School of Mathematics and Statistics Report 2012-2014 Never Stand Still
UNSW Science
School of Mathematics and Statistics
Š2015 School of Mathematics and Statistics UNSW AUSTRALIA 2052 Address School of Mathematics and Statistics UNSW Australia UNSW SYDNEY NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA Enquiries T +61 (0)2 9385 7111 F +61 (0)2 9385 7123 E office.MathsStats@unsw.edu.au W www.maths.unsw.edu.au FB www.facebook.com/Mathematics.Statistics.UNSW Project Coordinators Mary Hervir and Susannah Waters (pictured below)
Front cover image Photo of Red Centre: Catherine Greenhill Thanks also to Norman Wildberger and Bruce Henry for cover design concept Graphic Design The Imagination Agency Pty Ltd Printing FAASTPRINT Inside back cover image Thomas Britz, Gary Froyland and Mike Hirschhorn CRICOS Provider Number: 00098G
CONTENTS 1. Our School ......................... 1 2. Our People.......................... 13 3. Our Research .................... 39
OUR SCHOOL
4. Our Students ...................... 51 5. Our Engagement ............... 81 6. Appendix ........................... 97
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 1
REPORT FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL PROFESSOR BRUCE HENRY
Welcome to the UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics, the largest school of its kind in Australia. It is a great privilege to be the Head of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW Australia; an institution whose leadership and engagement stands on the pillars of science, medicine, engineering, finance and business. Mathematics, a beautiful intellectual pursuit in its own right, is the core discipline that underpins and enables advances in all of these fields. An expanding universe of mathematics, created purely from imagination, exists in parallel with the physical universe that we inhabit. Pure mathematicians explore and extend this universe of mathematics, developing and imagining new vistas. Applied mathematicians build on and develop mathematics through the creation of structures that enable mathematics to provide understanding, prediction and improvements in the physical universe. Statisticians develop and explore mathematics, and its connections with the physical universe, focussing on techniques to deal with uncertainties. At UNSW we embrace all areas of mathematics, under the departments of Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, and Statistics. We live in challenging times. The human population of more than seven billion is altering its global environment and climate; the well-being of our economic and financial systems is largely predicated on future growth that is unsustainable; our global connectedness through airline networks, and internet networks, make us vulnerable to global shocks; the demands on our medical systems and transport systems is exceeding capacity; the emergence of terrorism on a global scale poses enormous threats to security. Meeting these challenges will require intellectual advances from science, medicine, engineering, finance and business. On the positive side, we have unprecedented access to knowledge and data. One of the global tasks of mathematicians is to extend the universe of mathematics and to provide the mathematical training that will help to underpin and enable these challenges to be met.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 2
Our internationally recognised research in mathematics and statistics at UNSW includes the areas of; algebra and number theory, Bayesian and Monte Carlo methods, biomathematics, biostatistics and ecology, combinatorics, computational mathematics, finance and risk analysis, fluid dynamics, functional and harmonic analysis, geometry, mathematical physics, nonlinear phenomena, nonparametric statistics, oceanic and atmospheric sciences, optimization, stochastic analysis. Our teaching embraces the latest technologies and covers almost all areas of modern mathematics and statistics. For each of the past three years, the Academic Ranking of World Universities has ranked Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW, number one in Australia. Our aim is to be recognised as the leading provider of mathematics education and research in Australia and among the best globally. Whether you are a student, an educator, a researcher, a politician or another interested person I welcome you to share our passion for, and our discovery of, the universe of mathematics. Professor Bruce Henry, Head, UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 3
SCHOOL STATISTICS OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
64
62
73
76
64
75
STUDENT NUMBERS Postgraduate Coursework Postgraduate Research Undergraduate Students Declared Majors
56
50
42
43
56
48
5939
6278
6613
6800
6952
7355
220
260
318
383
383
343
43
44
51
50
54
54
4.4
4.1
5.1
4.1
5.1
5.1
8
7
7
7
8
8
2,295,335
2,363,204
2,259,183
3,659,099
4,256,463
4,638,328
154
164
155
155
209
1221
1255
1329
1361
1435
STAFF Academic Professional and Technical Staff (IT) Professional and Technical Staff (General) RESEARCH Research Income Publications TEACHING Total EFTSL
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 4
1499
Growth in EFTSL 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
GrowthininResearch ResearchIncome Income Growth 5000000 4500000 4000000 3500000 3000000 2500000 2000000 1500000 1000000 500000 0 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 5
5
For the third year in a row, UNSW has been ranked Number One in Australia in Mathematics by the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
We’re the largest School of Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 6
UNSW MATHEMATICS
NUMBER ONE IN AUSTRALIA
For the third consecutive year, UNSW Mathematics has ranked first in Australia in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). UNSW Mathematics has had a remarkably strong result in the ARWU rankings over the past five years. In 2010-2011, we ranked equal first in Australia in Mathematics. For 2012-2014, we were exclusively first in Australia in Mathematics. We are the only Australian university to rank in the top 100 in the world in Mathematics in each of the past five years. Of the 2014 results, Head of School Bruce Henry said: “I am delighted to see that for the third year in a row UNSW has been ranked Number One in Australia in Mathematics by the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2014�. Ranking indicators for ARWU include the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals and Turing Awards, the number of Highly Cited Researchers, amount of papers indexed in Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCIE) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). The percentage of papers published in the top 20% journals of each field is also included.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 7
SCHOOL GOVERNANCE
Head of School
Deputy Head
Head Applied
Head Pure
School Manager
Head Statistics
Manager Financial Services
Manager Student Services
Director First Year Studies
Director U/Grad Studies
Director Honours Adv Math
Director P/Grad Research
Director P/Grad Courses
Manager School Record System
Manager Web Social Services
Chair Online Activities Committee
Chair Academic Committee
Chair Learning & Teaching Committee
Chair Research Committee
Chair Computing Committee
Chair Standing Committee
Chair Publicity Committee
Chair Admin Committee
Standing Committee
School Advisory Board
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 8
School Board
Manager Computing Centre
Chair Equity & Opportunity
Chair WH&S Committee
Workload Committee
School Executive Committee
School Management Committee
SCHOOL ADVISORY BOARD Professor
Professor
Lyn Forsyth
Paul Ormonde-Jones
Bruce Henry
Tony Dooley
Director of FSMS, a
Chief Intelligence
Head of School,
Deputy Head, Dept.
strategic marketing
and Insights Officer at
UNSW School of
of Mathematical
consultancy
Global FMCG
Mathematics and
Sciences, University of
specialising in the
Statistics
Bath, UK
higher education sector
Louise Robert-Smith Educational consultant Professor
Andrea Connell
Merlin Crossley
Principal, Sydney Girls
Professor
Dean of Science,
High School
Herbert Huppert Fellow, Royal
UNSW Australia
Society; Professor at Cambridge and UNSW
The Advisory Board’s aim is to advise and assist
Dr
the School in its research
Professor
Eugene Dubossarsky
John Roberts
Partner at Presciient,
Deputy Head of
Founder of Analyst
Dr Bernard Kachoyan
School, UNSW School
First and Institute of
Operations Research
of Mathematics and
Analytics Professionals
Consultant
Statistics
of Australia
and teaching work, covering all aspects of engagement with the community in general, and its stakeholder groups in particular.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 9
SCHOOL STRATEGIC RETREAT
In November 2013 the Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Professor Bruce Henry, convened a Strategic Retreat for staff to provide input for a Strategic Review of the School. The essential purpose of this Strategic Review is to inform the development of a Five Year Strategic Plan that will align with the UNSW Blueprint to Beyond Strategic Intent and The Faculty of Science Strategic Plan 2012-2015. The Strategic Retreat was held over two days, 7-8 November 2013, at the Crowne Plaza, Hunter Valley. All members of staff were invited to participate. More than half of the staff members attended. The Retreat was also attended by Barbara Johannsen, External Facilitator, and Emma Mosig, Faculty of Science Advisor. The Strategic Retreat was coordinated and informed by a School Committee:
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 10
Professor Bruce Henry, Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW Australia Kaye Sedgers, Executive Assistant to the Head of School Professor John Roberts, Deputy Head and Team Leader: Research
The Team Leaders were asked to provide answers to the questions: Where are we now? Where do we want to be? All of the attendees at the Retreat provided input to these questions and to the follow up: What do we need to do to get there? Team Leaders were asked to consider the strength of the
Professor Jie Du, Team Leader: Research
School relative to Go8 and world-class standing, and
Mary Hervir, School Finance Manager and Team
to consider opportunities to improve performance.
Leader: Resources Tom Sedgwick, School Computing Manager and Team Leader: Resources A/Professor Rob Womersely, Team Leader: Capabilities Flory Alviola, School Business Manager and Team Leader: Capabilities A/Professor Ian Doust, Team Leader: Student Experience Dr Adelle Coster, Team Leader: Student Experience Julie Hebblewhite, Student Services Manager
Information from the Retreat was collated to form the basis of a report, which has been prepared by Bruce Henry, John Roberts, Flory Alviola, Mary Hervir and Kaye Sedgers. The main body of this report lists aspirations, strategic priorities, and a review of core activities. The appendices contain detail on the school governance, comparisons with other Go8 universities in Australia, and staff input informing strategic priorities.
and Team Leader: Student Experience A/Professor Catherine Greenhill, Team Leader: Community Engagement Susannah Waters, School Communications Officer and Team Leader: Community Engagement. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 11
ASPIRATIONS
STRATEGIC REVIEW AREAS
To be recognised nationally and internationally
The Strategic Review Areas were chosen to align
as the number one provider of mathematics and
with the five Strategy Areas outlined in the UNSW
statistics research and training in the tertiary
and Faculty Strategic Plans. These areas and
sector in Australia.
associated keywords that are relevant to the School
To make mathematical advances that benefit society. To promote the value of mathematics as the central core knowledge underlying improved living standards in a highly technological society. To produce mathematically excellent global citizens who can drive advances that will benefit society. To create a working environment that will attract and retain outstanding and dedicated staff. To develop a culture of evolving capabilities in business, teaching and learning, and human
context are as follows: 1. Resources - budget allocations, laptops, desktops, tablets, space, servers, people costs, non-people costs, commercial accounts, teaching revenue, research revenue 2. Capabilities – staff, ageing profiles, gender, promotions, casual versus permanent, staff student ratios 3. Student Experience - contact hours,
resources, to enable the aspirations to be
blended learning, staff student ratios,
realised.
service courses, specialist courses, academic programs 4. Research - discipline norms, Go8 comparisons, publications, grants, PhD completions, rankings, fellowships 5. Community Engagement – School events, Facebook/social media, industry, high schools, conferences, marketing, outreach, recruitment.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 12
OUR PEOPLE
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 13
HEAD OF SCHOOL PROFESSOR BRUCE HENRY
For the past 15 years most of his research has been concerned with the development of mathematical models for the motions of particles that react and diffuse in environments with traps and obstacles and external forces. He has been one of the pioneers in developing and combining continuous time random walks, fractional calculus and stochastic analysis, to provide a new paradigm for modelling these particle motions. Importantly, the new paradigm has been able to provide mathematical models that extend beyond Einstein’s theory of Brownian motion to include diffusion that is slowed by traps and obstacles. Some of Professor Henry’s applications in this area include new model equations to describe nerve cell signalling, taking into account trapping by micrometre sized spines that decorate dendrites on nerve cells, and new model equations for in-host infections, taking into account trapping and binding properties of mucous. Over the past few years Professor Henry has enjoyed presenting his work as an Invited Speaker at various locations around the world, including Taipei, Professor Bruce Henry is an Applied
Taiwan (2012), Newport, Rhode Island, New York
Mathematician with more than 80 international
(2013), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China (2014)
journal publications across many different
and University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
discipline areas, including; applied mathematics,
South Africa (2014).
biology, condensed matter physics, geology, materials science, mathematical physics, plasma
When he gets time he likes to escape up the coast
physics, stochastic processes, neuroscience, and
and play his Gibson Les Paul guitar, and ride his
vision science.
Robert August surfboard.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 14
DEPUTY HEAD OF SCHOOL PROFESSOR JOHN ROBERTS Professor John Roberts studied applied
John has an international reputation in discrete
mathematics and physics at the Australian
integrable systems: the study of ordered dynamics
National University, via a National Undergraduate
in discrete time (the QRT or Quispel-Roberts-
Scholarship, and then completed a PhD in applied
Thompson maps, derived in his early papers,
mathematics at the University of Melbourne. Since
are now standard models in the literature). More
then, he has worked at the Institute for Theoretical
recently, he has established himself in arithmetic
Physics, University of Amsterdam, and in the
dynamics, the interface of dynamical systems and
mathematics departments at the University of
number theory, which has practical applications
Melbourne and La Trobe University, before joining
to cryptography. Dynamical systems (popularly
UNSW in 2001.
known as chaos theory) is a good example of an interdisciplinary scientific field, allowing work across
He has enjoyed the adventure of working in
topics in mathematical physics, applied mathematics
different places in Australia plus has had Visiting
and pure mathematics.
Fellowships to the University of London, University of Cambridge and Universita Autonoma Barcelona.
