NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS (NZIMA) Newsletter 3 May 2004 Welcome to the third quarterly newsletter of the New Zealand Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (NZIMA), one of New Zealand's seven Centres of Research Excellence. We hope you find the contents interesting and informative. Marston Conder and Vaughan Jones Co-Directors of the NZIMA SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 1. NZIMA in the news 2. Announcements 3. Profiles of full-time Maclaurin Fellows 4. Industrial mathematics scholarships 5. Recent NZIMA-sponsored events 6. Forthcoming conferences in the mathematical sciences in NZ 1. NZIMA IN THE NEWS The NZIMA received a very complimentary mention in the April 2004 newsletter of The London Mathematical Society, in a report prepared by Caroline Series on her time in New Zealand as a Forder Lecturer. A full copy of this commentary can be found at http://www.lms.ac.uk/newsletter/325/325main.html on the page "Reports and Records of Society Meetings". 2. ANNOUNCEMENTS * Scientific Advisory Board * Professors Sir Michael Berry FRS (University of Bristol) and Robert Megginson (MSRI, Berkeley) have agreed to take up positions on the NZIMA Scientific Advisory Board. We welcome them on board! * Visiting Maclaurin Fellows Named * The next visiting Maclaurin Fellows have been selected. They will be Professors Jonathan Borwein of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia (Canada), and Martin Liebeck of Imperial College, London (UK). Jonathan Borwein's main fields of interest are in mathematical analysis (computational, functional and classical) as well as number theory and optimisation. He will be in New Zealand for the month of November. Martin Liebeck's main fields of interest are in algebraic groups, finite simple groups and probabilistic group theory. He will be in New Zealand for six weeks in early 2005, and intends to give a series of lectures during this time, as well as attending workshops and conferences. * NZIMA Postdoctoral Fellows Named * The three NZIMA programmes that have their main activities during 2004 and early 2005 have all appointed their postdoctoral fellows. Richard Evans: Dr Richard Evans is working on the "Geometry: Interactions with Algebra and Analysis" programme with Gaven Martin. Richard recently held a New Zealand Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship at Rice University (Texas) and the University of Auckland, following his PhD at the University of Michigan. Richard started his 2-year NZIMA Postdoctoral Fellowship in April. Bart Oldeman: Dr Bart Oldeman will be working on the "Dynamical Systems and Numerical Analysis" programme with Robert McLachlan and Vivien Kirk, and will be based at the University of Auckland for two years from mid-June 2004. Bart gained his PhD at the University of Bristol, and has held postdoctoral positions at Bristol and at Ohio State University. Primoz Potocnik: Dr Primoz Potocnik will be working on the "Combinatorics and its Applications" programme with Geoff Whittle and Paul Bonnington, and will be based at the University of Auckland for one year from August. Primoz gained his PhD at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and has most recently been at Northern Arizona University as a Fulbright scholar. Jana Siagiova: Dr Jana Siagiova will be working on the "Combinatorics and its Applications" programme with Geoff Whittle and Paul Bonnington, and will be based at the University of Auckland for one year from August. Jana gained her PhD at the Slovak University of Technology (Slovakia), and has most recently been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Syracuse (New York). 3. PROFILE OF FULL-TIME MACLAURIN FELLOW FOR 2004 - MIKE STEEL Professor Mike Steel is spending 14 months investigating "Random structures in evolutionary biology". This involves applying techniques from probability theory to investigate some topical problems in molecular evolution - these include quantifying the information loss in DNA sequences over time, developing models and techniques for analysing gene order evolution, and investigating properties of random autocatalytic networks (relevant to certain origin of life' models). He is working with probability theorists at UC Berkeley (visiting them in June) and with researchers in Germany and elsewhere, several of whom will also visit NZ during the term of the fellowship. He is also interacting closely with biologists, both in NZ and overseas, and is presenting a paper at the annual Evolution meeting in the USA in June. A profile on Rod Gover, the NZIMA's other full-time Maclaurin Fellow in 2004, will appear in the August Newsletter. 