support/funding/sydney/postdoctoral_fellowship.shtml.
Note that all applicants should contact the Head of School well in advance of the final closing date.

The timeline is as follows:

  • 27 July – final day for eligibility exemptions or clarifications to the Research Office;
  • 10 August – final day for applicants to contact Head of School;
  • 14 September – closing date for full applications and referee reports to Research Office.

Nalini Joshi to be President of Australian Mathematical Society

Professor Nalini Joshi is President-Elect of the Australian Mathematical Society.

GL07 Conference

Geometry and Lie theory: a conference marking Gus Lehrer's 60th birthday, held in July 2007. See the conference web page for more information.

Prizes and Scholarships Presentation Evening

The School's annual Prizes and Scholarships Ceremony was held on the evening of Monday 30th April 2007.

Eugene Seneta honoured by Australian Academy of Science

Emeritus Professor Eugene Seneta and was presented the Hannan Medal for 2007 at the Australian Academy of Science's annual three-day celebration of science and scientific research, Science at the Shine Dome, held on 2nd, 3rd and 4th of May 2007.

Conference marking Professor Gavin Brown's 65th birthday

On 5th and 6th of March 2007 the School of Mathematics and Statistics hosted a conference called "Expansions, inequalities and approximations", in honour of the mathematical achievements of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Professor Gavin Brown.

For more information, see the conference web page.

Hannan Medal for 2007 awarded to Eugene Seneta

The Australian Academy of Science has awarded the Hannan Medal for 2007 to Emeritus Professor Eugene Seneta, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in statistical science.

Death of Max Kelly

With great sadness we report that Emeritus Professor G. M. (Max) Kelly passed away on January 26th, 2007. See his obituary.

Mathematics and Statistics ARC success

Several members of the School of Mathematics and Statistics have obtained funding from the Australian Research Council for research projects commencing in 2007.

(People marked * are not members of the School.)

A.A. Markov, Markov Chains, and Google

A public lecture by Emeritus Professor Eugene Seneta FAA, Thursday 24 August 2006, 6pm in the Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre, University of Sydney. More details are available here.

Vacation Scholarships 2006 - 2007

Talented undergraduates are invited to apply for vacation scholarships in mathematics or statistics. See the vacation scholarships web page for more information. (Applications now closed.)

Andrew Mathas awarded Australian Mathematical Society Medal for 2006

Congratulations to Andrew Mathas on the award of the Australian Mathematical Society Medal for 2006. The medal is awarded each year for distinguished research in the mathematical sciences, and is presented at the opening session of the Annual Meeting of the Society. Here is the citation from the medal presentation ceremony.

Ben Wilson gives best talk by a student

Ben Wilson has been awarded the BH Neumann prize for the best talk by a student at the Annual Meeting of Australian Mathematical Society. There were 36 student talks altogether, and the judges praised their quality. Ben's talk was entitled "Highest-weight theory for Lie algebras of truncated currents".

Emeritus Professor Seneta awarded 2006 Moyal Medal

Eugene Seneta, Emeritus Professor of Statistics, has been awarded the Moyal Medal for 2006. The Moyal Medal recognizes distinguished contributions to research in mathematics, physics or statistics.

More information abut the Moyal Medal can be found at http://www.maths.mq.edu.au/medal/overview.html.

Prof Cannon awarded 2006 Jenks Prize for Excellence in Software Engineering

Prof John J. Cannon has been awarded the 2006 Richard Dimick Jenks Prize for Excellence in Software Engineering applied to Computer Algebra, for the creation of Magma.

More information about the prize can be found on the prize web site at http://www.cis.udel.edu/~caviness/jenks/.

PDE conference in Prof Dancer's honour

The University of New England is hosting a conference entitled "Recent Advances in Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations" marking the 60th birthday of Professor Norman Dancer. For further information, see the conference web page.

John Mack recognized in Queen's Birthday Honours

Congratulations to John Mack who has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

The citation reads "For service to mathematics education, particularly in the area of curriculum development, to the arts, and to a range of academic professional organisations."

Prizes and Scholarships

The list of students awarded prizes or scholarships for Mathematics and Statistics based on work completed in 2005 is now available here.

Public Lecture: Ramanujan's Life and Notebooks

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in Southern India in 1887 and died there in 1920, aged 32. He had only one year of college, but his mathematical discoveries, made mostly in isolation, have made him one of the last century's most influential mathematicians.

An account of Ramanujan's life will be presented in a public lecture by Professor Bruce Berndt of the University of Illinois, at 5:00 pm on Thursday October 27 2006, in the Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre (grid reference K19 on the campus map).