For John, the high of nailing a research puzzle is
One of the great attractions of research for him is
similar to that experienced by listening to great
its international flavour. Working with international
music or seeing great art or design, two of his other
collaborators and participating in and organising
passions (John is married to an artist). It’s important
international conferences (most recently in Vienna,
that we let students appreciate that mathematics is,
Cambridge and Banff) is enlivening and enriching.
as well as a science, an art with inherent aesthetic
Learning about other countries and cultures through
beauty.
these relationships and making international friendships is a privilege. Completing half of his high school studies in Malaysia probably planted the seeds for John of learning and living with an international mindset. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 15
HEADS OF DEPARTMENT
HEAD OF APPLIED MATHEMATICS PROFESSOR WOLFGANG SCHIEF Professor Wolfgang Schief is a physicist-turnedmathematician who has published more than 125 papers in international research journals. He is the coauthor (with C. Rogers) of the monograph Bäcklund
Guest Professor at the DFG (German Research
and Darboux Transformations: Geometry and Modern
Council) collaborative research centre SFB/TR 109
Applications in Soliton Theory, Cambridge University
Discretization in Geometry and Dynamics in Berlin
Press, the Chinese Edition of which is about to be
and Munich, Germany. He is also an Honorary
published. Currently, his main focus of research is
Fellow (Engineering and Applied Mathematics) in the
the detection by geometric means and exploitation
Department of Applied Mathematics of The Hong
of integrable structure in nonlinear physical systems
Kong Polytechnic University.
and the development of a canonical integrabilitypreserving discrete analogue of classical differential geometry. The latter has applications in, for instance, computer graphics and architectural geometry. Professor
Schief
has
presented
lectures
Research
Institute
at
Oberwolfach,
Germany, and the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge, UK. He is a Chief Investigator of the ARC (Australian Research Council) Centre of Excellence Mathematics and Statistics of Complex Systems (MASCOS) and a UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 16
friendly soccer games with his mate Spiro (Head, Department of Statistics) in an international team of players. Not having proper soccer gear does not stop
conferences and institutes worldwide such as the Mathematical
Professor Schief enjoys playing music and having
him from playing soccer. He regularly visits his second “academic family” in Berlin where he enjoys collaborating, presenting talks on current research and giving lecture series at Summer Schools. Inset above right: Playing soccer at the defunct Tempelhof Airport which was at the centre of the Airlift operation during the Berlin Blockade in 1948-1949.
HEAD OF PURE MATHEMATICS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IAN DOUST Associate Professor Ian Doust’s research interests
and it is this question which has been the focus of
lie in the area of modern analysis. His focus is
his recent research.
generally on structural questions; how solutions to problems depend on the geometrical properties of
Associate Professor Doust works with
the spaces in which you work.
mathematicians from across the globe including the US, England, China, and France. In January 2014
A common method in signal processing and data
he was invited to the UK to speak in Lancaster,
compression is to decompose a message into a
Newcastle, Leeds and Oxford (where he caught up
sum of simpler, better understood parts, much
with two of our former Honours students who are
as one might decompose a musical sound into a
now doing their PhDs there).
combination of pure notes. Much of Ian Doust’s research concerns the question of how well you
If his children ever stop buying expensive musical
can approximate the original signal with some finite
instruments, he would love to return to the quiet
combination of simpler parts.
beaches of the Cook Islands.
Many problems in areas ranging from computer algorithms to evolutionary biology concern settings in which there is some measure of how close or distant two objects are. An important way of attacking these problems is to represent the objects as points in two, three, or more dimensions and then to use standard geometric tools. To do this you need to know whether such a representation is possible, UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 17
HEAD OF STATISTICS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SPIRIDON PENEV Associate Professor Spiridon Penev is a Statistician
He has presented his recent work as an invited
with more than 60 publications in the area of
speaker at the 6th Rutgers-Stevens workshop on
Statistical Science and Methodology; more
Optimization of Stochastic Systems in New Jersey in
specifically in Nonparametric Statistics, Asymptotic
2011, at the Meeting of the Institute of Mathematical
Statistical Methods, Structural Equation Models, Risk
Statistics in Sydney 2014, and has participated with
Analysis, Stochastic Processes, and Operational
talks in the recent world congresses of the ISI in
Research. He is an elected member of the
Dublin (2011) and in Hong Kong (2013).
International Statistical Institute (ISI). This is a high recognition for professional statisticians.
For a long time, Associate Professor Penev has been an enthusiastic marathon runner with 15 full
One of the main focuses over the years has been
marathons under his belt. Recently, he has been
the application of wavelet methods in nonparametric
enjoying gardening and is setting records with his
estimation. His efforts have been towards improving
fruits and vegetables.
the flexibility of wavelet methods for inference, with results published in leading statistical journals. His research in asymptotics extends some fundamental asymptotic efficiency results in non-parametric inference about Markov chains. On the more applied side, he has been working on easy-to-use methods for identifying equivalent Structural Equation Models. His papers in all the above areas enjoy great popularity and a lot of citations.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 18
Scientia Professor Trevor McDougall joined the ranks of science greats as a Fellow of The Royal Society. (Pic Trevor McDougall)
Associate Professor Jake Olivier and his colleagues’ research into helmet use and bicycle riding safety has demonstrated that helmets are unquestionably effective, giving legitimacy to helmet legislation. In a nutshell, their findings are that the benefits of helmet wearing are well established, while none of the negative effects have yet been proven.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 19
Dr Zdravko Botev, Lecturer of Statistics in the School: “I was really excited when I was offered the job [at UNSW]. Accepting it was a no-brainer, because the School is a mix of young and senior researchers who are great role models for intellectual achievement, fulfilment and success. The environment is highly stimulating, encouraging, and rewards excellence. I was impressed by how highly the School values good teaching. In addition to the many high calibre award-winning researchers, the School boasts many teachers par excellence”.
Dr Shane Keating, Lecturer and Applied Mathematics Honours Coordinator: “I really enjoy lecturing, working with students. I hadn’t done a lot of teaching before so I was a bit nervous about starting to teach, but I come from a family of teachers - a long line of teachers… And I’ve found that it’s really rewarding, really satisfying, to work with students and to teach mathematics to clever young people. It’s been quite a joy”.
Dr Joanna Wang, Lecturer of Statistics: “We have data EVERYWHERE, particularly digital data. We live in a world where almost everything can be measured and monitored. But the problem is whether we have the analytical ability to make use of that large amount of data. We need to be able to visualise the data, understand the data and communicate what we find from data analysis, and that’s what statisticians do. That is why I think statisticians are increasingly in demand. The image of the profession has also changed from a bunch of people doing number crunching and producing pretty plots, to those using useful powerful computers and applying sophisticated mathematical models.” UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 20
REPORT FROM SCHOOL MANAGER FLORY ALVIOLA
The School of Mathematics and Statistics is one
The administrative unit in the School has been
of the biggest schools in the Faculty of Science in
well structured and consists of very competent
terms of staff numbers and students; and coupled
and experienced staff. I take pride in saying that
with its inherent ambition to keep a high profile within
administrative personnel are focused and committed
the University and to be recognised as the leading
in delivering and providing outstanding services and
school of mathematical sciences in Australia and
assistance not only to other staff and students in the
among the top 100 in the world, it calls for a highly
School, but also to visitors and other stakeholders.
capable and strategic Head of School. I’m fortunate
It goes without saying that we are committed to
to be working with one.
maintaining the provision of outstanding services in a challenging environment.
As the School Manager, I work closely with the Head of School, providing him with high level
As part of the management group, I look forward to
advice and strategic support; and at the same time,
the year ahead.
providing administrative leadership to the School and contributing to its strategic planning and policy development. The demands of my role mostly stem from the challenges imposed on the Head of School by the University.
“But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.” René Descartes
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 21
REPORT FROM IT MANAGER TOM SEDGWICK
The Computing Centre has been involved in a number of development projects over the past year. Most notably is the continual expansion and support of the Katana computational cluster and its value to the School and wider Faculty as a major research facility. In addition there has been a significant amount of work performed to enhance and ensure the security of the School’s School Record System (SRS), thus ensuring the system meets the upcoming IT security policies when they are endorsed in 2015. Key areas, including the School’s computer laboratories and Room 4082, have had their network upgraded to 1GB to the desktop, a 10x speed improvement, to facilitate condor operations and large file transfers. The computer laboratories continue to be well used and during the week 10 computer test we saw over 3,500 students complete tests in 46 separate testing sessions over a five-day period. In addition, an enhanced Windows testing environment which is approaching the security and maturity of the Linux Testing Environment was made available and was used for an additional 25 testing sessions in week 11 for 649 students. Unfortunately plans to increase the density of the computer labs which will help during peak loads and the computer based test week have been delayed and will be revisited in 2015. An automatic desktop auditing tool has been deployed across the School which will allow for proactive monitoring of the state of each machine and life-cycle management. The Access Grid software/system has reached end of life and is being replaced with Visimeet software along other nodes in the AMSI AGR network. Overall the School systems have been maintained and new staff desktops were distributed early in 2014, with for the first time solid state system hard drives. Directions for 2015 include the future of SRS, functionality of Room 4082, scope of Linux in the teaching computer laboratories, further Katana enhancements and viability of virtualised applications for teaching and student access.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 22
REPORT FROM WHS MANAGER RUSSEL MORISON The School’s Workplace Health and Safety Committee is comprised of representatives of subgroups within the School, and is elected by School members. The Committee liaises between the staff of the School, the School administration, and facilities management to ensure that a safe and productive workplace is available to all staff and students. Our overall aim is “Harm to Zero”, with the expectation that no person shall come to any harm while working, studying or visiting UNSW. Our prime area of responsibility is the centre and eastern wings of the Red Centre, and through monitoring, assessing and reporting faults or risks we try to ensure that our work environment is a safe and pleasant place to work and study. Our main role is ensuring that risk management is undertaken for all research, teaching or operational activities, and that all foreseeable hazards are identified, risks are assessed, and all such risks are adequately controlled. Membership: Chair: Russel Morison HOS: Bruce Henry Academic: Feng Chen Admin: Flory Alviola Staff: Venus Lim
Student: Anna Tomskova Russel’s doppelganger, American meteorologist and prolific severe convective storms researcher, Chuck Doswell. (Image: http://www.calu.edu)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 23
REPORT FROM ASSOCIATE DEAN (EDUCATION) UNSW FACULTY OF SCIENCE CHRIS TISDELL
Associate Professor Chris Tisdell, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science at UNSW Australia, has inspired millions of learners through his passion for mathematics and his innovative online approach to maths education. He has created more than 500 free YouTube university-level maths videos since 2008, which have attracted over four million downloads. This has made his virtual classroom the top-ranked learning and teaching website across Australian universities on the education hub YouTube EDU. His free online e-textbook, Engineering Mathematics: YouTube Workbook, is one of the most popular mathematical books of all time, with more than 1,000,000 downloads in over 200 countries. A champion of free and flexible education, he is driven by a desire to ensure that anyone, anywhere, at any time, has equal access to the mathematical skills that are critical for careers in science, engineering and technology. Chris pioneered online education at UNSW. He was also the first Australian educator to embed Google Hangouts into his teaching practice in 2012, enabling live and interactive learning from mobile devices. Chris has collaborated with industry and policy makers, championed maths education in the media and constantly draws on the feedback of his students worldwide to advance his teaching practice. Before coming to academia, Chris was in the music industry for 10 years as a DJ, promoter and record store owner - performing with famous acts like Fatboy Slim, Tiesto, Armin and Chicane. He blends a unique mix of education and entertainment to engage with his audiences.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 24
The Administrative Staff team (L-R: Bruce Henry; Flory Alviola; John Roberts; Susannah Waters; Kaye Sedgers; Mary Hervir; Francy Fan; Jan Lin; Venus Lim; Julie Hebblewhite)
The Computing Staff team (L-R: Martin Thompson; Tim Salmon; Duncan Smith; Tom Sedgwick; Kevin Sedgwick; Soputtra San) UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 25
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ROBERT WOMERSLEY RETIRES
After over three decades of dedicated service,
His research is based in optimization, developing
Robert Womersley has made the decision to retire in
computational methods for new classes of problems,
early 2015.
with applications ranging from Geomathematics to Computational Finance. Examples include
Rob joined UNSW and the School of Mathematics
distribution of points on manifolds such as spheres
and Statistics as a lecturer in 1981. In this time,
and tori (donuts), optimizing both geometric
he has served as Head of School, Head of
aspects and criteria for numerical integration and
Applied Mathematics, and has also sat on various
approximation. He is internationally recognised for
committees, such as Policy and Resources (where
his research, and has received many grants over the
he is known for his meticulous proofreading of the
years for his work.
monthly minutes) and the Computing Committee. Rob’s retirement is a great loss for the School, but a As Chair of the Computing Committee, Rob
well-deserved respite for him. Rob’s knowledge of
shaped the very strong computing culture in all of
the inner workings of the School is unmatched, and
the School’s programs and among the academic
his dedication and commitment to his work has been
staff. He has been centrally involved in all aspects
exceptional.
of computing in the School, especially high performance research facilities.
Head of School Professor Bruce Henry says, “Rob’s contributions have been across all areas. He has made enormous contributions to our School. He is an ideal employee, a classic high performing all-rounder academic… Rob is one of the most respected, trusted, reliable, and hard-working members of the School. He is one of the School’s heroes”. The School honoured Rob’s contributions during a farewell lunch in late November 2014. HoS Professor Bruce Henry with Rob at his farewell.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 26
OUR FACULTY LEADER PROFESSOR MERLIN CROSSLEY DEAN OF UNSW SCIENCE
Professor Merlin Crossley is Dean of Science at
the College of Sciences and Technology in 2005,
UNSW and also a Professor of Molecular Biology.
and was Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research from 2006-8.
Among his accolades, he has received several awards for his work on gene control, including
Professor Crossley has written extensively on
the Australian Academy of Science’s Gottschalk
modern molecular genetics and on science teaching
Medal, the Royal Society of NSW’s Edgeworth David
and policy. His articles are often published in the
Medal, the Australian Society for Biochemistry and
mainstream media and he writes regularly for The
Molecular Biology’s Roche Medal, and the Julian
Conversation.
Well’s Medal from the Lorne Genome Conference. He has also worked or studied at the Universities of Melbourne, Oxford, Harvard and Sydney. He has made significant contributions to academic administration, serving as Dean at UNSW since 2010, and previously having been Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at the University of Sydney from 2006 to 2008. Professor Crossley completed his BSc degree at the University of Melbourne, majoring in genetics and microbiology. He moved to Oxford University supported by a Rhodes Scholarship to pursue his doctorate, and then undertook post-doctoral research at Oxford and at Harvard Medical School. He returned to Australia in 1995 and held various positions at the University of Sydney, including Professor of Molecular Genetics from 2005-9, Acting Dean of Science in 2004, Director of Research for
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 27
WELCOME TO THE SCHOOL
PIERRE DEL MORAL
PINHAS GROSSMAN
LIBO LI
IGOR SHPARLINSKI
PETER STRAKA
MIRCEA VOINEAGU
Professor Pierre Del Moral spent three years from
Professor Igor Shparlinski, FAA, FAustMS, joined
2011 as a Professor at the Applied Mathematical
us in July 2013 as Professor of Pure Mathematics.
