The recent paper The Euler characteristic of the moduli space of graphs, by Michael BorinskyLink opens in a new window and Karen VogtmannLink opens in a new window, has been highlighted in Quanta Magazine: Quantum Field Theory Pries Open Mathematical PuzzleLink opens in a new window. You can also read the original arXiv paper hereLink opens in a new window.

The University of Warwick has awarded the eminent mathematician Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa. The award was conferred by the Chancellor Cathy Ashton (The Rt Hon. The Baroness Ashton of Upholland GCMG PC) on 16 January 2023. The Oration can be found hereLink opens in a new window.

Jean-Pierre Bourguignon is a French mathematician. His research concerns differential geometry and mathematical aspects of theoretical physics. A graduate from the French École Polytechnique, he holds a these d’État in Mathematical Sciences from University of Paris VII. He taught Mathematics at the École Polytechnique for over 25 years and was also Director of the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies. He is a former President of the Mathematics Society of France and the European Mathematical Society. He is also a former President of the European Research Council.

Professor Bourguignon and the Chancellor of the University of Warwick

We are pleased to announce that Professor Tim Austin will take up the Regius Professorship of Mathematics at the University of Warwick in July 2023. We are looking forward to Tim’s arrival and will published further information at that time.

The European Research Council (ERC) has announced that Joel MoreiraLink opens in a new window is among the winners of its prestigious Starting Grant competitionLink opens in a new window. According to the European Research Council: "The funding is worth in total €636 million and is part of the Horizon Europe programme. It will help excellent younger scientists, who have 2 to 7 years’ experience after their PhDs, to launch their own projects, form their teams and pursue their most promising ideas."

Joel Moreira has been awarded the 5-year, €1.5M grant to study Dynamical Approaches to Number Theory and Additive Combinatorics.

In the last few decades, dynamical approaches have been successfully applied to problems arising in Ramsey theory, Additive Combinatorics and Number theory. Techniques pioneered by Moreira and others have widen the range of applications to problems previously out of reach. This grant seeks to build upon these novel ideas to gain new insights into several fundamental questions. The study will address questions about partition regularity of polynomial configurations in the natural numbers; questions about the statistical behaviour of multiplicative functions, and the question of which infinite configurations are present in every set of positive density. Despite appearing unrelated, there are deep connections between all these problems, often formulated in the language of ergodic theory or dynamical systems.

This year’s Weldon Prize has been awarded to the SPI-M-O group (including members of the Warwick Zeeman InstituteLink opens in a new window) in recognition for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The awards committee said "Under great pressure to deliver results quickly, and under immense public scrutiny, SPI-M-O both built on existing science and developed new epidemiological and statistical techniques to understand the spread of the virus and how it might be controlled. The importance of good and timely disease modelling for policymakers has never been as clear."

The Warwick team (including Keeling, Dyson, Tildesley, Thompson, Hill, Davis, Moore, Guzman-Rincon, Leng and others) has made multiple contributions to understanding and predicting the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020-2022, generating results for both SPI-M-O/SAGE and JCVI. This award reflects this joint effort. Congratulations to all involved!

Read more about the award hereLink opens in a new window.

Congratulation to Dr. Jan GrebikLink opens in a new window for winning the 2022 Mary Ellen Rudin AwardLink opens in a new window for his exceptional works in broad areas of research including descriptive set theory, combinatorics, probability theory, distributed computing, and ergodic theory.

The award is sponsored on behalf of the journal Topology and its ApplicationsLink opens in a new window, together with the annual Spring Topology and Dynamical Systems Conference, the annual Summer Conference on Topology and its Applications and the Conference of the European Set Theory Society.

The award aims to celebrate Mary Ellen Rudin’s achievements and her legacy, together with encouraging the development of young talent in mathematics.