The University of Warwick has been awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for higher and further education at a ceremony today (Thursday, 25th February 2016) at Buckingham Palace in London.

The Queen’s Anniversary Prize is in recognition of the Warwick becoming a mathematical sciences research and impact powerhouse in the University’s first 50 years.

Commenting on the Prize University of Warwick Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart Croft said:

“Mathematics and statistics have been at the centre of University of Warwick research since our foundation. We are honoured to receive the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in recognition of our staff and students’ dedication and success in establishing Warwick’s global reputation for excellence.”

Awarded every two years to universities and colleges the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes recognise Universities that show excellence, innovation, impact and benefit for the institution itself and for people and society generally in the wider world.

The Prize Medals were awarded at a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace today by TRH Prince Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen.

The University of Warwick’s Department of Statistics is now the largest in the UK, supported by substantial public and private sector research funding, whilst the Warwick Mathematics Institute was in 2012 awarded the first Regius Professorship in Mathematics in the UK in over three hundred years. The University is also one of five university partners in the Alan Turing Institute— the UK’s national institute for data science.

Head of the University of Warwick’s Mathematics Institute Professor Colin Sparrow said:

“Research mathematicians were the very first students to enrol at the University of Warwick and were the start of an institution that is now one of the world’s top 100 Universities with one of the top 20 Mathematics departments. In addition to being awarded a Regius Professorship in 2012 and a 2014 Fields Medal awarded to Professor Martin Hairer, the Queen’s Anniversary Prize is a most welcome recognition of our achievements to date”.

Head of the Department of Statistics Professor Mark Steel said:

"On behalf of the Department of Statistics, I am delighted with the Queen's Anniversary Prize, which is a truly wonderful recognition of all the hard work we and our colleagues in Mathematics have done over the years. Our Department has tripled in size over the last 12 years, which, combined with the world-leading quality of our research, has given us the opportunity to be involved in many exciting initiatives, such as the newly formed Alan Turing Institute. A lot of our work is directly or indirectly linked with applications in biology, medicine, economics, finance etc. and we are very keen to continue to break new ground in delivering research with a substantial impact on society and to train the next generations of forward-thinking statisticians."

Applied mathematical and statistical research (MSR), with allied disciplines, informs the structure of most if not all areas of national and international life and prosperity, underpinning innumerable aspects of human endeavour in the contemporary world. The MSR work of the University’s departments of maths and statistics has gained a world-wide reputation for intellectual distinction, excellence and impact, in turn playing a major cross-disciplinary role in its research centres in allied fields including complexity science, computer and data science, analytical science, life and medical sciences and systems biology.

MSR addresses major global challenges in energy, food security, sustainable cities and innovative manufacturing and over the fifty years of the University’s existence and its development of these disciplines a wide range of beneficial impact has been achieved, much of which tends by its nature to be hidden from general view.

Notes:

Photographs of the ceremony will be available later today, please contact Kelly Parkes-Harrison, k.e.parkes@warwick.ac.uk

· Work submitted is read by up to eight of the Trust’s 350 readers, drawn from a wide range of professions and disciplines. Each entry is reviewed and reported on anonymously and confidentially. The Awards Council of the Trust recommend the entries judged deserving of a Prize to The Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister.

· The 2014—2016 round is the eleventh round of The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes, the first round was announced in 1994 and to date Her Majesty The Queen has awarded a total of 211 Queen’s Anniversary Prizes to 111 different institutions, 71 universities and 40 colleges of further education. The Prizes were a direct outcome of the Trust’s initiative to mark the 40th Anniversary of Her Majesty’s Accession.

· For more information on the work of The Royal Anniversary Trust and to view films of previous winners visit www.royalanniversarytrust.org.uk

For more information contact: Peter Dunn, PJ.Dunn@warwick.ac.uk Tel: 0247 652 3708

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information contact: Peter Dunn, PJ.Dunn@warwick.ac.uk Tel: 0247 652 3708

For more information on the work of The Royal Anniversary Trust and to view films of previous winners visit www.royalanniversarytrust.org.uk