NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS (NZIMA) Newsletter 18 February 2008 We're pleased to give you another update on news from the mathematical sciences CoRE, the NZIMA. We're coming to the end of an amazing summer of conferences in the mathematical sciences in New Zealand, and some of these are featured below. Also the fourth issue of our colourful twice-yearly bulletin "NZ-IMAges" is about to come out, in early April. If you don't get a copy and would like to, please let us know. Marston Conder and Vaughan Jones Co-Directors of the NZIMA SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 1. New postgraduate student research projects 2. Brief update on NZIMA programmes 3. Awards and honours 4. Recent events sponsored by the NZIMA 5. Forthcoming events in the mathematical sciences in NZ 1. NEW POSTGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS The NZIMA is now supporting the following new research projects by postgraduate students at New Zealand universities, in addition to those projects forming part of our thematic programmes and eleven others sponsored independently of our programmes: * "System integration of wind farms via stochastic optimisation" Javad Khazaei (PhD, Engineering Science, University of Auckland, supervised by Dr Golbon Zakeri) * "New methods for estimating effective population size" Jing Liu (PhD, Statistics, University of Auckland, supervised by Dr Rachel Fewster) * "Optimisation of ambulance relocation and dispatch" Lei Zhang (PhD, Engineering Science, University of Auckland, supervised by Dr Andrew Mason) * "Transmission of a virus on a structured population" Yue Zhao (Masters, Information & Mathematical Sciences, Massey University at Albany, supervised by Prof. Mick Roberts) * "Optimal control and phase transitions in stochastic networks" Tong Zhu (PhD, Statistics, University of Auckland, supervised by Dr Ilze Ziedins) 2. BRIEF UPDATE ON NZIMA PROGRAMMES We have a number of thematic programmes at various stages of development. Here's a summary of what's happening with the most recent ones: * Mathematical Models for Optimizing Transportation Services The main focus of this programme is on transportation planning under uncertainty, optimizing the design of transportation systems, and pricing and revenue management, with additional points of focus on applications in practical situations, and engagement with industrial partners. In November 2007, Andy Philpott organized a one-day Invited Symposium on Modelling Competition in Supply Chains, with four invited expert visitors as main speakers, and industrial collaborators from Fonterra. Five postgraduate research students are engaged on projects in various aspects of the programme, and many of these presented papers on their work at the European Conference on Operations Research at Prague in July 2007 and the INFORMS Annual meeting in Seattle in November 2007. A highlight of this programme is the degree of interaction with end-users of the research, for example Air New Zealand, Deutsche Bahn (Germany), Fonterra, and economists and engineers at the Energy Centre. * Hidden Markov Models Hidden Markov models (HMM) form a remarkably general and elastic framework for modelling systems through data that do not directly reflect the underlying dynamics. One of the main aims of this programme has been to bring together NZ-based researchers who use hidden Markov models in a range of contexts, to share their own expertise and to learn from overseas experts about recent developments. Being an interdisciplinary programme, this one has involved numerous interactions with researchers in a wide range of disciplines. Those most important have been with AgResearch, NIWA, GNS, and the NZ Earthquake Commission (EQC). The programme has involved three postdoctoral fellows, Drs Junko Murakami, Pierre Ailliot, and Jan Bulla (who is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)), and three research students, at Victoria University of Wellington, Massey University (Palmerston North) and AgResearch (Invermay). The programme directors note that that the exposure afforded to the research in this programme through the NZIMA has greatly increased the international visibility of the work being done in New Zealand. * Geometric Methods in the Topology of 3-Dimensional Manifolds This programme?s theme is the study of 3-dimensional manifolds, especially recent progress resulting from the use of geometry, with focus on the techniques and consequences of recent work on Thurston?s geometrisation conjecture. The programme's postdoctoral fellow, Dr Richard Evans, has completed his work on the "ending lamination conjecture" for hyperbolic 3-manifolds, and has taken up employment in the private sector. Three postgraduate research students have been involved, at the University of Auckland and at Massey University's Albany campus. * Partial Differential Equations: Applications, Analysis & Inverse Problems This programme is devoted to the development of methods for solving partial differential equations (and related 'inverse problems'), and the application