NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS (NZIMA) ====== One of New Zealand's Centres of Research Excellence ====== Newsletter 24 August 2009 This quarter's e-newsletter from the NZIMA features a knighthood for our Co-Director Vaughan Jones, plus a new format for our MathsReach resource, two major international Maths Education projects being chaired by NZIMA people, a profile of Dr Alex James (University of Canterbury) and her work, and the recent Pacific Rim Congress held in Sydney. And we have details of another full programme of summer meetings ahead - see item 7. Marston Conder Co-Director of the NZIMA SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 1. Awards and Honours 2. New format for MathsReach 3. BBC Radio 4: The Mathematicians 4. Profile: Alex James 5. ICMI Projects and NZIMA Maths Education programme 6. First Pacific Rim Mathematical Congress 7. Forthcoming events in the mathematical sciences in New Zealand 1. AWARDS AND HONOURS * Sir Vaughan Jones On 14th August, NZIMA Co-Director Vaughan Jones was knighted at a ceremony in Wellington. Congratulations, Vaughan! Officially, Vaughan becomes a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM). This replaces his previous title of Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM), which he was awarded in 2002. At a recent ceremony in Wellington, Vaughan particularly enjoyed meeting several New Zealand icons, including Sir Colin Meads and Sir Peter Snell. * Prof. Bill Barton Bill Barton, who is directing our Mathematics Education programme, has been promoted to a full professorship in Mathematics Education at the University of Auckland. Congratulations, Bill! Bill will take up his role as President of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) in January 2010. He is also chairing ICMI's "Klein project" - see item 5 below. 2. NEW FORMAT FOR MATHSREACH We have transferred our "MathsReach" resource for schools and the wider community to a new host and upgraded its format. Please take a look! See http://www.mathsreach.org/Stories for a wide range of brief articles about mathematics in action, and about mathematicians and statisticians based in (or visiting) NZ, and what makes them tick. See http://www.mathsreach.org/Videos for video clips of mathematicians and statisticians talking about their work. We are grateful to the Mathematical & Information Sciences Committee of the Royal Society of New Zealand for partial sponsorship of some of the new videos. 3. BBC RADIO 4: THE MATHEMATICIANS This week BBC Radio 4 (in the UK) broadcast the fifth episode of its series "The Tribes of Science", this one on mathematicians. You might enjoy hearing it on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mf27l (but please note: this will be available online for only a few days). In the "The Tribes of Science" series, Peter Curran "visits members of the many and varied disciplines of science, from astronomy to zoology, to explore their habitat, customs, rituals and beliefs". In episode 5, he meets and talks with a number of mathematicians visiting the Isaac Newton Institute, at Cambridge. It explains quite well how mathematical advances are made by getting mathematicians together at workshops like those run by the Newton Institute. The BBC website points out this: "A few members of the mathematical tribe do wear the same t-shirt for six months and it's often inside-out, but not all the stereotypes hold true. Among these mathematicians, Peter finds passion, humour and an enviable sense of purpose." 4. PROFILE: ALEX JAMES Alex James is a mathematical modeller at the University of Canterbury, and is co-director of our programme on Modelling Invasive Species. After finishing her first degree at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1995, Alex gained an MSc in Dynamical systems at University College London and then a PhD in combustion at the University of Leeds. She then had a short stint as a sign language interpreter, and returned to academia as a postdoctoral fellow at Leeds, working on fish-plankton interactions, and then lectured at Sheffield Hallam University for a couple of years before coming to New Zealand in 2004. Alex's modelling interests cover a wide range of areas including physiology and ecology. She has worked with a wide range of species, from scale insects to plants and humans. Alex particularly enjoys taking students on field trips to see mathematical biology in action. As well as research, Alex enjoys teaching, and she recently won a Teaching Award at the University of Canterbury for her work with large engineering classes. She is co-director of the upcoming ANZIAM meeting in 2010 (see item 7), and she is also Editor of the NZ Mathematical Society newsletter. 5. ICMI PROJECTS AND NZIMA MATHS EDUCATION PROGRAMME The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) is an international non-governmental and non-profit-making scientific organisation established by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) to promote the development of mathematical education at all levels. Two of its four main projects are being chaired by NZIMA people: * The "Pipeline" project is investigating the supply and demand for mathematics students and personnel in educational institutions and the workplace. It is being conceived as a series of national case studies centred around four crucial transition points: 1. School to undergraduate programme 2. Undergraduate programme to teacher education (and school teaching) 3. Undergraduate programme to higher degrees in mathematics 4. Higher degrees to the workforce. Countries contributing to this study include Australia, England/UK, Finland, France, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, and the USA. This project is being run by Bill Barton and Louise Sheryn (University of Auckland). * The "Klein" project has been inspired by Felix Klein's famous book "Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint", published a century ago. It is intended as a stimulus for mathematics teachers, to help them to make connections between the mathematics they teach (or might be asked to teach) and the wider field of mathematics, while taking into account the evolution of this field over the last century. The project will have three outputs: a book simultaneously published in several languages, a resource DVD to assist teachers wishing to bring some of the ideas to realisation in their classes, and a wiki-based website for the many people who will wish to contribute to the project in an ongoing way. This project is being chaired by Bill Barton (University of Auckland). The Pipeline project ties in well with the NZIMA's Maths Education programme: "A Vision of Senior Secondary and Beginning Undergraduate Mathematics: Ideals and Possibilities". This programme has launched a major survey of senior secondary teachers and will be holding a workshop at the forthcoming NZAMT conference in Palmerston North (see item 7). It is also planning an event in or around the 2009 NZ Mathematics Colloquium in Auckland in December (see item 7), to help facilitate interaction between undergraduate lecturers and senior secondary teachers. In addition, a major conference will be held on 11 & 12 April 2010 for lecturers and teachers to prepare a vision document. Enquires may be directed to Louise Sheryn 6. FIRST PACIFIC RIM MATHEMATICAL CONGRESS Several NZ-based mathematicians attended the first Pacific Rim Mathematical Association (PRIMA) Congress in July, at the University of New South Wales. The congress was a great success, and the next one is being planned for 2013, at a venue yet to be determined. Marston Conder represented the NZIMA at a meeting of PRIMA members (held during the Congress) at which future activities and directions for PRIMA were discussed. For further information about PRIMA, see http://www.primath.org/ 7. FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES IN NEW ZEALAND 29 September - 2 October 2009, at Palmerston North: Biennial Conference of the NZ Association of Mathematics Teachers "Pi in the Sky: Extending Mathematical Horizons" (NZAMT11) See http://www.nzamt.org.nz/nzamt11/ 23-26 November 2009, at the Manawatu Marine Boating Club, Foxton Beach: 2009 NZ Postgraduate Mathematics & Statistics Conference See http://nzmasp09.massey.ac.nz/ 3-4 December 2009, at Christchurch: 44th Annual ORSNZ Conference, hosted by the University of Canterbury See http://www.orsnz.org.nz/conf44/ 8-10 December 2009, at Albany (North Shore City): Annual NZ Mathematics Colloquium, Massey University's Albany Campus See http://nzmc2009.massey.ac.nz/ 3-10 January 2010, at Hanmer Springs: Annual NZMRI/NZIMA Summer Meeting, this time with the theme of "Groups, Representations and Number Theory" See http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/wiki/2010_NZMRI_Summer_Workshop 31 January - 4 February 2010, at Queenstown: ANZIAM 2010 (Annual Conference) See http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/ANZIAM/ SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING Please forward this NZIMA newsletter to any non-subscriber to whom the material may be relevant and who may wish to receive the publication regularly. 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