Professor Berndt is the Australian Mathematical Society's Mahler Lecturer for 2005.

Recent appointments

  • Dr Jennifer Chan, formerly of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science of The University of Hong Kong, has recently commenced as a lecturer in Statistics.
  • Dr Rafał Kulik, formerly of the University of Wrocław, has recently commenced as a lecturer in Statistics.
  • Dr Emma Carberry, formerly a C.L.E. Moore Instructor at MIT, has recently commenced as a lecturer in Pure Mathematics.
  • Dr Clio Cresswell has joined the School as a Senior Lecturer, on a one year appointment shared by the College of Sciences and Technology, the Faculty of Science and the School. Clio will be involved with the development of the new BST degree, and with high school outreach.
  • Dr Anthony Henderson will commence as a lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the completion of his current postdoctoral fellowship,
  • Dr Leon Poladian will become a senior lecturer in Applied Mathematics at the completion of his current ARC Professorial Fellowship,
  • Dr Martin Wechselberger, formerly of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University, has recently commenced as a lecturer in Applied Mathematics,
  • Dr Jean Yang, formerly of the Lung Biology Center of the University of California, San Francisco, has taken up a Lectureship in Statistics (Bioinformatics).

SUTMEG Seminar

The Sydney University Tertiary Mathematics Education Group held a seminar on the morning of Tuesday 6 December 2005, in Carslaw Lecture Theatre 173. The speakers were Deborah Hughes Hallett (University of Arizona & Harvard) and David Easdown (University of Sydney). See also the SUTMEG Web Page.

Prof Dancer listed as "highly cited"

The ISI Web of Knowledge lists Professor Norman Dancer as a highly cited researcher. One of Professor Dancer's papers, with co-author Shusen Yan, heads the list of most viewed articles in the journal Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations.

Two new appointments in Statistics

Dr Jennifer Chan, currently a lecturer in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science of The University of Hong Kong, has accepted appointment as a lecturer in Statistics. Dr Chan obtained her M. Phil. at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and her PhD at the University of New South Wales.

Dr Rafał Kulik has also accepted appointment as a lecturer in Statistics. Dr Kulik, who obtained his PhD at the University of Wrocław in 2002, currently holds a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa as well as an academic position at Wrocław.

Public lecture

From Babylon to Silicon Valley, an illustrated history of mathematics. Professor Bill Casselman, Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre, 27th July 2005.

College award to David Easdown

Senior Lecturer Dr David Easdown has been awarded the 2005 College of Sciences and Technology Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Supervision.

Simon Singh talk a smash hit

It is a long time since an audience in the Stephen Roberts Lecture Theatre has enjoyed a lecture so much. Simon Singh, author of the best sellers Fermat's Last Theorem and The Code Book, as well as the recently published Big Bang, entertained, amused and informed a packed house for 50 minutes, conclusively demonstrating that good science is not dull.

In thanking Simon on behalf of the University, Senate member and Sydney media identity Adam Spencer urged academics to do more to publicize their work. Sadly, most of us are not as good at it as Simon Singh!

Sydney Applied Mathematics graduate promoted to Professor at Kent

Dr Elizabeth Mansfield, who took her PhD at the University of Sydney in 1991, has recently been promoted to Professor in the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics & Actuarial Science at University of Kent, UK. Her supervisor at Sydney was A/Prof Ted Fackerell (now retired).

BIG BANG – the history of the universe in 60 minutes

A public lecture by Simon Singh, 24th May 2005, Stephen Roberts Lecture Theatre.

Prizes and Scholarships Evening

The School's annual Prizes and Scholarships presentation ceremony was held on 26th April 2005. The full list of winners of the various awards, with photos taken on the evening, is available. And there are some extra photos as well.

Article by Professor Seneta is one of the "most downloaded"

The journal Historia Mathematica reports that Professor Eugene Seneta's paper "Mathematics, religion and Marxism in the Soviet Union in the 1930s" is one of their most frequently downloaded papers.

Web Quizzes using LaTeX

Senior Lecturer Andrew Mathas has won a Faculty of Science Teaching Award for a system he has developed for producing interactive web based quizzes. This system is now being used within the School of Mathematics and Statistics and also by the Faculty of Business and Economics.

More information is available on the manual page.

4000 Years of Mathematics in Images

A public lecture by Professor Bill Casselman, Stephen Roberts Lecture Theatre, 3 August 2004.

ARC Fellowship for Gus Lehrer

Congratulations to Professor Gus Lehrer, who has been awarded an ARC Professorial Fellowship.
→ Current news and events