Center of the Polytechnique School in Paris.
Professor Shparlinski’s previous position was at
He is known internationally for his work on the
Macquarie University, where he had established
development of the theory on stochastic particle
a reputation as one of Australia’s leading number
methods in nonlinear filtering, numerical physics,
theorists.
engineering and information theory. Dr Peter Straka completed his PhD in mathematics Dr Pinhas Grossman, who works in operator
at UNSW, graduating in 2011. During his studies he
algebras, completed his PhD at the University of
also taught first and second year tutorials in order to
California, Berkeley, in 2006 and comes to us from
acquire some teaching experience. After spending
the the Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e
time as a postdoc in Michigan and Manchester, he
Aplicada in Rio de Janeiro.
returned to UNSW in 2013 as a lecturer in statistics.
Dr Libo Li, who has joined our Statistics
Dr Mircea Voineagu is an algebraic geometer who
Department, received his PhD from the University
completed his PhD at Northwestern University in
of Sydney, and undertook Postdoctoral positions at
Chicago in 2007. His previous position was at the
both Ritsumeikan University in Japan and Universite
University of Tokyo.
d’Evry Val d’Essonne in France.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 28
MIKE’S MATHS MYSTERIES (MMM…) by Dr Mike Hirschhorn
In 2014, our School Facebook page ran a series called Mike’s Maths Mysteries. Dr Mike Hirschhorn challenged fans of our page to attempt to solve his maths mysteries, with the first correct solution submitted declared the winner. The series held special competitions on “Pi Day” and for Christmas, and prizes were sometimes offered. MMM ranked among the most popular items ever posted to our Facebook page, attracting hundreds of hits. Our Facebook page, which keeps followers abreast of School events, news, staff activities and student issues, can be found at: facebook.com/Mathematics. Statistics.UNSW
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 29
STAFF PROMOTIONS AND FELLOWSHIPS
JOHN ROBERTS
DAVID WARTON
DANIEL CHAN
BILL MCLEAN
MONINYA ROUGHAN
CHRIS TISDELL
GARY FROYLAND
PROMOTIONS 2013-2015 Promotion to Professor, effective 1 January 2015:
Promotion to Associate Professor, effective 1
John Roberts
January 2014:
David Warton
Josef Dick Catherine Greenhill
Promotion to Associate Professor, effective 1
Jake Olivier
January 2015: Daniel Chan
Promotion to Professor Level E3, effective January
Francis Kuo
2013:
Bill McLean
Fedor Sukochev
Moninya Roughan Promotion to Professor, effective 1 January 2013:
Chris Tisdell
Bruce Henry Promotion to Associate Dean (Education), UNSW
Jie Du
Faculty of Science, effective 28 July 2014: Promotion to Associate Professor, effective 1
Chris Tisdell
January 2013: Promotion to Professor, effective 1 January 2014:
Mark Holzer
Gary Froyland Promotion to Senior Lecturer, effective 1 July 2013:
John Murray
Peter Brown Feng Chen
JOHN MURRAY
JAKE OLIVIER
MARK HOLZER
CATHERINE GREENHILL
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 30
FEDOR SUKOCHEV
BRUCE HENRY
JIE DU
JOSEF DICK
FENG CHEN
PETER BROWN
FRANCES KUO
GUOYIN LI
TREVOR MCDOUGALL
FELLOWSHIPS 2012 - 2014 ARC FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS 2013
SOCIETY FELLOWSHIPS
Frances Kuo, Liberating the dimension - frontier
Fellow of the Royal Society:
technologies for very high dimensional problems,
Scientia Professor Trevor McDougall.
(2013: $105,753.00; 2014: $203,944.50; 2015: $199,910.50; 2016: $193,326.50; 2017: $91,607.50)
Fellow of the American Mathematical Society: Professor Ian Sloan.
Guoyin Li, A new optimization approach for tensor extreme eigenvalue problems: Modern techniques
Fellow of the American Statistical Association:
for multi-relational data analysis, (2013: $78,110.00;
Professor William Dunsmuir.
2014: $155,375.00; 2015: $153,510.00; 2016: $147,775.00; 2017: $71,530.00)
Fellow of the American Meteorological Society: Emeritus Professor Michael Banner
ARC FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS 2012
Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics:
Gary Froyland, A probabilistic and geometric
Professor Bruce Henry
understanding of transport and metastability in mathematical geophysical flows (2012: $85,168.50; 2013: $172,015.50; 2014: $172,354; 2015: $166,544; 2016: $81,037) David Warton, Advancing tools for the analysis of high-dimensional data in ecology (2012: $77,857; 2013: $155,714; 2014: $155,714; 2015: $155,714; 2016: $79,857)
Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science: Professor Michael Cowling; Scientia Professor Trevor McDougall; Emeritus Professor Colin Rogers; Professor Igor Shparlinski; and Professor Ian Sloan. Fellows of the Australian Mathematical Society: Professor Michael Cowling; Associate Professor Ian Doust; Professor James Franklin; Associate Professor David Hunt; Professor Igor Shparlinski; and Professor Ian Sloan.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 31
STAFF AWARDS
CATHERINE GREENHILL
TREVOR MCDOUGALL RECEIVING ROYAL SOCIETY OF TASMANIA MEDAL
JOSEPH DICK RECEIVING HIS MEDAL
Associate Professor Catherine Greenhill was
Scientia Professor Trevor McDougall added
awarded the Australian Academy of Science’s 2015
another prestigious award to his sizeable collection
Christopher Heyde Medal. The award recognises
when he received the Australian Academy of
distinguished research in the mathematical
Science 2015 Jaeger Medal, which honours the
sciences by researchers up to 15 years post-
contribution to science in Australia of the late
PhD in the calendar year of nomination. A/Prof
Professor John Jaeger FAA, FRS.
Greenhill received the award jointly with Dr Scott Morrison from the Mathematical Sciences Institute at
Scientia Professor McDougall was also awarded
Australian National University.
the esteemed Royal Society of Tasmania Medal (2014), which recognised his substantial original
In 2013, A/Prof Greenhill received the 2013 UNSW
research. The world-leading oceanographer and
Faculty of Science June Griffith Fellowship for
Fellow of the Royal Society’s medal attracted media
Academic Women in Leadership. This fellowship
attention, and he was interviewed by ABC radio.
aims to provide opportunities for women to develop and strengthen their research.
Associate Professor Josef Dick was awarded the Australian Mathematical Society Medal for 2014. The
In early 2014, A/Prof Greenhill became the first
AustMS Medal is awarded to a society member less
female mathematician at UNSW to be promoted to
than 40 years of age who has outstanding research
Associate Professor.
contributions. “It’s a huge honour to receive this medal,” says A/Prof Dick. “The list of past awardees is full of outstanding mathematicians and to find my name there as well is just phenomenal.” A/Prof Dick was co-winner of the 2013 Prize for Achievement in Information Based Complexity (IBC). His award was presented in October 2013 at the Workshop on Uniform Distribution and Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods in Austria. A/Prof Dick was also winner of the 2012 Christopher Heyde Medal.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 32
CHRIS TISDELL (STANDING LEFT)
DAVID WARTON
NICK FEWSTER (STANDING LEFT)
Associate Professor Chris Tisdell received
The Young Investigator Award (2014) from the
an Award for Teaching Excellence in the 2014
American Statistical Association Section on Statistics
Australian Awards for University Teaching. In a
and the Environment was awarded to Professor
letter, Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne
David Warton. This medal, which recognises
praised A/Prof Tisdell’s “sustained commitment and
outstanding contributions from younger members of
contribution to teaching” and commended him for
the environmental statistics community, came hot on
“enhancing the quality of learning and teaching
the heels of his 2014 Christopher Heyde Medal from
in higher education and for your dedication to
the Australian Academy of Science.
enriching and improving the learning experience of your students”.
Associate Lecturer, and former PhD student, Nick Fewster was announced as recipient of a 2013
A/Prof Tisdell was also awarded a 2012 UNSW
UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching
Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence
Excellence - Sessional Teaching, which recognises
at a ceremony at UNSW in June 2013. This
the invaluable contribution that sessional teaching
award aspires to encourage, recognise and
staff make to the quality of student learning at
reward excellence in teaching. A/Prof Tisdell’s
UNSW. Dr Fewster has been a sessional teacher in
extraordinarily successful endeavours into online
the School for the past five years, gaining a leading
teaching, via his top-ranked YouTube channel and
teaching reputation among students. He was also
popular interactive e-book, were highly commended,
Coordinator of our Student Support Scheme for
as was his impeccable student satisfaction rating.
four years, and elevated the service to a superior standard.
A/Prof Tisdell was announced as the new Associate Dean (Education) of the UNSW Faculty of Science,
Dr Fewster was appointed as Associate Lecturer in
effective July 2014. Dean of UNSW Science,
July 2014.
Professor Merlin Crossley, praised A/Prof Tisdell’s “innovative teaching in mathematics”, citing his very successful YouTube channel and e-book.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 33
IAN SLOAN
NORMAN WILDBERGER
MILAN PAHOR
Professor Ian Sloan joined the ranks of an elite
A 2013 UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching
group of mathematical scientists with his election as
Excellence was awarded to Associate Professor
Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in early
Norman Wildberger. A/Prof Wildberger has
2013. According to the AMS, the inaugural group
consistently been rated as one of the School’s best
of Fellows - featuring mathematicians from around
lecturers on student evaluations over a 20-year
the world - comprises a class of mathematicians
period of teaching. He has contributed enormously
“recognised by their peers as distinguished for their
to our curriculum development, and is a pioneering
contributions to the profession”.
leader in online learning and teaching. His academic YouTube channel has experienced phenomenal popularity. Milan Pahor received the 2012 Faculty of Science Teaching Excellence Award. Dean of
“There cannot be a language more universal and more simple, more free from errors and obscurities...more worthy to express the invariable relations of all natural things [than mathematics]. [It interprets] all phenomena by the same language, as if to attest the unity and simplicity of the plan of the universe, and to make still more evident that unchangeable order which presides over all natural causes” Joseph Fourier, The Analytical Theory of Heat
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 34
Science, Professor Merlin Crossley, announced Milan as recipient of the award during a prizegiving ceremony at the Faculty’s Christmas party in December 2012. Milan has proven to be very popular among students, even inspiring a Facebook fan page - “Milan Pahor Appreciation Society” - with over 1,000 members.
PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
Our Finance Manager, Mary Hervir, was accepted into the inaugural Professional Women in Leadership Program (PWIL) in 2014. PWIL supports the University’s strategic objective of improving core leadership and operational capabilities, and UNSW’s Women’s Employment Strategy (WES) which seeks to develop strong female role models. PWIL is designed along the lines of the well-established Academic Women in Leadership program (AWIL). The Program aims to identify, grow and retain a pool of high potential talented women to take up both formal and informal leadership roles within the University. With over 300 eligible candidates for nomination, Mary was one of 21 Professional Staff selected to be part of the esteemed 12 month program. Mary has worked in the School of Mathematics and Statistics since 2000.
Being a part of the PWIL program has not only been a privilege but a fabulous opportunity! PWIL has been a very valuable space for learning about ourselves and our leadership styles and values, as well as viewing the university system through different lenses. It has been a gateway to meeting leaders at different levels and from various departments of the university and learning from their knowledge and experiences. Networking is truly key to growth and development and it has been great to embark on this journey of the inaugural program with fabulous and likeminded women who share a drive to further their leadership skills. Mary Hervir
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 35
CODE BREAKING IN THE PACIFIC PETER DONOVAN’S BOOK RELEASED
We are thrilled to announce that Peter Donovan’s
“The book explains the technology utilised to
new book, “Code Breaking in the Pacific”, was
process data at the time. It also identifies who
released by Springer Publishing in September 2014.
produced the principal theoretical code-breaking methods”, says Dr Donovan. “It also explains why it
The 387-page tome, co-authored with University of
was possible at all”.
Sydney Honorary Associate Professor John Mack, is unique in that it traces Pacific Japanese code-
Dr Donovan says that some of the consequences
breaking from 1938-1945. Conversely, European and
of deciphering and reading Japanese messages
Atlantic cryptology has been extensively published
include the all-important Battle of Midway (which
about for many years.
resulted in the decisive defeat of an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy), and also revealed the
By 1942, it was established that the Americans
location - resulting in the consequent sinking - of
would be overall responsible for Pacific cryptology.
over 1,000 Japanese merchant ships. Weak points in
Some of this work
the Japanese strategy were laid bare.
was conducted in Australia.
Dr Donovan identifies Brits John Tiltman and Alan Turing as key figures who undertook the very
To a large
important early work in this area.
extent, this was a naval war, and
Dr Donovan and A/Professor Mack collaborated
incidentally the
on this book over several years. Dr Donovan is a
Japanese Naval
leading expert on cryptologic history. Both authors
systems were
have strong backgrounds in classical mathematics,
much less secure
coupled with initially quite separate interests in
than their Army
WWII, dating back 40 years.
counterparts. Dr Peter Donovan spoke at the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland for the Henry F. Schorreck Memorial Lecture in May 2013.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 36
PROFESSOR FRANKLIN’S LATEST BOOK RELEASED
Professor James Franklin’s latest book, An
the philosophy of mathematics, and his research
Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics, was
interests include the history of ideas and extreme
released in April 2014 via Palgrave Macmillan.
risk theory.
