Theo Murphy AustraliaAcademy of Science

Funding for EMCR activities through the Theo Murphy Initiative

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Applications for funding by the Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia) to deliver activities that support early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) are now OPEN! EMCRs are invited to submit proposals to receive funding for activities to be delivered in the period early September 2022 – August 2023.
In its 2022–2023 round, the Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia) will fund interdisciplinary activities that provide research and career development opportunities for EMCRs in Australia. There are three streams of funding available: Flagship activities, Amplify activities and Participation support.

Applications close 5pm AEST on Friday 12 August 2022.

To learn more, please visit the Academy of Science site.

The Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI) International Visitor Program: applications open

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The IVP2022 Round 2 applications are now open. Researchers in the mathematical sciences from international and Australian universities who wish to do research at SMRI either individually or as part of a group of collaborators are warmly invited to apply.

This round is for visits taking place between July 2023–June 2024 for general applicants, and March 2023–June 2024 for Australian citizens/permanent residents and New Zealand citizens.

Applications will close on 9 August 2022 (11.59pm AEST).

Applications with the information requested in the terms and conditions can be made through the webform found on the IVP webpage https://mathematical-research-institute.sydney.edu.au/international-visitor-program/.

Applications from female and gender-diverse researchers, researchers employed in developing countries and/or researchers belonging to other groups which are underrepresented in the mathematical sciences, are particularly encouraged.

Mahler Lecture Tour 2022AMSI-AustMS

Mahler Lecture Series: Prof. Frank Calegari

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The biennial Mahler Lecture Series is restarting this year with an exciting program of lectures delivered by Prof. Frank Calegari (University of Chicago). The Speaker’s research area is algebraic number theory, and he is particularly interested in the Langlands programme, especially the notion of reciprocity linking Galois representations and motives to automorphic forms.

The history of Mahler Lectures can be found on AustMS Mahler Lecturer Tour page.

For schedule and more information about the 2022 tour organised by AustMS and AMSI, which includes lectures in New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria, please visit AMSI’s 2022 Mahler Lecturer site.

MoCaO Lectures in Data ScienceMoCaO

MoCaO Lectures:  Data Science, 11-15 July 2022

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Due to unforeseen problems with the registration system, all registrations for MoCaO lectures up till until the date 29/06/2022 have been lost. To register again, please use the new registration  form on MoCaO lectures webpage.

The inaugural MoCaO Lectures in Computation and Optimisation are focused on Data science and in particular machine learning, its algorithms, mathematical foundations and applications. These lectures are designed to be accessible to novices to the field who have a mathematics and computational background, such as PhD students, postdocs and academics who wish to have a better understanding of recent advances in this dynamic field.

These one hour lectures will be held each day during the week of July the 11 to the 15th and will be scheduled at 12noon AEST on the Monday through to the Thursday and will be starting at 12.30 on the Friday and run for 2 hours that day. All lectures will be broadcast via Zoom.

Speakers

Prof. Stephen Wright:  is the George B. Dantzig Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a past chair of the Mathematical Optimization Society and a SIAM Fellow. Currently he directs the Institute for Foundations of Data Science at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Steve is a world renowned expert in optimization and the author of several highly cited books in this field.

Prof. Guoyin Li: is a professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at University of New South Wales. He was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (for mid-career researchers) during 2014-2018. His research interests include optimisation, variational analysis, machine learning and tensor computations.

Dr. Quoc Thong Le Gia: is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW, Sydney. His research interests include Numerical Analysis, Approximation Theory; Partial Differential Equations; Machine Learning and Stochastic Processes.

For more information and to register, please visit http://www.mocao.org/mocao-lectures-data-science/.

Australia Postgraduate Algebra Colloquium: Expressions of Interest open

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This year will be the inaugural year of the Australian Postgraduate Algebra Colloquium (APAC). The colloquium will primarily function as a series of online seminars throughout 2022. The colloquium aims to connect postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students based in Australia who study and/or do research in topics relating to algebra or representation theory. We will also be building an online community around the seminars which will foster communication and collaboration between students. Please see the APAC website for more details and to sign up to the mailing list: www.apacmath.org.