4. INDUSTRIAL MATHEMATICS SCHOLARSHIPS The NZIMA has been supporting a number of students engaged in industrial mathematics research projects, through a scholarship scheme coordinated by Professors Robert McKibbin and Graeme Wake (Massey University). These students have received scholarships: * Jae-Hoon Chung (University of Auckland), for a project in modelling of breast deformation during X-ray (mammographic) and MRI imaging * Jack Lee (University of Auckland), for a project in modelling vasoregulatory mechanisms * Joanne Mann (Massey University, Albany), for a Masters project on modelling the generic characteristics of diseases in different population structures -- she has now enrolled for a PhD * Steven Niederer (University of Auckland), for a project in modelling whole heart ischemia * Kirk Spragg (University of Waikato), for a project in metallurgic applications of magnetohydrodynamics * Asher Treby (University of Auckland), for a project on simulation modelling of TranzRail's freight network and terminal operations. 5. RECENT NZIMA-SPONSORED EVENTS * The NZMRI's summer meeting on "Computational Algebra and Number Theory" took place at Tahuna Beach Conference Centre, Nelson, the week 4-10 January 2004, and involved 76 participants from NZ and overseas. Some outstanding international researchers took part, including John Conway, Hendrik Lenstra, Peter Neumann, Karl Rubin and Charles Sims. A highlight of the meeting was the topicality of the lectures, describing the latest developments in many fields (such as elliptic curves, primality testing and other new computational algorithms). * A workshop in statistics was held in April 2004 at the AgResearch campus in Hamilton. This was organised by Nye John (Waikato) and the principal speaker was Prof. Peter Green (Bristol). * Prof. V.S. Sunder (IMS, Madras) visited Auckland and Christchurch for four weeks in April. Professor Sunder is the author of several articles and books on von Neumann algebras and their subfactors. During his time in New Zealand he gave lectures in Auckland and Christchurch, and established contact with many local mathematicians. 6. FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES IN NZ 12-16 July 2004, at Auckland: Workshop in Combinatorics and its Applications See: http://www.nzima.auckland.ac.nz/combinatorics/workshop.html 26-28 August 2004, at Christchurch: Kerr Fest (to celebrate the 70th birthday of Professor Roy Kerr FRSNZ) Black Holes in Astrophysics, General Relativity & Quantum Gravity See: http://www.phys.canterbury.ac.nz/kerrfest/ 30 August - 3 September 2004, at Raglan: International Workshop on Dynamical Systems and Numerical Analysis See: http://www.math.waikato.ac.nz/~rua/dsna/raglanmeeting.html 30 August - 3 September 2004, at Palmerston North: 7th Australasian Conference on Mathematics and Computers in Sport See: http://7mcs.massey.ac.nz/ 5-8 September 2004, at Auckland International Conference on Bioinformatics (including a Symposium on Mathematical Bioinformatics) See: http://www.incob.org/ 1-3 December 2004, at Leigh: Workshop on Dynamical Systems and Numerical Analysis See: http://www.math.waikato.ac.nz/~rua/dsna.html#events 11-13 December 2004, at Auckland International workshop on Automata, Structures and Logic See: https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/wasl2004/ 13-18 December 2004, at Taupo: Conference in Combinatorics and its Applications, in association with the 29th Australasian Conference in Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing (29th ACCMCC) See: http://www.nzima.auckland.ac.nz/combinatorics/conference.html 8-15 January 2005, at Napier: 11th NZMRI Summer Meeting, on Geometry and its interactions with Algebra and Analysis See: http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/Conferences/2005/geometry-program/nzmri. html 30 January - 3 February 2005, at Napier: Annual meeting of ANZIAM (Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics) See: http://www.math.waikato.ac.nz/anziam05/index.html 14-18 February 2005, at Auckland: International Meeting on Geometry: Interactions with Algebra and Analysis See: http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/Conferences/2005/geometry-program/ auckland.html 29 March - 1 April 2005, at Albany: 14th International Workshop on Matrices and Statistics See: http://iwms2005.massey.ac.nz/ SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING Please forward this 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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