Palgrave Macmillan says that the book: “breaks the impasse between Platonist and nominalist views of mathematics. Neither a study of abstract objects nor a mere language or logic, mathematics is a science of real aspects of the world as much as biology is. For the first time, a philosophy of mathematics puts applied mathematics at the centre. Quantitative aspects of the world such as ratios of heights, and structural ones such as symmetry and continuity, are parts of the physical world and are objects of mathematics. Though some mathematical structures such as infinities may be too big to be realized in fact, all of them are capable of being realized. Informed by the author’s background in both philosophy and mathematics, but keeping to simple examples, the book shows how infant perception of patterns is extended by visualization and proof
“Mr Baley", said Quemot, "you can't treat human emotions as though they were built about a positronic brain". "I'm not saying you can. Robotics is a deductive science and sociology an inductive one. But mathematics can be made to apply in either case.” Isaac Asimov, The Naked Sun
to the vast edifice of modern pure and applied mathematical knowledge”. Some of Professor Franklin’s other books include The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal; Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia; and What Science Knows. He is founder of the ‘Sydney School’ in
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 37
VISITING TEACHING FELLOW PROGRAM
DEREK STOKES VTF 2013
THANOM SHAW VTF 2014
The School of Mathematics and Statistics created
We benefit from having an experienced teacher
the position of Visiting Teaching Fellow (VTF) in
among us to impart advice on teaching issues,
the late 1980s. Our first Fellow, Dr. William Pender,
and we also get the opportunity to understand the
went on to become Head of Mathematics at Sydney
knowledge base that secondary students have in
Grammar School. The VTF position has had no
mathematics. Meanwhile, the high schools benefit
shortage of interest, and we have welcomed
from having a teacher who is knowledgeable about
teachers from both private and public schools.
modern mathematical teaching practices at a major tertiary institution.
The aim of the VTF position is to provide a twoway opportunity for experienced school teachers to
The VTF has the opportunity to consolidate and
spend a year with us, undertaking tutoring in First
extend their knowledge of mathematics. For many
Year Mathematics. Some Fellows have also taken on
of our Fellows, this has proved an invaluable asset
second year tutorials, and others have lectured our
in their professional development and we maintain
Fundamentals of Mathematics course in Semester
contact with them after they have returned to their
2. In addition, the Fellow is available during their
schools.
consultation hours to assist students, and also helps to select and mentor new casual tutors. The VTF is
Our 2014 Teaching Fellow, Thanom Shaw, has taught
invited to give a short talk to the School at the end of
at SCEGGS for nine years. About the VTF program,
their year, to share their insights into our courses and
she says “Spending the year in the Teaching Fellow
into the teaching aspect of our mission.
role at UNSW was a professional development opportunity not to be missed and everything about it is certainly living up to my expectations - the mathematics, the students, the staff. I’m soaking it all in”.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 38
OUR RESEARCH
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 39
REPORT FROM CHAIR OF THE RESEARCH COMMITTEE PROFESSOR JOHN ROBERTS
NATIONAL LEADER IN 01 DPs For the 2015 DP funding round, we received the most funding in the 01 Mathematical Sciences classification code of any school of mathematics and statistics in Australia. This repeated similar successes in the 2014 and 2012 DP funding rounds. In fact, the School has received the most DP funds nationally in mathematics and statistics totalled over the last two, three, four and five rounds. Our DP success rate averaged over the past three rounds is nearly 40%; nearly double the national average and the second highest success rate of any school in the UNSW Faculty of Science. The significance of our research funding success is that it is decided by a process of peer review where the norms of our discipline are considered. In addition to DP funding in mathematics and statistics, School researchers have been very successful in attracting DP funding in other research areas (e.g. oceanography) or through other schemes. Overall, the School attracted around $4.4 million in research income in 2013, up 16% from the previous year. As well as being proud of the quality of our research, we are proud of the breadth of our research into mathematics and statistics. In the Excellence in Research for Australia exercises
The School is justifiably proud of its research track record of excellence. We ranked first in Australia for Mathematics in the 2014, 2013 and 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). This ranking is based upon the number and quality of papers published, prestigious awards to alumni and staff, and on the presence of highly-cited researchers in mathematics (in our
of 2010 and 2012, we were one of only three universities nationally to be assessed over all five research subdivisions in the mathematical sciences. Individual researchers in the School have received the highest distinctions through Fellowships of Academies, funded research fellowships and research medals, as detailed elsewhere in the report.
case, Professor Ian Sloan). The latest ARWU puts us
Taken together with our excellent history of research
at #83 in the world.
funding, this means we can offer a highly-ranked
In the main, research funding in mathematics and statistics derives from the Australian Research
international environment for the research training of postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows.
Council, particularly via the Discovery Projects (DP)
We look forward to maintaining our leading national
scheme that funds a researcher for a program on
and international research roles into the future.
a particular research topic, typically of three years duration. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 40
RESEARCH GROUPS The School attracts a high level of external research funding and provides a lively environment for postgraduate and postdoctoral study in mathematics and statistics. Our research groups are interconnected, with frequent interactions between groups and with other schools and faculties both within and outside UNSW.
RESEARCH GROUPS IN APPLIED MATHEMATICS Biomathematics Computational Mathematics Fluid Dynamics, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Nonlinear Phenomena Optimisation
RESEARCH GROUPS IN PURE MATHEMATICS Algebra and Number Theory Combinatorics Functional and Harmonic Analysis Geometry Mathematical Physics
RESEARCH GROUPS IN STATISTICS Bayesian and Monte Carlo Methods Biostatistics and Ecology Finance and Risk Analysis Nonparametric Statistics Stochastic Analysis
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 41
We are number one in Australia for mathematics Ranked first in Australia in the 2014, 2013 and 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities. We received the most ARC Discovery Project funding in the mathematical sciences in 2015 and 2014. We produced the highest number of academic papers published by any Australian school of mathematics over the last decade. Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 42
RESEARCH GRANTS GRANTS COMMENCING IN 2015 ARC DISCOVERY GRANTS J. Dick, F. Kuo, I. H. Sloan, B. Giles, M. Griebel, Quantifying uncertainty: Innovations in high dimensional computation (2015: $140,000; 2016: $115,100; 2017: $120,000) G. Froyland, M. Dellnitz, O. Junge, A. Quas,
EARLY CAREER RESEARCH GRANTS L. Li, Small time and large strike asymptotic for implied volatility in the Heston model ($6,700) A. Ostafe, Unlikely Intersections in Algebraic Dynamical Systems over Finite Fields ($6,700) P. Straka, Extreme value statistics for unevenly spaced observations ($6,700) J. Wang, An assessment of compulsory cycle helmet legislation in New Zealand ($6,700) J. Wishart, Practical tools for wavelet estimation
Discovery and tracking of coherent structures
in multichannel noisy deconvolution models
in geophysical flows (2015: $85,000; 2016:
($6,700)
$81,500; 2017: $85,000) D. M. Harvey, Fast algorithms for zeta functions of algebraic varieties, (2015: $110,000; 2016: $105,500; 2017: $110,000) F. Sukochev, D. Potapov, J. J. Dykema, Schur decompositions and related problems in operator theory (2015: $127,000; 2016 $121,800; 2017: $130,000; 2018: $130,000) D. I. Warton, Advances in biodiversity modelling and analysis of high-dimensional counts (2015; $100,000; 2016: $95,900; 2017: $100,000)
ARC - DECRA D. Zanin, A new concept of independence
Z. Botev, Can we estimate the volume of irregular polytopes? ($4,980)
FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS C. Angstmann, Anomalous diffusion models for reactions within biological cells ($5,000) T. Britz, Demi-matoids and Tutte polynomials: The next chapter on matroids and codes ($5,000) A. Cai, Mathematical modeling of mitochondria mutations ($5,000) F. Chen, Testing for the existence of excitation effects in recurrent event data ($8,000) P. Del Moral, Advanced Monte Carlo algorithms
in noncommutative probability theory (2015:
in Statistics and computational Physics ($5,000)
$100,000; 2016: $100,000; 2017: $100,000)
J. Du, Quantum linear and queer superalgebras and their representations ($5,000)
UNSW GOLDSTAR AWARD
Y. Fan, Fast, approximate Bayesian methods for
M.L. Banner, A new dimension in quantifying
G. Geenens, Flexible estimation of multivariate
fundamental air sea fluxes ($30,000) A. Coster, Insulin action: the mathematics of metabolism ($30,000) M. Holzer, Revealing the Southern Ocean’s changing connection with the atmosphere ($30,000)
FACULTY SILVERSTAR AWARD M. Voineagu, Equivariant motivic cohomologies ($25,000)
dynamic positron emission tomography ($5,000) densities combining pair-copula construction and innovative nonparametric assessment of dependence structures ($5,000) V. Jeyakumar, Multiobjective optimization in the face of data uncertainty ($5,000) S. Keating, Unravelling the submesoscale: New methods for deriving enhanced satellite observations of the ocean ($5,000) J. Kress, Applications of the algebraic variety of superintengrable systems ($5,000)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 43
Q. Le Gia, Meshless methods for direct and
M. Roughan, P.R. Oke, B. Powell, Advancing
inverse problems on spheres and surfaces
dynamical understanding in the east Australian
($8,000)
current: Optimizing the ocean observing and
G. Li, Splitting methods for nonconvex structured optimization problems: Convergence Analysis and Applications ($5,000) T. McDougall, Ocean mixing processes: innovation in oceanographic methods ($5,000) S. McNamara, Robustness of biochemical oscillations to intrinsic and extrinsic fluctuations ($5,000) J. Olivier, Improved methods for estimating causal effects from population-based
prediction effort (2014: $60,000; 2015: $75,000; 2016: $45,000) W.K. Schief, Discrete projective differential geometry: Comprehensive theory and integrable structure (2014: $120,000; 2015: $125,000; 2016: $135,000) F. Sukochev, A.L. Carey, The boundaries of index theory (2014: $120,000; 2015: $120,000; 2016: $125,000) I. Shparlinski, B.P. Mans, New Applications of
intervention such as mandatory helmet legislation
Additive Combinatorics in Number Theory and
and gun use restrictions ($5,000)
Graph Theory (2014: $317,286; 2015: $307,286;
S. Penev, Frontiers in inference about risk ($5,000) S. Sisson, Statistical methods for very large datasets: Models for approximate data ($5,000)
2016: $327,286), through Macquarie University S. Morrison, P. Grossman, V. Jones, Symmetries of subfactors (2014: $120,000; 2015: $110,000; 2016: $130,000), through ANU
N. Wildberger, Conics and inversions in hyperbolic geometries ($5,000)
ARC - DECRA
GRANTS COMMENCING IN 2014
Z. Botev, Mathematics of importance: The
ARC DISCOVERY GRANTS
DISCOVERY OUTSTANDING RESEARCHER AWARD (DORA)
M. Cowling, Generalised conformal mappings (2014: $87,380; 2015: $120,000; 2016: $135,000)
optimal importance sampling algorithm for estimating the probability of a black swan event (2014: $99,590; 2015: $95,690; 2016: $98,240)
I. Shparlinski
C.S. Greenhill, B.D. McKay, A new model for random discrete structures: distributions, counting and sampling (2014: $150,000; 2015: $110,000; 2016: $125,000) B.I. Henry, W.C. McLean, K.A. Mustapha, Advanced mathematical modelling and computation of fractional sub-diffusion problems in complex domains (2014: $115,000; 2015: $115,000; 2016: $115,000) J.A. Roberts, R. Quispel, F.W. Nijhoff, A.
