Alex Bowring

BSc Maths 2015, PhD Statistics 2017

Three words to describe your time at Warwick

Liberating, interesting, fun!

Career aspirations

I still love working on hard mathematical problems, and particularly problems that can have an impact in shaping a better society. Maths is truly running the world, whether that’s in tackling the hard problems related to climate change, treating life-affecting diseases, or making sure you receive your Amazon delivery on time.

I hope to continue developing my mathematical expertise and working in teams where I can contribute in my own small way to helping solve some of these massive challenges.

Mathematical consultant at the Smith Institute

To what extent did you plan your career?

A lot of my career has been unplanned. The year I finished my degree I did a summer project at Warwick, where I worked on a project to visualise neuroimaging results. I chose this project as it was the only one whose title I could understand! This ended up defining the next eight years of my career: when the project finished, the Professor hired me as a Research Assistant in Neuroimaging, where I worked at the International Digital Laboratory (opposite the Maths building at Warwick). This led to me obtaining a PhD and becoming a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Oxford, where I developed statistical methods for neuroimaging, before my current role as a mathematical consultant in industry.

How do you use your Maths degree in your job?

I currently work as a Mathematical Consultant at a company called Smith Institute in Oxford, so my Maths degree still comes in useful every day. At Smith Institute we work alongside industry and government to tackle real-world challenges with mathematical approaches. In my role, I am currently developing a mathematical model alongside the National Grid to determine how much electricity is required to ensure enough power is procured to meet the national requirement.

While the problems I work on are now more applied compared to the pure maths problems I solved in my degree, I am lucky enough to still work on solving interesting problems by applying a range of mathematical techniques, requiring the critical thinking and problem-solving skills I learnt during my Warwick degree.

Why did you choose to study Maths at Warwick?

Maths was always going to be my subject; it was my best subject at school and the subject I most enjoyed. I wasn’t particularly career-minded, just loved doing maths for the sake of maths! From visiting Warwick on an open day, I loved the modern feel and energy of the campus as well as the maths building, which played a big part in me picking Warwick as my first-choice university.

Warwick also gives students lots of choice in the modules they can study on the maths degree, whether that be pure maths, statistics, programming, economics, which I found very appealing.

Which modules did you particularly enjoy/find useful?

My favourite topic was Galois Theory, which I studied in the final year of my degree. My main interests during my degree were the pure mathematics modules, and up to that point I had done a lot of Algebra modules.

The Group/Field Theory you learn in the Algebra modules can seem very abstract. The reason I loved Galois Theory was it connected these abstract areas of maths to provide insights and solutions to problems about the polynomial equations you learn during GCSE maths, which I found very exciting and profound. The history of Galois Theory is also remarkable, whereby Galois frantically wrote down many of his theories before a fatal duel in which he died!

What core skills do you think you developed during your time at Warwick?

Critical thinking, problem solving, self-awareness.