NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS (NZIMA) Newsletter 34 March 2012 Some of you will be surprised and some of you will not be surprised, that this is the last email newsletter you will receive from the NZIMA. A decision has been taken to disestablish the NZIMA, as from this month. See item 1 below for more details. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with the NZIMA since it was set up in 2002 as one of New Zealand's first five Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs), through its research programmes, Maclaurin Fellowships, research student projects, sponsored meetings, sponsored visits, new initiatives, outreach activities (especially NZ-IMAges and MathsReach), involvement in international and national consortia, Governing Board(s), International Scientific Advisory Board and Executive Committee, or simply participation in any of the NZIMA's activities. Special thanks also to Margaret Woolgrove, our Research Manager, for her wonderful service over the whole period. Marston Conder and Vaughan Jones Co-Directors of the NZIMA SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 1. Disestablishment of the NZIMA (and creation of a new entity) 2. Awards and honours 3. NZ-IMAges and MathsReach 4. Obituary: Andrew Pullan 5. NZIMA Annual report for 2011 6. Recent events sponsored by the NZIMA 7. Upcoming events in the mathematical sciences 1. DISESTABLISHMENT OF THE NZIMA (AND CREATION OF A NEW ENTITY) As most of you know, the NZIMA was one of the first five Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) selected for special status and funding by the NZ government, in 2002. It was set up as a joint venture between the University of Auckland and the NZ Mathematics Research Institute (Inc.), with the latter representing the interests of the mathematical sciences community across the rest of NZ. The NZIMA was fully funded as a CoRE for six years from 2002 to 2008, but unfortunately was not re-selected in 2007, and instead was awarded three years of ‘wind-down’ funding for 2008 to 2011. The NZIMA's CoRE status came to an end on 30th June 2011, and our funding ran out last month. All of the NZIMA's CoRE Fund money has now been spent. Marston Conder announced some time ago that he would be giving up his position as Co-Director this month, with submission of the NZIMA's annual report for 2011, and then taking up his two-year James Cook Research Fellowship. Also the NZIMA's Research Manager, Margaret Woolgrove, has resigned in order to take up a new part-time position in the private sector. The NZIMA's Governing Board met on 14th March 2012, to approve the annual report for 2011 and to consider the NZIMA's future. The NZIMA Board made the following recommendations: 1) The NZIMA should be disestablished, and in time for the next CoRE round it should be replaced by a new entity that has a strong focus on outcomes and external engagement; 2) The outreach vehicles NZ-IMAges and MathsReach (www.mathsreach.org) should be kept alive, with financial support from NZ universities; 3) Professor James Sneyd (University of Auckland) should lead the construction of the new entity, with involvement of the NZMRI and some of the eight NZ universities and the CRIs as appropriate; 4) The current NZIMA Board should be disestablished, but its members may be invited to form an informal group to provide advice for the establishment of the new entity. The recommendation to disestablish the NZIMA has now been accepted by the NZMRI and the University of Auckland. This is a sad step to take, especially given all that the NZIMA achieved over the last 10 years, and the excellent reputation it has in the mathematical sciences community, worldwide, but we think it is the right thing to do in the circumstances. The annual summer meetings run by the NZMRI will continue to operate, with alternative sources of financial support, as will the NZIMA's two outreach vehicles "NZ-IMAges" and "MathsReach" - see item 3 below. Once again, we would like to thank everyone involved with the NZIMA during the course of its lifetime. We would also like to wish James Sneyd very well in his efforts to create a new entity in its place. 2. AWARDS AND HONOURS * Marston Conder (NZIMA Co-Director) has been made a Distinguished Professor at the University of Auckland, one of 18 across all fields. * Andreas Dress, a member of our International Scientific Advisory Board, was presented in February (in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing) with an International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China for 2011. * Dillon Mayhew (who was a key participant in NZIMA programmes in Combinatorics and Algorithms) has won an Early Career Research Excellence award at Victoria University of Wellington. * Mark Sagar, a former PhD student of Gordon Mallinson (co-director of our programme on Energy, Wind and Water) and Peter Hunter (one of our founding PIs), has won one of five Distinguished Alumni Awards at the University of Auckland for 2012. Mark is the winner of two Academy Awards (Oscars) for his work on creating virtual models of human features could be created by combining computer graphics with mathematics and human physiology. He has recently established and is now heading a new "Laboratory for Animate Technologies, in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute. * Kyle Tate, a research student of Matt Visser at Victoria University of Wellington, was co-winner of the Kerr prize for the best student presentation at the Sixth Australasian Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation held in February 2012 in Queenstown. 