UNSW GOLDSTAR AWARD T. McDougall, The ocean’s role in climate; quantifying the vertical circulation that is unrelated to the dissipation of energy ($30,000) J. Murray, Operations research methods can identify viral sequence elements associated with significant biological outcomes ($30,000)
Hone, New frontiers and advances in discrete
FACULTY SILVERSTAR AWARD
integrable systems (2014: $134,000; 2015:
F. Chen, Novel statistical models and inference
$134,000; 2016: $134,000)
methodologies for recurrent event data analysis ($25,000)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 44
A. Coster, Insulin control of glucose transporters: a mathematical analysis ($25,000) Y. Fan, Efficient Monte Carlo methods for Bayesian models: with application to positron
Q. Le Gia, Meshless methods for stochastic nonlinear partial differential equations on spheres and surfaces ($7,500) J. Olivier, Causal inference for evidence based
emission tomography (PET) image analysis
policy using comparative interrupted time series
($25,000)
($5,000) S. Penev, Robust inference about risk ($5,000)
EARLY CAREER RESEARCH GRANTS C. Angstmann, New mathematical model for the effects of anomalous diffusion with reaction on proteins in cells ( $6,000) Z. Botev, With normality is a problem: A reliable method for evaluating the cumulative distribution function of the multivariate normal distribution ($6,000) P. Straka, Stochastic models for anomalous diffusion and wave propagation ($6,000) J. Wang, Application of the geometric process
S. Sisson, New space-time models: Max-stability and beyond ($5,000) N.J. Wildberger, Synergies between Euclidean and hyperbolic geometries ($7,500)
GRANTS COMMENCING IN 2013 ARC DISCOVERY GRANTS T. Boecking, A.C. Coster, Single-molecule view
model for injury data in road safety research
of actin-tropomyosin flament dynamics (2013:
($6,000)
$107,000; 2014: $107,000; 2015: $107,000)
J. Wishart, Multichannel image wavelet deconvolution with dependence ($6,000)
D.S. Chan, Interactions between noncommutative algebra and algebraic geometry, (2013: $105,000; 2014: $105,000; 2015:
FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS T. Britz, New directions in the combinatorial investigations of coding theory ($5,000) L. Chan, Derivation of analytical solutions of financial derivatives under the regime switching model ($5,000) D. Combe, Distance-transitive directed graphs and multiplicity-free primitive permutation representations ($5,000) I. Doust, Novel embedding schemes in discrete functional analysis ($5,000) G. Geenens, Flexible estimation of multivariate
$105,000) J.M. Murray, B.I. Henry, T.A. Langlands, P.J. Klasse, Mathematical modelling can provide vital information on the effectiveness and practical implementation of microbicides and vaccines against HIV (2013: $95,000; 2014: $95,000; 2015: $95,000)
ARC LINKAGE J.M. Murray, G.P. Symonds, Innovative mathematical modelling to determine incorporation of gene therapy in different cell
densities combining pair-copula construction
lineages; Human Immunodeficiency Virus
and innovative nonparametric assessment of
(HIV) as a model setting (2013: $55,000; 2014:
dependence structures ($7,500)
$112,500; 2015: $115,000; 2016: $57,500)
V. Jeyakumar, Semi-algebraic optimization: the challenge of numerically certifiable mathematical analysis on polynomials ($5,000) S. Keating, Radical methods for deriving superresolved satellite observations of the ocean ($5,000) J. Kress, Superintegrability and conformal geometry ($5,000)
ARC FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS F.Y. Kuo, Liberating the dimension - frontier technologies for very high dimensional problems, (2013: $105,753.00; 2014: $203,944.50; 2015: $199,910.50; 2016: $193,326.50; 2017: $91,607.50) UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 45
G. Li, A new optimization approach for tensor
J. Olivier, Evidence based policy using
extreme eigenvalue problems: Modern
interrupted time series: the use and selection
techniques for multi-relational data analysis,
of comparative processes to address threats to
(2013: $78,110.00; 2014: $155,375.00; 2015: $153,510.00; 2016: $147,775.00; 2017: $71,530.00)
internal validity ($4,000) S. Penev, Vega approximations and robust calibration ($5,000) D. Potapov, Recent progress with BMV
EARLY CAREER RESEARCH GRANTS Z. Botev, Adaptive Monte Carlo methods for rare-event probability estimation and Bayesian inference ($5,750) F. Chen, Parametric and semiparametric
conjecture- implications for the perturban theory ($9,000) N. Wildberger, Lie sphere geometry, inversive geometry and hyperbolic geometry ($4,000)
estimation of Hawkes-type point processes
FACULTY SILVERSTAR AWARD
($5,750)
T. Britz, New directions in combinatorial coding
G. Geenens, Nonparametric copula modelling: theory and applications ($5,750) S. Keating (& M. Roughan), Topological, statistical and signal-theoric methods for
theory ($25,000) J. Murray, New mathematical approaches determining features associated with response in viral sequences ($25,000)
identifying Lagrangian coherent structures in the east Australian current ($5,750)
FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS
UNSW GOLDSTAR AWARD A. Coster, Insulin action in metabolism - insights from mathematics ($30,000)
A. Cai, Mathematical modeling of bioenergetics in the evolution of cell populations ($4,000) L. Chan, Pricing and calibration of volatility index-related derivatives ($4,000) F. Chen, A novel point process model for recurrent event modelling and its statistical inference ($3,000) I. Doust, Spectral theory for operators with complex spectrum ($7,000) S. Galbraith, Novel statistical methods for the design and analysis of complex biomedical studies ($6,000) B. Jefferies, Integration structures: Theory and integration ($4,000) J. Kress, Superintegrability and conformal geometry ($5,000) W. McLean (& K. Mustapha), Discontinuous
OTHER GRANTS T. Tran, Numerical methods for elliptic transmission problems with uncertain interfaces, 2013-2014 Group of Eight Australia – Germany Joint Research Co-operation Scheme ($10,000)
GRANTS COMMENCING IN 2012 ARC DISCOVERY GRANTS M.L. Banner, W.L. Peirson, F. Dias, Transitions in wave breaking from deep to shallow water (2012: $130,000; 2013: $120,000; 2014: $110,000) D.A. Bright, C.S. Greenhill, A. Ritter, C. Morselli,
Galerkin method for a fractional PDE with
Illicit drug trafficking: the structure of illicit
nonsmooth data ($5,000)
networks and implications for resilience and vulnerability (2012: $65,000; 2013: $44,000), through Faculty of Medicine A.H. Dooley, Group actions in random dynamical systems (2012: $120,000; 2013: $100,000; 2014: $100,000)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 46
J. Du, Quantum loop algebras and representations of affine q-Schur algebras (2012: $95,000; 2013: $95,000; 2014: $95,000) B. Goldys, J.F. Grotowski, T. Tran, Z. Brzezniak, R.W. Chantrell, The mathematics of novel magnetic memory materials (2012: $120,000; 2013: $100,000; 2014: $100,000) M. Holzer, F.W. Primeau, R.J. Matear, Global ocean productivity: revealing interaction patterns and nutrient pathways (2012: $100,000; 2013: $80,000; 2014: $80,000) V. Jeyakumar, G. Li, M.A. Goberna, New theory
ARC FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS G.A. Froyland, A probabilistic and geometric understanding of transport and metastability in mathematical geophysical flows (2012: $85,168.50; 2013: $172,015.50; 2014: $172,354; 2015: $166,544; 2016: $81,037) D.I. Warton, Advancing tools for the analysis of high-dimensional data in ecology (2012: $77,857; 2013: $155,714; 2014: $155,714; 2015: $155,714; 2016: $79,857)
and methods for robust global optimisation:
ARC LINKAGE
modern decision-making under uncertain
I.M. Suthers, M.B. Lowry, E.L. Johnston,
conditions (2012: $110,000; 2013: $110,000;
M. Roughan, M.D. Taylor, C.A. Gray, The trophic
2014: $110,000)
ecosystem of a purpose-built, offshore artificial
I.H. Sloan, J. Dick, H. Wendland, E.B. Saff,
reef: do coastal currents supply sufficient
Mathematics in the round - the challenge of
nutrients for the local production of fish? (2012:
computational analysis on spheres (2012:
$259,617; 2013: $157,000; 2014: $97,000)
$200,000; 2013: $170,000; 2014: $130,000) F. Sukochev, Noncommutative probability and analysis (2012: $320,000; 2013: $182,792; 2014: $200,000) D.I. Warton, New approaches to predictive modelling of high-dimensional count data to study climate impacts on ecological communities (2012: $100,000; 2013: $100,000; 2014: $100,000) G. Gottwald, G.A. Froyland, Extracting macroscopic variables and their dynamics in
EARLY CAREER RESEARCH GRANTS F. Chen, Parametric and semi-parametric estimation of self-exciting point processes ($9,793) G. Geenens, Smoothed k-nearest neighbour regression ($9,794) D. Potapov, Non-commutative analysis and quantum statistical mechanics ($9,794)
multiscale systems with metastable states (2012:
FACULTY RESEARCH GRANTS
$90,000; 2013: $90,000; 2014: $90,000), through
D. Chan, Non-commutative curves and surfaces
University of Sydney I.M. Wanless, C.S. Greenhill, R. Aharoni, Extremal problems in hypergraph matchings (2012: $120,000; 2013: $100,000; 2014: $100,000), through Monash University C.J. Burden, S.R. Wilson, Novel techniques for statistical and mathematical analyses of sequence data (2012: $120,000; 2013: $100,000; 2014: $100,000), through ANU
($4,200) L. Chan, Filtering for state-space models ($7,500) I. Doust, The geometry of discrete metric spaces ($5,000) S. Galbraith, Design and analysis of accelerated longitudinal studies ($6,000) H. Grundling, Field algebras for canonical quantum systems ($10,000) J. Kress, Higher order nonseparable superintegrability and multivariable hypergeometric functions ($7,000)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 47
S. Penev, New inference procedures for risk optimization in static and dynamic settings ($8,300) N. Wildberger, Hyperbolic triangle geometry ($10,000)
FACULTY SILVERSTAR AWARD A. Coster, Predictive mathematical modelling to define emergent properties of the insulin action pathway ($25,000)
UNSW GOLDSTAR AWARD J. Murray and B.I. Henry, Mathematical modelling can provide vital information on the effectiveness and practical implementation of microbicides and vaccines against HIV ($30,000) Y. Fan, Efficient methods for massively computational Bayesian models ($30,000)
ARC - DECRA D.M. Harvey, Counting solutions to equations over fields of large characteristic (2012: $125,000; 2013: $125,000; 2014: $125,000)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 48
James Nichols, Research Associate in the School (former UNSW PhD student): “I didn’t expect to find a selfdirected sense of confidence from it [doing a PhD], where after so long of having to kind of be your own boss in some sense, you eventually become good at that. Doing a PhD, you’re not given grades and you’re not given bonuses or pay rises at any point, so you feel a bit weightless – you’re not getting the gold star every day. So you have to deal with that. And in dealing with that you become good at kind of realising how to motivate yourself. And realising you have to motivate yourself purely based on your interests and subject area, otherwise you’re not going to succeed”.
IAN SLOAN TO BE A PLENARY SPEAKER AT ICIAM 2015
FRANCES KUO TO BE A PLENARY SPEAKER AT AUSTMS 2015 CONFERENCE
Professor Ian Sloan is set to be a plenary speaker
Associate Professor Frances Kuo will feature among
at the 2015 International Congress for Industrial and
10 invited plenary speakers at the 2015 59th Annual
Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), to be held in Beijing
Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society.
in August. The Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) is As the premier international congress in the field
the national society of the mathematics profession
of applied mathematics, ICIAM generally boasts
in Australia. Its annual meeting is the primary
several thousand participants at its conferences
mathematics conference in Australia.
which are held every four years. At the AustMS meeting, to be held at Flinders Ian is one of 27 invited speakers, selected by the
University in Adelaide in September 2015, A/Prof
Scientific Program Committee of ICIAM 2015 and
Kuo will present her recent work on high dimensional
approved by the ICIAM Board.
integration and partial differential equations with random coefficients.
Ian has had a long association with ICIAM. He was Chair of the Scientific Program Committee at the
The invited plenary speakers represent an elite
Sydney Congress in 2003. He also previously spent
group of academics and researchers, including
four years as President of the International Council
Fields Medallist Professor Terence Tao.
for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the body that oversees the Congresses. It is a huge honour to be invited as a plenary speaker at ICIAM, which is commonly viewed as the “Olympics” of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 49
FEDOR SUKOCHEVV INVITED TO SPEAK AT OPERATOR SPACES, QUANTUM PROBABILITY AND APPLICATIONS CONFERENCE IN FRANCE
PIERRE DEL MORAL COLLOQUIUM SPEAKER AT THE MAXWELL INSTITUTE COLLOQUIUM IN 2015
Professor Fedor Sukochev was invited to speak
Professor Pierre Del Moral delivered the colloquium
at the Operator Spaces, Quantum Probability and
presentation at the 2015 Maxwell Institute
Applications conference in Besançon, France, in
Colloquium at the University of Edinburgh in
December 2014. This meeting was held as a part of
February.
the Noncommutative Analysis month.
The Maxwell Institute Colloquium series brings
Professor Sukochev, whose research interests
to Edinburgh distinguished mathematicians or
encompass non-commutative functional analysis
mathematical scientists whose body of work has
and its applications to non-commutative geometry,
helped to establish or develop an important area of
and Banach space geometry and its applications,
research. In addition to giving lectures on their work,
was promoted to Professor Level E3 in 2012.
the colloquium speaker also meets with staff and postgraduate students for informal discussions.
Those promoted to a Level E3 Professorship fulfil a performance level at the top 5-15% of what is
Professor Del Moral presented his talk on Feynman-
expected of Professors in the three top universities
Kac particle methods (also called sequential
within the Group of Eight.
Monte Carlo, or more generally mean field particle methods). Professor Del Moral has published two books focusing on this topic: Mean field simulation for Monte Carlo integration (2013), Chapman & Hall/ CRC Press. p. 626. “Monographs on Statistics & Applied Probability”; and Feynman-Kac formulae: Genealogical and interacting particle approximations (2004), Springer. p. 575. “Series: Probability and Applications”. Professor Del Moral contributed some of the first pioneering articles on the applications of particle methodologies in nonlinear filtering problems.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 50
OUR STUDENTS
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 51
REPORT FROM DIRECTOR OF FIRST YEAR PETER BROWN
FIRST YEAR MATHEMATICS AT UNSW ENROLMENTS The School of Mathematics and Statistics enrols a substantial number of students coming into their first year at UNSW. In addition to Mathematics majors, we teach a large number of Engineers, Computer Scientists, and students majoring in biological science, actuarial studies, and physical sciences. The main first year Mathematics subjects are MATH1131/MATH1231 and their higher versions, MATH1141/MATH1241. These make up a total of almost 2000 students each semester. These courses give our students a solid grounding in the theory and applications of calculus, vectors, complex numbers, linear algebra, basic probability and statistics. In both semesters we have a small talented tutorial for some of our higher students whose purpose is to provide more intense and extending material for our best and brightest. The biological science majors generally take the subjects MATH1031 (Mathematics for Life Sciences) and MATH1041 (Statistics for Life Sciences). In first semester these make up a total of around 800 students, with a further 650 taking MATH1041 in semester 2. These are very popular and effective courses aimed at showing students the power and applicability of Mathematics in their own scientific disciplines. We have two actuarial Mathematics subjects, MATH1151/MATH1251, which have about 240 students each semester. These courses are very demanding. The Mathematics majors and Computer Science students also take an additional discrete Mathematics course, MATH 1081, with around 250 students each semester.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 52
Finally, for those who have not studied sufficiently high levels of Mathematics at high school and are seeking to upgrade, or who intend a nonmathematics major and want to take a mathematics elective, we provide MATH1011, a fundamentals course which accounts for about 60 students each semester.
IMPROVEMENTS Education always needs to be self-reflective and constantly looking for ways to improve. We have made a number of changes to First Year over the past four years. These include changes to the syllabi, order of topics and modes of assessment. Some of these followed consultation
In total, the first year enrolment for semester 1
with Engineering and Physics. In addition we have
in 2014 was 3350, and 3326 in semester 2. This
introduced an Assumed Knowledge Quiz to assist
represents a 38% increase since 2008 and the
students with their choice of levels given their
number has been steadily growing for the past four
various backgrounds. We have been experimenting
years. It is pleasing to see that UNSW is attracting
with the use of MAPLE-TA as a platform for formative
so many students. While there is a danger in
learning – we are planning to extend this even
decreasing student quality when quantity increases,
further next year. The School of Mathematics and
this does not appear to have been the case. The raw
Statistics now has a video room (The MERLIN
examination data each semester seems, on average,
Studio) where staff can, with a minimum of effort,
to be steady, if not improving. The strong ATAR for
make videos to supplement and support the more
Engineering and Science has helped to maintain the
traditional modes of delivery. In first year we have
high standard.
made great use of this facility and produced over 100 videos for a variety of subjects. Our recent
TEACHING With numbers such as this, it is fundamental that
video survey has revealed how popular and wellreceived this has been.
we have well-tried and tested systems in place
Since the unfortunate removal of pre-requisites
to guarantee both quality of subject delivery and
some years ago, we have attracted a small number
organisational integrity. We have a large number of
of students who have not undertaken an appropriate
casual tutors who take tutorial classes, and, in some
level of Mathematics at high school. To deal with
cases, also lectures, to assist with the teaching
this need, we have set up a special relationship with
and marking of First Year courses. The School has
Randwick TAFE which provides remedial courses for
set up a coherent system of recruiting, mentoring
students in this category.
and monitoring sessional staff to try to ensure consistency and quality. We have a Visiting Teaching Fellow position, where an experienced high school teacher works with us each year, to assist in maintaining our strong emphasis on teaching excellence. As Director of First Year I am happy to say that our School has a strong culture of taking its teaching very seriously.