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from students who would like to speak at an APAC seminar in 2022. EOI’s for giving a talk in the first half of 2022 close on the 13th February at 11:59pm. To sign up to the APAC mailing list and/or express interest in giving a talk at an APAC seminar, please fill out this form. Undergraduate students are also strongly encouraged to get involved and give a talk.

You can also keep up to date with us on Facebook.

Best regards,
The APAC Organisers

Meet Professor Jessica Purcell: the Society’s Incoming President

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As announced yesterday, Prof. Jessica Purcell has been appointed the new Incoming President. I took the opportunity to pose some questions to her. -Ed

1. When did you decide that mathematics was going to be your career, and what attracted you to the field?

I really liked mathematics classes through high school and university. I liked the logic, the pictures, the puzzles, and I liked understanding how deeper mathematics works and why. At various points in life, I decided that I liked mathematics enough to keep trying for new opportunities: postgraduate study, postdoctoral programs, continuing positions. I’m grateful to have received enough opportunities to make a career!  

2. What do you think is the most important issue facing the Society at present?

In my mind, the most important issues concern promoting mathematical sciences, and representing mathematicians. Mathematics is important. It contributes to science, medicine, engineering, and is an important human endeavour on its own. It has been disheartening to see a weakening of some Australian university mathematics departments in the last two years, which affects the careers of current and upcoming mathematicians, and diminishes our ability to train students and high school teachers. Access to mathematics should not only be for the wealthy and well-connected. On the positive side, the Society is full of outstanding mathematicians who are contributing significantly to Australia and to the field, and it has many friends who love mathematics and support our aims. I think the future of mathematics is bright. 

3. Where would you like the Society to be in 5 years’ time? Or perhaps 10 years’?

I would like the Society to be larger and more diverse. I would love to see more of our PhD students and early career researchers staying on as fully active Society members even when their careers take them outside of academia. I’d like to see more gender diversity, more racial diversity, more willingness to learn from each other across different fields. 

4. What is one mathematical fact or idea you would wish the broader public to know?

I am a big believer in knot theory for the broader public. The field of knot theory encapsules the beauty, the puzzles, and the depth of mathematics, with cool pictures. Knots for the greater good!

Prof. Jessica Purcell

Meet Professor Aidan Sims: the Society’s new Vice-President

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As announced yesterday, Prof. Aidan Sims has been appointed the new VP. I took the opportunity to pose some questions to him. -Ed

1.       When did you decide that mathematics was going to be your career, and what attracted you to the field?

It was towards the end of my undergraduate degree. I did a combined degree in maths and computer science. I thought I was going to be a coder/developer, and that there weren’t many jobs for mathematicians. Wrong on both counts! Somewhere around the end of my third year I realised that I really wasn’t a very good coder at all, and that the bit of it all that I really loved was the process of chipping away at the edges of mathematical problem, turning it over and looking at it from all directions, until my brain started to build a picture of what was going on that led me to a solution. Especially doing that collaboratively – bouncing ideas back and forth until understanding emerges. I still love it.

2.       What do you think is the most important issue facing the Society at present?

Equity, diversity and inclusivity. Not just gender equity and diversity. Equity and diversity as a multi-dimensional idea – there are so many different axes of diversity, and 2ⁿ (well, more aptly, the cardinality of a product) grows fast. Maybe if we get better at thinking of it that way, it’ll be harder for anyone to believe that their privileges are somehow the product of being in some imagined natural majority, as opposed to a product of inherited privilege and biased systems. Mathematics is for all.

3.       Where would you like the Society to be in 5 years’ time? Or perhaps 10 years’?

I’d like to see the Society more engaged with the world outside academia. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a mathematical society; but there is plenty of mathematics outside academia. I’d like to see us adjust our view of what makes someone a mathematician. If someone thinks mathematically, if they use mathematical training and thinking in what they do, they’re a mathematician. They might be a mathematician who is a teacher; a mathematician who is a public servant or a politician; a mathematician who is an artist or entertainer; or an entrepreneur or businessperson. All these mathematicians have plenty to offer the Society and we should try to connect with them more. 

