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Young Researchers in Mathematics

2010 Conference report

This conference for PhD students and young post-docs in mathematics was held over 25-27 March 2010 in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge University. It was the second conference of this kind after the inaugural Young Researchers in Mathematics (YRM) 2009. The main intention of both the 2009 and 2010 event was to strengthen ties between young mathematicians in the UK and beyond.

The roughly 200 participants of YRM 2010 represented the whole spectrum of specialised fields inside pure and applied mathematics. They also represented 63 different institutions in 14 countries. International participants included 40 from Europe, 4 from the USA and 5 from China.

Although the vast majority of participants were PhD students, there were also a number of senior mathematicians in attendance. About 100 of the junior participants were given the opportunity to present their research in talks which were arranged in sessions according to research area. Participants were also encouraged to attend sessions in research areas different from their own so as to promote further exchange between specialised subjects. This opportunity was greatly appreciated.

Each of the sessions was allocated a renowned senior figure in the respective area to give a keynote talk on recent activities in the subject and future prospects. The majority of senior speakers were present for the entire duration of the conference and thus helped facilitate exchange between different generations of researchers. Details of keynote speakers and their research areas are as follows:

 Richard Kaye (Foundations), University of Birmingham  

Tim Gowers (Analysis and Combinatorics), University of Cambridge 

Richard Thomas (Algebraic Geometry), Imperial College, London 

Samir Siksek (Number Theory), University of Warwick 

Ruth Gregory (General Relativity and Cosmology), University of Durham 

Yoav Git (Quantitative Finance), Winton Capital Management 

Netta Cohen (Mathematical Biology), University of Leeds

Jose Figueroa-O'Farrill (String Theory), University of Edinburgh 

John Hinch (Mechanics), University of Cambridge

Marc Lackenby (Differential Geometry and Topology), Oxford University

Dan Segal (Algebra), Oxford University

Philip Dawid (Statistics and Probability), University of Cambridge 

There have been a few changes to the line-up of speakers that was originally envisaged in our funding application to the EPSRC, and we hope that the above list reflects a more even balance between pure and applied mathematics, as suggested by the EPSRC. We were also very pleased to have a talk by Yoav Git from Winton Capital Management who, as a practitioner in the financial sector, was able to contribute a perspective on mathematics that is not often well-perceived inside academia. Winton Capital Management was the major corporate sponsor of YRM 2010 and they have already expressed their interest in supporting future events of this kind.

The academic highlights of the event were two plenary talks given by Sir Michael Atiyah and Michael Green. These were non-specialist talks accessible to all participants of YRM 2010. Michael Green gave a wonderful introduction to String Theory demonstrating its richness and leading up to modern developments. Michael Atiyah's talk was a very detailed survey of personalities in modern mathematics and their impact on topology, geometry and physics; stressing how important connections between these three areas have become. Both plenary talks, as well as abstracts for all other talks, are available from the conference homepage at www.youngresearchersinmaths.org.

Feedback and the Future

Outside formal sessions, the wide range of research areas represented by the participants led to numerous active discussions and a vibrant exchange of ideas. Most noticeably these took place during social activities in the evenings, which thereby served their purpose well. The occasion of YRM 2010 was also used to discuss the future of this kind of conference and events in a similar spirit. More specifically, a committee was formed consisting of students from the University of Warwick who are now organising Young Researchers in Mathematics 2011.

Lastly, the success of Young Researchers in Mathematics 2010 is very impressively reflected in the feedback that participants of YRM 2010 gave us after the conference:

 “This conference has done more for my progress than several weeks of solitary research could do.”

“Finally a sign post in the jungle of research.” 

“YRM is a great conference to bring young mathematicians together.” 

“One word: inspiring!” 

We are please to have held up the high standard of the 2009 event, and we hope that many more conferences of this kind will follow in this tradition.