CONCLUSION It has been a very interesting and challenging position being Director of First Year Mathematics at UNSW for the past four years. I am always grateful and highly indebted to my colleagues and administrative assistants for their continued help and sustained commitment to making UNSW
Some evidence of our success is shown in the
Mathematics and Statistics such a great place to
CATEI survey satisfaction ratings. The average
work and study, and to ensuring that our students
semester 1 satisfaction rating over all the first
have the best educational experience we can offer.
year courses over the past 3 years has been about 90%.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 53
REPORT FROM DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES JOHN STEELE The UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics has among the largest student enrolments in the institution: In 2014 we taught nearly 7,400 individual students across all years, the equivalent of nearly 1,500 full-time students. Over the last three years our major growth in numbers has come from first year courses and second year servicing courses, but we have a steady stream of students choosing to major in mathematics and/or statistics. Most of these students are in Advanced Mathematics, or a dual degree with Advanced Mathematics and either commerce or actuarial studies. In 2014, we introduced an Advanced Mathematics and Engineering degree, and from 2015 an Advanced Mathematics and Computer Science degree will be available. Mathematics and statistics streams are available in the BSc, BSc (Intl), BSciBus, BSc (Adv Sci), BSc (Adv Maths), BEc, BActlStudies and BEd/BSc, as well as all associated dual degrees. Some BE degrees and streams include mathematics courses as high year electives or allow an elective maths strand. This gives the School an unparalleled reach, impact and interest across the institution. We teach over 90 courses, ranging from first year courses for students who have enrolled with only HSC 2-unit maths, to advanced courses at Honours and Masters level. We have a long standing tradition that all our academic staff teach at all levels, and we typically move staff between courses every few years. This ensures staff do not become stale and that all staff are capable of assisting students in a wide range of courses. The quality of our teaching is reflected in our excellent rating from student surveys: We have UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 54
a long standing policy of surveying each course we run every time we run it, and we take care to immediately identify and rectify those rare issues that arise. Our staff have also won several recent awards for teaching excellence. We see many transfers from other institutions, attracted by our range of course and teaching quality, and attract a good number of exchange students keen to take our courses. We recently revised the structure of our Honours programs in response to the University’s new policy on Honours. This takes effect in 2015.
There is no compromise with the quality of our teaching - it is always at the highest standard. The average rating of student satisfaction with our courses is consistently around 90%, with about one third of the courses achieving a 100% satisfaction mark.
DIRECTOR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES As Director of Undergraduate Studies at the UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics, my direct responsibility is for all second and third year courses and all our undergraduate streams. But I am also involved in overseeing assessment standards and practices, and am generally responsible for ensuring staff follow the School, Faculty and University policies on all issues to do with the administration of teaching and welfare of students, as well as ensuring the School’s policies and procedures conform to the University’s. I have been a regular
30
respondent to the University on draft policy and
25
procedures, mainly on academic matters, but also
20
on wider issues that impact the School and Faculty.
15
Most of the detailed administration work attached to
10
my position is done by the School’s Student Services
5
team, but I am generally responsible for overseeing their work in the undergraduate area.
Growth in Honours Students
35
0 2012
I am also heavily involved in advising students on
2013
2014
2015
Growth in Undergraduate Students
courses and study plans, and am responsible for approving transfer credits and assessing incoming
8000
and outgoing exchange applications.
7000 6000
My position requires me to liaise with the Faculty
5000
of Science and other key Faculties (especially
4000
Engineering and ASB) on our teaching, streams and programs. I represent the School on the Science Education Committees and regularly attend the Engineering Education Committee.
3000 2000 1000 0 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 55
REPORT FROM LEARNING AND TEACHING COMMITTEE CHAIR DIANA COMBE The Learning and Teaching Committee aims to
For our classroom teaching, the Committee
foster conversation about learning and teaching,
members assess the applications submitted to
to support learning and teaching, and to support
the School by prospective sessional tutors at the
and encourage learners and teachers. In 2014 the
beginning of each semester, and then ensure the
committee included the following representation
mentoring of new and established tutors throughout
from the School (and the 2014 incumbent), giving
the semester. The Committee oversees the
a good representation of the School with regard to
Student Support Scheme (run by the Director and
undergraduate teaching and learning:
Coordinator), seeing that new tutor applicants are assessed for suitability, and that all the SSS tutors
Director of First Year Studies (Peter Brown)
are supported through workshops and seminars.
First Year Computing representative (Jonathan Kress) Director of the Student Support Scheme (SSS) (David Angell) Departmental representatives for Pure Maths (Norman Wildberger), Applied Maths (Chris
Learning and Teaching seminars have been held irregularly and have been wonderfully well attended and supported. The seminars aim to provoke and promote conversation about teaching and are always followed by refreshments.
Tisdell and then Nick Fewster) and Statistics (Jake Olivier) Visiting Teaching Fellow (Thanom Shaw) and Chair (Diana Combe). By the end of the year, the Committee grew to also include a representative of the Online Activities
Highlights of the 2014 seminar series have been: An introduction to the new video room, The MERLIN Studio (by Chris Tisdell and Norman Wildberger) “The Flipped Classroom”: What’s it all about? A
Committee (Norman Wildberger) and also the
discussion by Randell Heyman, Jonathan Kress
Student Coordinator of the SSS (Catheryn Gray).
and Thanom Shaw who had visited several other universities to see flipped classrooms in action
During the year we celebrated together with the
“Perspectives from a secondary school teacher”,
official opening of our well-equipped video room,
in which Thanom Shaw, our 2014 Teaching
and the many maths videos now being produced
Fellow, reflected on her time at UNSW in 2014.
there. These videos are well appreciated by our own and external students.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 56
Dorothy Cheung, Bcom/BSc (Advanced Mathematics): “That’s the main reason I decided to do maths – because of the [Girls Do The Maths] workshop. I remember going to the workshop and thinking, “it’s all going to be boring!”, but then they showed us a lot of applications from maths, which were very interesting. Attending the workshop was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do maths at UNSW”.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 57
ADVANCED MATHEMATICS PROGRAM
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 58
“Like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting that brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler’s equation reaches down into the very depths of existence.� Keith J. Devlin
Our Advanced Mathematics degree is our premier
relationships of mathematics, providing students
program for talented mathematics students. The
with the ability to formulate theories which may
students who complete this program will become
transcend specific applications. Advanced Statistics
capable of developing new mathematics, to add to
will develop the ability to use factual material for
core mathematical knowledge, or to solve important
modelling and inference, exploring the fundamental
real world problems. The program combines
theories behind the handling of uncertainty and risk.
advanced coursework with an Honours-level
Quantitative Risk is an emerging field which deals
research project. The students have access to the
with risk in banking, financial and related areas. The
most advanced facilities, combined with innovative
Quantitative Risk Study Plan is taught in conjunction
teaching.
with the Schools of Banking and Finance and Actuarial Studies.
The Advanced Mathematics program is a fouryear degree, but many students in the Advanced
Some students in the Advanced Mathematics
Mathematics program undertake dual degrees such
program will also be eligible for the High
as the five-year Commerce and Science (Advanced
Performance Students Plan. This is restricted to
Mathematics) program or the six-year Engineering
the very top Mathematics students (very high
and Science (Advanced Mathematics) program.
marks in HSC Mathematics Extension 2 or with
The Advanced Mathematics program is divided into
Mathematical Olympiad training). Students in the
several plans of study.
High Performance plan are effectively able to design their own degree with few restrictions (but subject
The Applied Mathematics Plan provides
to approval). Each student will have an academic
mathematical and computational skills for innovative
mentor who will assist them in planning their studies
applications to all areas, as well as the capability
as well as involving them in special research
to construct, analyse and interpret mathematical
projects to enhance their academic experience and
descriptions. Pure Mathematics will develop a deep
potential.
understanding of the fundamental structures and UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 59
ADVANCED MATHEMATICS DAY
The third annual Advanced Mathematics Day
After morning tea, an Honours panel discussion
was held on Friday 19th September 2014 in the
was held for the third and fourth year students.
Tyree Room, Scientia. Students of the Advanced
The discussion was led by Honours Coordinators
Mathematics program, plus our Masters and PhD
Shane Keating, Catherine Greenhill and Feng Chen,
students, attended sessions throughout the day.
who provided information about Honours projects. Current Honours students Aram Asatryan, Chanduni
The morning session, attended by first and second
Wijesinghe and Peter Nguyen answered questions
year students, heard from each of the Heads
about, and provided insights into, their experiences
of Department (Acting Applied Head - Robert
of undertaking Honours.
Womersley, Pure - Ian Doust, Statistics - Spiro Penev). Former Honours student Nick Fewster
The third-fourth year cohort also listened to an
delivered a talk on his experience studying Honours
inspiring talk by our alumnus Stephen Broadfoot,
at UNSW, and MathSoc President Gary Liang spoke
who now works at Google on an Android Auto
to the students about the UNSW Maths Society’s
project. The group also heard from Ava Bargi, a
activities.
current intern at CommBank. Fourth year student Barton Lee was this year’s recipient of the Advanced Mathematics Honours Scholarship, awarded to him for his exceptional academic performance.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 60
Lunch was attended by a large group of students, several School staff members, and Faculty of Science Dean, Professor Merlin Crossley. In the afternoon, our Honours, Masters and PhD students listened to a talk by data analytics professionals Alex Slocombe and Marie Siddle from Bluefin Resources. They were then treated to an energetic presentation by Iain Collings, Deputy Chief - Research in CSIRO’s Computational Informatics. Nick Fewster spoke again, this time about his experience as a PhD student, and provided practical advice to the attending students. Professor Pierre Del Moral from the School gave an engaging presentation about his research and his impressive academic career. All student attendees were entered into a prize draw, and three lucky students won Samsung Galaxy tablets. Opposite page Above left: Stephen Broadfoot Right: 2014 Advanced Mathematics Honours Scholarship recipient, Barton Lee
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 61
ONLINE LEARNING
8,000,000+ hits!!! Chris Tisdell anTisdell) (Chris Norm Wildberger
The School continues to lead the way in online
A/Prof Norman Wildberger’s YouTube channel is
delivery.
also going from strength to strength. He was the first lecturer at UNSW to establish an academic YouTube
We launched The MERLIN Studio (Mathematics,
channel six years ago, and has since created
Educational Resources, Learning and Innovation
more than 500 educational mathematics videos.
Nexus), our state-of-the-art digital teaching and
His channel has exceeded three million hits and
research studio, in May 2014 with a ceremony
20,000+ subscribers.
attended by UNSW Science Dean Merlin Crossley and then-Associate Dean (Education) Julian Cox. The
A/Prof Wildberger has also spearheaded the
studio, which features an editing suite and cutting-
development of a suite of six short professional
edge equipment, enables us to take our online
development online courses called Mathematics
learning and research initiatives to the next level.
in The Modern World. The courses are aimed at Australian high school mathematics teachers who
Associate Professor Chris Tisdell and Associate
want to enhance and strengthen their understanding
Professor Norman Wildberger ran a seminar
of some important mathematical theories and their
following the launch, to instruct School members on
applications to the modern world.
the use of the facility. These six courses will provide focused online Our staff are pioneers in online learning and
lessons and activities through OpenLearning.
teaching ventures.
Course topics include: Archimedes and the Law
A/Prof Chris Tisdell’s YouTube channel is approaching five million hits and 26,000 subscribers. It is the number one ranked education and research channel on YouTube EDU across the Go8, and is in the top 40 on YouTube EDU across the globe. A/Prof
of the Lever; Curves from Apollonius to Bezier; Population Growth and the Logistic Curve; Primes, Modular Arithmetic and RSA Encryption; Graphs, Networks and the Page Rank Algorithm; Celestial Motion and Going to the Moon.
Tisdell’s free e-book, “Engineering Mathematics:
Our School YouTube channel can be found at:
YouTube Workbook”, which combines written lessons
www.youtube.com/MathsStatsUNSW
with online video tutorials, has surpassed 1 million downloads. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 62
Chris Tisdell gives a seminar to staff about the studio.
Prof Merlin Crossley cuts the ribbon Chris Tisdell’s You tube
Norman Wildberger gives a seminar to staff about the studio
the official opening of the studio Norman Wildberger’s You tube UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 63
STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS
ISAAC DONNELLY
BARTON LEE
EDWARD MCDONALD
BORIS BERANGER
PhD student Isaac Donnelly received a highly
Advanced Mathematics student Edward McDonald
coveted Fulbright Scholarship (2015). Isaac will
has won a veritable bonanza of prizes for his
spend 10 months at Northeastern Uni, Boston,
exceptional academic performance. The fourth
under the mentorship of world-leading scientist Prof
year student’s prizes have included the George
Albert-László Barabási, working on the development
Szekeres Award, the J.R. Holmes Prize, the Applied
of non-linear control theory for networks.
Mathematics Prize, the School of Mathematics and Statistics Prize 2, the Westpac Banking Corporation
Isaac says he will aim to “not only do outstanding
Prize, and the Weatherzone Prize. He also received
research in the field of network science, but to learn
the 2013 School of Mathematics and Statistics
how the bridge between academia and the wider
Scholarship.
world is formed in the US and be a champion of transferring this knowledge to Australia”.
PhD student Boris Beranger won the esteemed J.B. Douglas Award (2014). The J.B. Douglas
Isaac was one of just 11 Fulbright postgraduate
competition, organised by the NSW Branch of the
scholars from all disciplines across Australia
Statistical Society of Australia, is held annually
selected in 2015.
between selected PhD students of New South Wales
Fourth year Advanced Science/Commerce student Barton Lee was 2014’s recipient of the Advanced Mathematics Honours Scholarship, awarded to him for his outstanding academic performance. He was presented with the award at the annual Advanced Mathematics Day event. Barton also won the School of Mathematics and Statistics Summer Research Scholarship in late 2014.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 64
universities. UNSW Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Research Director, Professor David Warton, said that Boris’ presentation, Extremal dependence models: state of the art and new advances, “wowed us with his crazy contributions to extreme value theory - in particular, extensions to multivariate problems and handling skewed data”.