of these to geothermal modelling, nanotechnology, sea-ice interaction, structural vibration and acoustics. The first part of the programme featured an instructional workshop at Waitangi in January 2007. Projects developed during that phase have continued, with, for example, the work on modelling and inverse problems for geothermal model calibration being trialed on a model of the Mokai geothermal field, developed for Contact Energy, Tuaropaki Trust and Mighty River Power, and other work on mid-frequency sound transmission in lightweight timber framed structures now being conducted with industrial partners in the New Zealand and Australian timber building industries, including the NZ Pine Manufacturers Association, and Scion Research in Rotorua. Two postdoctoral fellows are directly engaged in the programme, Drs Al Parker and Hyuck Chung, as well as three postgraduate research students (at the Universities of Auckland and Otago). * Modelling Invasive Species and Weed Impact This programme's main aim is the design of a mathematical and statistical framework for exploring the spread and subsequent impact of invading organisms in New Zealand ecosystems, in order to determine the optimal use of resources between the competing demands of controlling existing species and limiting new species, while maintaining biodiversity. The programme is involving positive interactions with the BioProtection CoRE, Landcare Research, AgResearch, the Auckland Regional Council, the Canterbury Regional Council, and Environment Southland, with additional sponsorship from other sources, such as the Miss E.L. Hellaby Indigenous Grassland Research Trust, and Landcare Research. Two postdoctoral fellows have been involved so far, Drs Britta Basse and Charles Tadjeran, along with three postgraduate research students at the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University. * Applications of Mathematics in the Nanosciences The main focus of this programme, which commenced in 2007, is on mathematical and computational methods for experimentation with (and model-based prediction of) nanoscale phenomena, and design and control of nanoscale systems. It is a highly multidisciplinary programme, involving interactions between researchers in mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering. It ran a successful workshop (MCN-07) in Wellington in December - see below. Three postdoctoral fellows have been involved, all working with Shaun Hendy at IRL (with financial support from the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology): Drs Brent Walker, Nicola Gaston, and Geoff Willmott. Also six research students are engaged in various ways in the programme, with support from the NZIMA, FRST, the Marsden Fund, and the MacDiarmid Institute. * Conformal Geometry and its Applications This new programme began in January 2008 with a workshop in Nelson, and will be highlighted in the next issue. * Algorithms This new programme began in February 2008 with a workshop in Napier, and will be highlighted in the next issue. * Energy, Wind and Water This programme will commence towards the end of 2008. 3. AWARDS AND HONOURS * Fellowship of the ACM for Rod Downey Professor Rod Downey (one of our principal investigators and member of our Executive Committee) has been elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (FACM), for his contributions to computability and complexity theory. ACM Fellows, from some of the world's leading universities, industries, and research labs, are elected for the innovations they have created in a range of computing disciplines that affect theory and practice, education and entertainment, industry and commerce. Rod is only the second such Fellow in New Zealand, and the only other 2007 ACM Fellows from outside of North America are from Oxford University, the University of Edinburgh, the cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, and the University of Madeira. * Fellowship of INFORMS for David Ryan Professor David Ryan (one of our principal investigators and member of our Executive Committee) has been elected a Fellow of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Fellowship of INFORMS is "reserved for distinguished individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in operations research and the management sciences", and David is the first New Zealander to receive this honour. * Fulbright Travel Grant for Graeme Wake Graeme Wake (our Maclaurin Fellow for 2007/08) won a Fulbright Travel Grant to visit four universities in North America in November 2007, to give lectures and develop some joint research work; appropriately, one visit was to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (where Richard Maclaurin was President in the early 1900s). * Programmes at Newton Institute (Cambridge) It is also noteworthy that the directors of two of our early programmes, on "Modelling cellular function" and "Phylogenetic genomics", have been invited to run programmes on similar topics at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in the UK. Prof. Mike Steel was co-director of a Newton Institute programme on Phylogenetics from September to December 2007, and Dr Nic Smith will co-direct a Newton Institute programme on "The Cardiac Physiome Project: mathematical and computational foundations", from June to August in 2009. 