4.       What is one mathematical fact or idea you would wish the broader public to know?

That statistics is complicated and that our brains don’t really have good intuition about probability, randomness, and patterns. Our brains have evolved to try to see patterns in the available data. But if you run enough random-number generators for few enough iterations (or measure enough independent variables over a small enough sample), at least one pair of them will be very highly correlated. I wish that more people knew this – knew what questions to ask themselves about the numerical/statistical data they’re presented with – and knew just how much it affects what we see and read in news and social media. In a nutshell, I wish everyone thought that this xkcd comic https://xkcd.com/882/ is as funny as I do.

Prof. Aidan Sims

Update on AustMS2021 emails

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Mimecast at many universities is blocking emails from the AustMS21 registration system. This ranges from annoying to catastrophic (e.g. when password reset emails get blocked).

There is something people can do, however: they can log on to the Mimecast portal at https://login-au.mimecast.com/u/login/#/login with their university email. There, they can release held messages and permit certain addresses (such as austms21@mathematics.org.au) and domains. This might be useful well beyond just receiving emails from the Conference registration system.

Best regards,

Florian (AustMS2021 conference director)

The Logic Summer School @ ANU

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An upcoming virtual event, 6-17 December 2021.

Website: http://lss.cecs.anu.edu.au

The School of Computing in the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science will host the Logic Summer School from 6 to 17 December 2021. The Summer School will consist of short courses on aspects of pure and applied logic taught by experts from Australia and overseas, and be held virtually. 

Modern logic is the foundational discipline of the information sciences. It includes not only the science of reasoning but also computability theory, type theory and other tools for understanding processes, declarative programming, automatic proof generation, program verification and much more. It spreads into planning, into program synthesis, into circuit design and into discourse analysis. It underpins the entire science of artificial intelligence. Part mathematics, part philosophy and these days part computing science, logic remains a core intellectual study and is increasingly relevant to practical concerns.

We are excited to present a variety of courses: starting with introductory courses in the first week to advanced courses in the second, featuring topics from foundations to application, including program verification, cryptography and higher-order type theory.
The lectures are given by academics from several institutes and include Kirsten Winter (DSTG/UQ), David J. Pearce (VUW), Rob van Glabbeek (Data61/UNSW), Thomas Haines (ANU), Taichi Uemura (Stockholm U) and John Slaney (ANU).
Check our website for more details on the program and registration procedure: http://lss.cecs.anu.edu.au.

Due to ongoing travel restrictions the school will be held virtually, allowing everybody to join. 
Moreover, this year the school is 
free of charge 
for students and academics. 

* Deadline for registration: December 1, 2021

Questions? E-mail peter.hoefner@anu.edu.au

Knot Days: Virtual summer school, 15-19 November 2021

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The workshop will have three mini-classes, each with lectures and problem sessions.

(1) Introduction to Legendrian Knot Theory (Joan Licata, ANU) 

This class will be broadly accessible, requiring no background in topology. We’ll introduce the basics of general knot theory (diagrams, Reidemeister moves, invariants) alongside features specific to the knot theory in contact three-manifolds.

(2) Character Varieties, A-polynomials and Knots (Stephan Tillmann, Sydney)

Many properties that allow us to distinguish and study knots are not properties of the knot, but rather of the complement of a knot. This three-dimensional space may appear less tangible than the actual knot, but allows the definition of algebraic invariants that encode information about the knot and its complement. This series of lectures focuses on invariants arising from algebraic geometry. These can be used to detect interesting surfaces spanned by knots, to recognise whether a knot is in fact knotted, and to determine whether a knot complement has a geometric structure of constant negative curvature.

These lectures will provide an overview over the main aspects of what is broadly known as Culler-Shalen theory, and describe some key applications. The techniques mix ideas from group theory, algebraic geometry and geometric topology. The level of detail given will depend on the background and interest of the audience.

(3) Jones Polynomial and Volume Conjectures (Dan Mathews, Monash)

Knots can be studied from some very different perspectives, but there are some deep conjectures that unify these perspectives. In this series of lectures we will discuss some of these different perspectives and two of the major conjectures connecting them: the volume conjecture and the AJ conjecture.

Starting from the Jones polynomial, we’ll give an overview of the broad range of ideas around these conjectures, including coloured Jones polynomials, quantum invariants, q-holonomicity, hyperbolic geometry, and skein algebras. No background will be assumed, but some knowledge of abstract algebra will be useful.

See the website for registration and more details.