3. NZ-IMAGES AND MATHSREACH Despite the disestablishment of the NZIMA, our two highly popular and successful outreach vehicles "NZ-IMAges" and "MathsReach" will continue to be produced, with the help of Jenny Rankine (Word and Pictures) and Margaret Woolgrove, and with Marston Conder and James Sneyd sharing editorial responsibilities. The next issue of "NZ-IMAges" (number 12) is likely to appear in May 2012. See http://www.nzima.org/Publications/Print.html for previous issues. The MathsReach resource (see http://www.mathsreach.org) now has 28 video interviews with mathematical scientists about their work and interests, plus two short documentaries (on optimising airline crews and trans- Atlantic rowing). We are very grateful to Margaret Woolgrove for her enthusiastic and effective work in developing this resource. 4. OBITUARY: ANDREW PULLAN With great sadness we report on the untimely death earlier this month of our colleague Andrew Pullan, a distinguished applied mathematician and engineering scientist. Andrew died at the age of only 48, after being diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in June 2011. Andrew studied in the Mathematics Department at the University of Auckland and then completed a PhD in the Department of Engineering Science, on mathematical modelling of unsaturated groundwater, in 1987. Following a brief spell in the corporate world, he returned again to Engineering Science, where he developed a strong research interest in mathematical modelling of the human digestive system. His research achievements were recognised by rapid promotion to a professorship, leadership of a team in the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, the award of a James Cook Fellowship, and election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He was also an excellent teacher and supervisor of graduate students, and served a term as a highly effective Head of Department of Engineering Science. One of his new initiatives included establishment of the very successful "Next Top Engineering Scientist" problem-solving competition for students from NZ high schools. Above all, Andrew will be remembered by his colleagues as a remarkable individual, who (according to David Ryan) was the "salt of the earth" and (according to Mike O'Sullivan) "lived life at about 150% of the rate of most human beings". He is survived by his wife Patti and their two young children, Zeke and Xanthe. For further tributes, see http://andrewsrecovery.blogspot.co.nz/ 5. NZIMA ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2011 The NZIMA's final annual report to the NZ Tertiary Education Commission has been completed, and approved by the NZIMA Governeing Board, and is available (for viewing or downloading) at http://www.nzima.org/Publications/AnnRpts/NZIMA_AR_2011.pdf 6. RECENT EVENTS SPONSORED BY THE NZIMA * New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate (NZMASP) Conference, held at Silverstream, 21-24 November 2011 * Volcanic Delta 2011 (the 8th Southern Hemisphere Conference on the Teaching and Learning of Undergraduate Mathematics and Statistics), at Rotorua, from 27 November to 2 December 2011 * The 12th Asian Logic Conference, held at Victoria University of Wellington, 15-20 December 2011 * Annual NZIMA/NZMRI Summer meeting, on the theme of "Random Walks and Random Media", held at Nelson, 8-13 January 2012 * Conference (and MAGMA workshop) on "Symmetries of Discrete Objects", held at Queenstown, 12-17 February 2012. 7. UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES 29-30 November 2012, at Dunedin: NZ Statistical Association 2012 Conference See http://www.maths.otago.ac.nz/nzsa2012/ 4-6 December 2012, at Palmerston North: 2012 NZ Mathematical Society Colloquium See http://nzmathsoc.org.nz/colloquium/home.php 4-7 December 2012, at Queenstown: Australasian Applied Statistics Conference 2012 See http://www.aasc2012.com/ 10-14 December 2012, at Sydney, Australia: 36th Australasian Conference on Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing See http://conferences.science.unsw.edu.au/36accmcc/ 3-7 February 2013 ANZIAM'13: Annual Conference of ANZIAM See http://anziam2013.newcastle.edu.au/ 24-28 June 2013, at Shanghai, China: Second Pacific Rim Mathematical Congress See http://www.primath.org/prima2013/ 1-4 October 2013, at Wellington: NZAMT Conference 2013: Absolutely Positively Mathematics and Statistics See http://www.nzamt.org.nz/component/content/article/1-latest-news/171-nzamt-conference-2013 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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