4. RECENT EVENTS SPONSORED BY THE NZIMA * New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate (NZMASP) Conference The first New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate (NZMASP) Conference was held in Queenstown for two days in November 2007. Nearly forty postgraduate students from six New Zealand Universities presented their research, on topics ranging from abstract algebra to physiological modelling, from Bayesian statistics to mathematics education. This conference provided a forum to develop conference presenting skills for those beginning their research careers, as well as strengthening ties between postgraduate students across the Universities. Attendees gratefully acknowledged the sponsorship from the NZIMA as well as the University of Canterbury and Hoare Research Software (HRS). * Workshop on Mathematical and Computational Nanoscience (MCN-07) This workshop (a key event of the NZIMA's thematic programme on Applications of Mathematics in the Nanosciences) took place in Wellington in December, jointly sponsored by the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. It was attended by 45 people, including 15 students, and international participants from Australia, the USA, Europe and Asia. The main theme of the workshop was multiscale modelling, with a particular focus on kinetic Monte Carlo methods, and another on the mathematical modelling of nanosystems. Notable were the student talks, which were of particularly high quality. A further highlight was the extensive interactions between researchers from the wide range of disciplines present, exemplified by a lively and constructive discussion between mathematicians in the Wollongong Nanomechanics group and the Massey University Theoretical Chemistry group, over a new geometric model for the structure of carbon nanotubes. Overall, the meeting was judged to be such a success by the New Zealand participants that it was decided to make it a regular event. * First Joint Meeting of the American and NZ Mathematical Societies The NZIMA was very pleased to help sponsor the first joint meeting of the American and New Zealand Mathematical Societies, which was held in Wellington in December. With over 300 participants, this was one of the largest mathematical events ever held in New Zealand. It also attracted a significant number of participants from Europe, Asia and Australia. Half of the eight invited plenary lectures were given by principal investigators of the NZIMA (Marston Conder, Rod Downey, Gaven Martin and Matt Visser), with the other four given by US mathematicians. The meeting was highly successful and has sparked several new collaborations. In addition, within the above AMS-NZMS meeting the co-directors of the NZIMA's programme on Dynamical Systems and Numerical Analysis sponsored a special session on dynamical systems and ergodic theory, and Boris Pavlov co-organised a symposium on New Trends in Spectral Analysis & PDE. * Public lecture by Vaughan Jones Vaughan Jones (NZIMA Co-Director) gave a well-attended public lecture on "Flatland - a great place to do algebra", in Auckland on 6th December. This capped off a very popular series of public lectures organised in 2007 in conjunction with the Mathematics Department at the University of Auckland. * We will report on other meetings in the next issue of this newsletter. 6. FORTHCOMING EVENTS IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES IN NZ 7-8 July 2008, at Hamilton: New Zealand Statistical Association Conference 2008 See http://nzsa.rsnz.org/NZSA2008/index.htm 14-18 July 2008, at Auckland: GLADE 2008 Conference on numerical methods for differential equations and related problems See: http://www.auckland-ode-2008.org 21-25 July 2008, at Auckland: GLADE 2008 Workshop on numerical methods for differential equations and related problems See: http://www.auckland-ode-2008.org 4-8 August 2008, at Albany: Research workshop on parabolic geometry and PDE See http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/wiki/hResearch_Workshop_on_Parabolic_Geometry 15-19 December 2008, at Auckland: 4th International Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing See: http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~bonning/4icc/index.html 8-12 December 2008, at Christchurch: 7th Australia-New Zealand Mathematics Convention (incorporating the 2008 NZ Mathematics Colloquium) See http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/ANZMC2008/ 6-10 July 2009, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia: First Pacific Rim Mathematical Congress See http://www.primath.org/news/upcoming_events/1st_prima_congress_2009.html 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) http://www.nzamt.org.nz/nzamt11/ 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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