FRANCIS HUI
JIM DOUGLAS
STEPHEN MAHER
DANIEL MANSFIELD
The award commemorates the work of the late Jim
titled “The recoverable robust tail assignment
Douglas, who was one of the earliest appointments
problem”.
JOEL BEEREN
in the UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics. Then-PhD student Daniel Mansfield won the Our PhD student Francis Hui won the J.B. Douglas
Analysis Prize at the 2013 Australian Mathematical
Award in 2013.
Sciences Student Conference at ANU. The Conference brings together postgraduate and
Former PhD student Stephen Maher has snared the
honours students in the mathematical sciences from
2014 INFORMS Aviation Applications Dissertation
around Australia, enabling them to communicate
Prize for his thesis, “The application of recoverable
their work, facilitating dialogue, and encouraging
robustness to airline planning problems”. Stephen,
collaboration.
whose thesis was completed under the supervision of Professor Gary Froyland and co-supervisor
Joel Beeren was conferred the University Medal at
Cheng-Lung Wu from UNSW Aviation, recently
a ceremony at UNSW’s Clancy Theatre in 2013. The
graduated from UNSW and now works as a
First Class Honours Pure Mathematics student was
postdoctoral researcher at the Zuse Institute Berlin.
supervised by the School’s Dr David Harvey. Joel now works as a Research Engineer at NICTA.
This isn’t the first time that Stephen’s work in airline operations research has been recognised. In late 2012, he received the Anna Valicek Award at the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies symposium in Arizona. He was awarded for his research paper
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 65
MATHSOC
The UNSW Mathematics Society (MathSoc) is one of the largest societies at UNSW, with membership spanning from first year students to School staff. MathSoc keeps students abreast of maths-related opportunities in their studies and careers, and regularly hosts course information and careerfocused events. MathSoc also helps to enhance the sense of community among UNSW maths students via regular social activities, and its participation in notable events such as the annual “Pi Day”. In recent times, MathSoc has run cruises, integration bees, seminars, trivia nights, Q&A sessions, popular Open Day HSC forums, and social soccer games. It also has a strong presence in the School and is actively involved with our Publicity Committee.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 66
“I think we need more math majors who don't become mathematicians. More math major doctors, more math major high school teachers, more math major CEOs, more math major senators. But we won't get there unless we dump the stereotype that math is only worthwhile for kid geniuses.” Jordan Ellenberg How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
Peter Ayre, former Pure Mathematics Honours student: “I think the nicest thing about doing Honours in maths is that it’s the first time that you properly really get involved with the School of Mathematics and Statistics on a community level. As there are only about 5-10 people in your class, all your lecturers will know you by name and are all quite familiar with you, to the extent that they know how you think and how you solve problems. They are actually meaningfully concerned with your work – they’ll go out of their way to attend your seminars, and talk to you about their ideas and how you could change things in your thesis and things like that. When you become an Honours student, the involvement with the School on a communal level is really nice and it’s probably one of the best parts of being an Honours student”.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 67
Varun Nayyar, BSc (Mathematics)/ BEngineering: “What keeps me interested has been the power and scope of mathematics and its applicability to real life. I always love hearing about how maths can be applied in the real world, and being a statistics major, I get to see this a lot, especially with the rise of the Internet age. The field is constantly evolving yet staying true to its original principles, meaning that your knowledge is never useless, yet you constantly have new things to learn and do�.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 68
POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE
The inaugural School Postgraduate Conference
Director of Postgraduate Studies (Research),
was held on Wednesday 1st October, 2014. More
Professor David Warton, said of the event: “The
than 30 of our Postgraduate students delivered
Postgrad Conference demonstrated how fortunate
presentations communicating their research during
we are in the School to have a team of talented and
the action-packed event at UNSW’s Colombo
enthusiastic postgraduate students - doing really
Theatres.
interesting research across a range of disciplines. And entertaining presenters too!”
The event attracted around 80 attendees throughout the day, including School staff and students.
The full-day event culminated in an after-party at the White House for attendees and speakers.
The presentations showcased the vibrant and dynamic research flowing from our Postgraduate
Congratulations to David Warton (pictured below)
cohort. The event also featured five plenary
and his organising committee of PhD students Boris
speakers, including Isaac Donnelly, Francis Hui
Beranger, Ashish Goyal and Yuehua Li for such a
and Anna Tomskova, who presented results from
successful event.
their recent papers in top international maths/stats journals. Jieyi He and Yuguang Wang both delivered talks which they recently presented at overseas conferences.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 69
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
PETER AYRE
MICHELLE DUNBAR
Many of our students go on to pursue exciting careers. We’ve hand-picked a sample of our former students below, who have built on their academic foundations and applied their knowledge to develop engaging and challenging careers, or to further their studies.
MICHELLE DUNBAR - VICE CHANCELLOR’S POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW AT UOW I studied a Bachelor of Advanced Science, majoring in Applied Mathematics at UNSW. I enjoyed mathematics so much that I decided to undertake
PETER AYRE - GRADUATE CONSULTANT, AT KEARNEY
a PhD in Optimisation; for which I developed a
I spent four years at UNSW working my way
across a flight network.
mathematical framework to assist in the scheduling of aircraft and crew to minimise delay propagation
through a bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics with an additional honours year researching
The optimisation and integration of transport
Operator Theory. In spite of lacking knowledge of
networks is becoming a hot topic as infrastructure
the business world, I then fortunately managed to
planners seek to provide greater connectivity
convince the management consultancy firm A.T.
and uptake of public transport. The SMART
Kearney to give me permanent employment.
Infrastructure Facility, based at the University of Wollongong, is actively interested in investigating
We help businesses solve some of the core strategic
transport-related research problems, and I accepted
issues that they’re struggling with, taking me
a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship with
all around Australia and even as far as Malaysia! The
them in August 2012.
reason that my firm took me in was because they believed I had the ability to think through problems
In my current role, I interact not only with other
in a structured and clear way - something that I
mathematicians; but engineers, statisticians,
definitely attribute to my mathematics education.
economists and geo-spatial scientists. This interdisciplinary framework allows me to provide mathematical optimisation solutions for integrated transport infrastructure, as well as having the opportunity to examine a problem from a variety of
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 70
JESSICA EGAN
RON ELAZAR
interesting angles. Studying mathematics at UNSW
I now work as an Actuarial Analyst at Taylor Fry
not only provided me with the valuable mathematical
Consulting Actuaries in Sydney. I’m excited to have
tools to undertake mathematical research, but
found a niche of mathematically minded people in
moreover the tools for critical thinking, logical
the workforce, as I did at UNSW. Perhaps later I’ll
reasoning and the ability to communicate complex
return to more academic pursuits. That’s one of the
mathematical concepts to a general audience; to
beauties of mathematics – you can do just about
share the beauty of mathematics with those whom I
anything with it.
meet!
JESSICA EGAN - ACTUARIAL ANALYST AT TAYLOR FRY CONSULTING ACTUARIES
RON ELAZAR - QUANTITATIVE ANALYST, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION I studied a Master of Science in Financial
I never intended to study mathematics at university,
Mathematics at UNSW. I selected the program
but without a doubt, it was one of the best decisions
which was new at the time due to the high standing
I have ever made. I wanted to be on the frontier
reputation of the academic staff heading the
making breakthrough discoveries at the very
program.
forefront of modern science. I thought I had to be studying nanotechnology, biotechnology or
Towards the completion of the program I realised
computer science. I never dreamed of the myriad
I needed to enhance my technical knowledge
of possibilities that mathematics offers, both
in statistics. I then decided to undertake further
academically and in the outside world.
study with a Post Graduate Diploma in Statistics to complement my existing knowledge.
It didn’t take too long for me to realise that I didn’t just need to study mathematics; I wanted to. The
Upon completing the program I received and
study of mathematics is so very diverse. A single
accepted an offer for a full time role as a Quantitative
problem can be challenging, inspiring, humbling,
Analyst at Westpac Banking Corporation where
uplifting and fun; all at the same time.
I currently work in the field of credit portfolio modelling and analysis. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 71
ANTHONY MORRIS
PETER STRAKA
Apart from the excellent level of academic training
example, recently I was working on conversions
I received, the staff, academic and administrative
between different 3D spatial reference systems
alike, were always very helpful and friendly. Studying
which required me to recall my linear algebra and
at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at
geometry courses.
UNSW has granted me fantastic opportunities, professionally and personally. It has been a period of my life I will always look back on with a great sense of fondness.
PETER STRAKA – LECTURER AT THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS, UNSW
ANTHONY MORRIS – SOFTWARE ENGINEER, GOOGLE
Maths has always fascinated me, and I decided
I studied pure mathematics at UNSW from 2008-
undergraduate student in Germany.
to pursue a PhD in mathematics when I was an
2011, completing my honours thesis on Analytic Number Theory. In my final year, I applied for a job at
In choosing the university at which I was going to
Google Sydney as a software engineer. I had done
apply for a PhD degree, I took into account the
only a handful of computer science courses during
quality of research of my potential supervisor, my
my undergraduate degree, but combined with my
interest in it, and also a good international standing
mathematics education, I was able to pass through
of the university. UNSW met all these requirements,
the interview process and receive an offer which I
and on top of that I was funded by a scholarship
duly accepted.
which made it possible for me to devote my entire focus to research. Such programs are, globally
I have been working at Google since 2012 on the
speaking, very rare, and I could not believe my
Android Maps API team and have been the technical
luck. Although it was not required by the program, I
lead for the project for the past year. While I haven’t
happily taught several first and second year tutorials,
been able to apply much of my honours thesis in
to gain some teaching experience and to earn some
my current role (it was in pure maths after all!), I
extra money. UNSW also provides funding for PhD
have been able to apply many of the other things
students to present their research at international
I learnt during my mathematics education. For
conferences, which made it possible for me to attend
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 72
CHIN PIN WONG
a conference in Osaka and a probability theory summer school in Vancouver. This was certainly a great experience and a wonderful opportunity to network with fellow peers and professors in my field.
CHIN PIN WONG – PHD AT OXFORD At the end of my BSc (Advanced Mathematics) degree at UNSW, I applied and was fortunate enough to be accepted as a PhD student at the
In the course of the program, there are many
University of Oxford. Although many reasons
opportunities for PhD students to broaden their
factored into my decision to undertake a PhD, my
horizons by doing some extra work outside their
time as a student at UNSW certainly played a major
research fields, and I know several colleagues who
role. The math I learnt at UNSW fortified my interest
have worked as research assistants in computational
in mathematics, the large research component
biology or as interns which were commissioned
of my degree sparked an appetite for more, and
through the Australian Mathematical Sciences
the support from my lecturers led me to consider
Institute. I also worked as a research assistant at the
pursuing a future in mathematics and helped set me
Australian School of Business.
on my way.
After graduating in August 2011, I worked as a postdoc in Michigan and Manchester. Now I am back at the UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics as a lecturer in statistics, mainly researching probabilistic models for diffusion and waves in disordered media. All in all, the PhD degree from UNSW was a very pleasant experience which has prepared me very well for a career in research and teaching of mathematics.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 73
NEW COURSES
Mathematics is not static, it’s something that
begun in level I courses. It replaced the 3uoc
is created and evolves as our understanding
course MATH2120 and it (or its higher level version
of the physical universe and our social and
MATH2221) is a compulsory course in all non-
technological complexity develops. Most of
Advanced Maths, oceanography and physics
the undergraduate courses in the School of
majors.
Mathematics and Statistics have been taught, but with revisions, over the past 40 years. As part of this process of revision and renewal, we have offered the following new courses since 2012.
2014
MATH2221 HIGHER THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS This course is a higher level version of MATH2121 and replaced MATH2130. It is a compulsory course in all Advanced Maths and oceanography majors.
MATH3871: BAYESIAN INFERENCE AND COMPUTATION
MATH2521 COMPLEX ANALYSIS
This course introduces the ideas of Bayesian
This course covers the key ideas of complex
inference and then covers application of
analysis leading up to the use of residues
these techniques to key problems in statistical
in evaluating real integrals, and also covers
computations. It is double badged as MATH5860
applications of complex analysis. It replaced the
and had been offered at the honours/masters level
3uoc course MATH2520 and it (or its higher level
for several years previously. We allow students to
version MATH2621) is a compulsory course in all
take it as a level III statistics elective in all statistics
non-Advanced Maths majors.
majors.
MATH2121 THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS This course continues the study and applications of both ordinary and partial differential equations
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 74
MATH2621 HIGHER COMPLEX ANALYSIS This course is a higher level version of MATH2521 and replaced MATH2620. It is a compulsory course in all Advanced Maths majors.
2013
2012
MATH2701 ABSTRACT ALGEBRA AND FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS In this course students study concrete examples
MATH2241 INTRODUCTION TO ATMOSPHERE AND OCEAN DYNAMICS
in algebra and analysis but with a level of rigor
This course introduces students to the mathematical
suitable for the further advanced study. The course’s
study of the atmosphere and oceans. As such it is
purpose is to help students bridge the gap between
a compulsory course in the physical oceanography
second year core courses and higher year courses
and climate dynamics majors of the BSc and
by introducing mathematical rigor without too much
Advanced Science degrees. It replaced and
abstraction. It is restricted to students in Advanced
extended the previous 3uoc course MATH2240.
Maths or Advanced Science and is a compulsory course in the pure maths major in Advanced Maths.
MATH5185 ENVIRONMENTAL FLUID MECHANICS & THERMODYNAMICS
MATH6781 BIOMATHEMATICS This course introduces the mathematical modelling of biological and biomedical systems. It replaced a second year course of the same name when the School decided students at the third year, honours or
The lectures in this course present the fundamentals
masters level would be better placed to master the
of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics in
material covered in this new and expanding field.
the context of fluid flow in the environment, instilling the major principles and techniques used in solving nonlinear differential systems. MATH5185 Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics is taught by Herbert Huppert and Trevor McDougall, both Fellows of the Royal Society of London.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 75
SCHOLARSHIPS
THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS RURAL SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR Awarded to a student (or students) from a country high school with an ATAR score of at least 95 and a Mathematics Extension 1 and 2 total of at least 185. Students must be proposing to undertake fulltime study in a Bachelor of Science or combined
UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS Each year, the School of Mathematics and Statistics offers a number of Scholarships to students entering UNSW and enrolling in programs of study including Mathematics or Statistics majors or study plans.
THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR Awarded to the student (or students) with the best high school performance (based on HSC Mathematics results and ATAR) who enrols in a degree program which includes one of the possible majors or study plans in Mathematics. For renewal, Scholars must enrol in Mathematics courses so that, by the end of their Second Year, they have completed at least 36 Units of Credit of Mathematics courses, and by the end of their Third Year, they have completed at least 60 Units of Credit of Mathematics courses. They must also maintain a superior level of achievement in their University studies.
THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS TEACHERS SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR Awarded to the student (or students) with an ATAR score of at least 85 who wishes to become a Mathematics teacher and enrols in an appropriate degree program. For renewal, the students must continue their enrolment in a degree program for prospective Mathematics teachers and must maintain a satisfactory level of achievement in their University studies.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 76
degree at UNSW, with a major or study plan in mathematics or statistics. For renewal, the students must maintain satisfactory progress through Mathematics/Statistics courses at the same rate as the School of Mathematics and Statistics Scholars. They must also maintain a high level of achievement in their University studies. Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle, Wollongong, the Blue Mountains and their surrounding areas are not classified as rural for the purposes of this Scholarship.
THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR Awarded to a student (or students) with an ATAR score of at least 95 who enrols in a degree program which includes a major or study plan in Mathematics or Statistics. For renewal, the students must maintain progress through Mathematics courses at the same rate as the School of Mathematics and Statistics Scholars. They must also maintain a high level of achievement in their University studies. These Scholarships may also be awarded to students who have completed First Year at UNSW with excellent results.
THE ALMA DOUGLAS SCHOLARSHIP IN STATISTICS $6000 PER YEAR Available to students currently undertaking the HSC (or equivalent) and proposing to undertake fulltime study in the Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) at UNSW. Selection will be based on academic merit. It will usually be awarded for the duration of the undergraduate study, subject to satisfactory progress. Applicants must be Australian citizens or permanent residents.
GIRLS DO THE MATHS SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR
THE MICHAEL DORRELL AWARD IN MATHEMATICS $5000 TOTAL
Awarded to female students who commit to
The purpose of the Award is to encourage two
undertake full-time study in a Bachelor of Science
exceptional students (one male and one female),
with a Mathematics major or study plan. The
identified as recipients of The Beautiful Mind
scholarship will be tenable for up to 3 years, subject
Scholarship, to undertake study at UNSW.
to satisfactory progress. In order for the scholarship to be renewed, recipients must have completed
HONOURS SCHOLARSHIPS
by the end of their second year at least 36 Units of Credit of courses offered by the School of
Honours students may apply for the following
Mathematics and Statistics, and 60 Units of Credit
scholarships.
by the end of their third year. Recipients must maintain a WAM of at least 75 in their studies.
ADVANCED MATHEMATICS HONOURS SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR The recipient of this scholarship will be identified by
In addition, the School awards two prizes for Honours students: the Buchwald Award in Applied Mathematics (one award of $400 pa, for a student in the final year of Honours Applied Mathematics), and The George Szekeres Award (one award of $300, available to students entering the final year of Honours Pure Mathematics).
the Head of School in consultation with a committee. Normally this will be the student with the highest WAM in any Advanced Mathematics program at the end of Semester 1 who will be enrolling in Honours in S1 or S2 the following year.
HONOURS RELOCATION SCHOLARSHIPS The Dean’s Honours Relocation Scholarship is a scheme designed to provide opportunities for high-
This award will provide $5,000 if the selected
performing students to study their Honours year in
student enrols in Honours in Advanced Mathematics.
the Faculty of Science at UNSW. This scholarship,
The student identified will be announced and
valued at $5,000, goes to cover the costs of
awarded at the annual Advanced Mathematics Day
relocation of non-UNSW students.
event.
THE BEAUTIFUL MIND SCHOLARSHIP $5000 PER YEAR
UNSW HONOURS YEAR SCHOLARSHIPS Each year ten Honours scholarships are awarded
Awarded to two recipients each year (one male
to students who achieve an average Distinction in
and one female). Applicants will be assessed on
their respective undergraduate degree program.
academic merit, based on the UNSW Annual School
The scholarship is only available to students who
Mathematics Competition results in the year prior
are enrolled in a degree program where the award
to the awarding of this Scholarship. Students who
of Honours requires an extra year of full- time
have been awarded a Distinction or above in the
study over and above the requirements of the pass
competition should apply directly to the Head of
degree. The scholarship is $5000 for 1 year.
School, School of Mathematics and Statistics, stating which Bachelor of Science degree they would be pursuing at UNSW.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 77
SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS HONOURS YEAR AWARD
THE MICHAEL DORRELL AWARD IN MATHEMATICS
This scholarship covers the CSP payment for Honours year in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. The Scholarship is to encourage students to undertake the Honours Year Program in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. The Scholarship is open to appropriately qualified students from all approved universities in Australia and overseas.
MICHEAL DORRELL
JOSHUA LAU
The 2014 recipients for the Michael Dorrell Award in Mathematics are current UNSW students Joshua
THE DEAN’S HONOURS YEAR SCHOLARSHIP IN SCIENCE
Lau and Kexin Tong.
This scholarship was established to support
exceptional students (one male and one female),
outstanding students undertaking study at Honours
identified as recipients of The Beautiful Mind
level in the Faculty of Science. The Scholarship is
Scholarship, to undertake study at UNSW.
valued at $2500 for 1 year.
The purpose of the Award is to encourage two
Kexin Tong is studying a combined Advanced Mathematics/Arts degree majoring in mathematics and finance. Joshua Lau, who says he felt “pleasantly surprised and especially blessed” to receive the award, is studying a combined Advanced Mathematics/ Computer Science degree. Joshua says, “I was originally planning to major only in Computer Science, but I had a keen interest in mathematics, so the scholarship definitely encour-
“How is it that there are so many minds that are incapable of understanding mathematics? ... the skeleton of our understanding, ... and actually they are the majority. ... We have here a problem that is not easy of solution, but yet must engage the attention of all who wish to devote themselves to education.”
aged me to continue to pursue that at a university level which I absolutely don’t regret taking up. The scholarship has also placed less financial pressure on me to fund my studies, enabling me to focus my time on studying what I enjoy. Overall, I also feel grateful to the donor (Mr. Michael Dorrell) for his support that has enabled me to continue to enjoy mathematics at higher and higher levels.”
Henri Poincaré Science and Method
The Michael Dorrell Award in Mathematics has a monetary prize of $5000. UNSW Mathematics and Statistics is the number one Mathematics School in the country, in both size and rankings. We are appreciative for the generosity of donors such as Michael Dorrell who help enable us to keep inspiring young people to study at a tertiary level. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 78
GIRLS DO THE MATHS SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT DOROTHY CHEUNG
What motivated you to pursue studies in mathematics? Mostly because I am good at maths, I’m interested in maths. At the Girls Do The Maths workshop they showed us a lot of different career paths which lead from doing maths. I looked at the variety of the career paths and thought that doing maths could give me more flexibility and diversity.
Dorothy Cheung attended the School’s Girls Do
So do you believe that university mathematics
The Maths workshop in 2010, as a year 12 student
can lead to interesting career paths?
from Georges River College - Oatley Senior Campus. Yes, of course! What did you think of the Girls Do The Maths (GDTM) workshop?
Are you enjoying your studies? What has been a highlight so far?
That’s the main reason I decided to do maths – because of the workshop. I remember going to the
Yes I am. I think the highlight is working together for
workshop and thinking, “it’s all going to be boring!”,
the maths assignments. It’s kind of different from
but then they showed us a lot of applications from
high school maths where you just get a problem and
maths, which were very interesting. Attending
the teacher asks you to solve it. But now when you
the workshop was one of the main reasons why I
get an assignment, you often work in groups and
wanted to do maths at UNSW.
think about different ways of solving a problem. And it’s good for communicating with other classmates.
How did you feel when you received the GDTM
Also the problems are now more challenging, so you
scholarship?
get more satisfaction after you finish it.
Of course, I was really happy because you receive
Is there a particular aspect of maths that
money, but mainly because I was recognised by the
fascinates or motivates you?
university for my achievement. I’m pretty competitive with other people, so it was good to get the
I guess it’s the fact that maths can be applied
scholarship as some recognition for my hard work in
everywhere if you look for it. The theory that we are
studying maths.
learning now – you can see different applications in different areas. I’m just starting to see that in my
What came first: an interest in maths, or a
third year, so it is really interesting. In high school
realisation that you were good at it? Or did these
you don’t really see it that much, and most of the
things evolve together?
students think, “when are we going to use this in
Kind of at the same time. Maybe I was good at maths first, but because I was good at it I started
life?”. Then at uni you get to see the applications, because you get to see what’s working behind it all.
to take more interest in it. I started looking for more
Do you think that maths is often viewed as more
challenging problems which were more interesting –
of a “male” discipline?
so those things evolved together, I guess. Yeah, I guess [laughs]. When I told my mum that I was doing maths she was concerned it’s more of a male discipline, and she thought that I wasn’t going to do very well as supposedly girls don’t have logical and mathematical abilities! UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 79
Is it odd for girls to study maths when it is regarded this way?! It was a bit strange at first, but I want to do what I want to do, so it’s all right. I have lots of friends who are also guys – so it’s fine, I think!
STUDENT SUPPORT SCHEME
Have you ever encountered negative or strange reactions from friends or family, upon them discovering your intention to study mathematics? Not really, because I had always been good at maths in high school. And then at university, you kind of do what you’re good at. My mum was a bit concerned but she wasn’t really against it. That’s a relief! What would you say to other girls who are very good at and enjoy maths, but who may be hesitant to pursue tertiary studies in maths? My advice is to do what you like; don’t let other factors influence you. In the end, at uni you have to study for several years and you don’t want to study
The Student Support Scheme is a teaching and
the stuff you don’t like. If you study what you like,
learning project of the School of Mathematics and
all the other factors - like the male bias - don’t really
Statistics. It is a free drop-in service for first year
matter anymore.
students currently studying at UNSW. SSS provides one-on-one tutoring for students.
What are your intentions for the future? Do you have a plan?
All tutors are mathematics students at UNSW (in third year or higher) and are required to meet certain
I will see how I go, but I have got a basic plan.
criteria before entering the tutor program.
Since I’m studying commerce, I’m majoring in Actuarial Studies. So I am probably going to apply
The current Coordinator of SSS is Catheryn Gray
at investment banks or consulting firms to get an
(pictured above), and the Executive Director is Dr
Actuary job – so we’ll see how I go at that.
David Angell.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 80
OUR ENGAGEMENT
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 81
CONFERENCES
ABC IN SYDNEY
Following on from ABC in Paris (2009), ABC in London (2011) and ABC in Rome (2013), the fourth instalment of the international workshops in Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) was held at UNSW on 3rd-4th July 2014. The first
The important thing to remember about mathematics is not to be frightened Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
antipodean workshop was held as a satellite to the IMS-ASC-2014 International Conference, also held in Sydney the following week. The first day featured an “introduction to ABC” for people who were interested to find out more about the subject, but who had not particularly been exposed to the area before. The expository presentation was “crowdsourced” from several experienced researchers in the field, with each being given 30 minutes to present on a particular aspect of ABC. The second day was filled with research-oriented talks on the topic. Over 100 people registered for and attended the workshop, making it an outstanding success. The workshop was sponsored by the Bayesian Section of the Statistical Society of Australia and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 82
UNSW-CSIRO WORKSHOP RISK: MODELLING, OPTIMIZATION AND INFERENCE The second UNSW-CSIRO workshop on
The workshop featured 16 internationally renowned
“Risk: Modelling, Optimization and Inference
invited speakers hailing from seven countries, and
(with Applications in Finance, Insurance and
attracted more than 110 participants.
Superannuation)� was held at UNSW on 11-12 December 2014.
Postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students formed a notable portion of the audience,
The workshop responded to the need to facilitate
which also included academics from Australian and
a better understanding of managing risky events
overseas universities, plus practitioners working on
in finance such as financial crises, risks in portfolio
different aspects of risk in industry.
management, credit risks, etc. The need to manage risk of other extreme events, such as natural
Overall, the workshop was a great event, with talks
disasters, airline delays, and risks in relation to life
of a very high standard.
insurance, is also increasing in importance.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 83
LIMITS TO GROWTH: BEYOND THE POINT OF INFLEXION LIMITS TO GROWTH: BEYOND THE POINT OF INFLEXION The School hosted this special two-day event
Clive Hamilton AM FRSA: Professor of Public
from 11-12 December 2013 as part of 2013’s
Ethics, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public
Mathematics of Planet Earth. Day one comprised
Ethics, author of Growth Fetish, Requiem for a
a full day symposium at NIDA’s Parade Theatre, and the evening of day two featured a Q&A panel discussion at UNSW’s Scientia.
Species and Earthmasters. Ken Henry AC FASSA: Economist, Former Secretary of the Department of Treasury, Chair of Australia’s Future Tax System Review; Chair of
Some of the world’s leading thinkers converged to address questions such as: Is economic growth forever sustainable? What impact would a stagnant or declining population have on GDP?
White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century. Graeme Maxton: Economist, Member of the Club of Rome, author of The End of Progress. Jørgen Randers: Professor of Climate Strategy,
Can mathematical models guide policy makers in
BI Norwegian Business School, co-author
answering these questions? What is the strategic
of Limits to Growth and author of 2052.
plan for planet Earth?
Gemma Van Halderen: Gemma is responsible for the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Population,
SYMPOSIUM The symposium featured presentations from prominent keynote speakers: Graciela Chichilnisky: Professor of Economics,
Education and Data Integration Division. Peter Victor: Professor in Environmental Studies, York University, Member of the Club of Rome, author of Managing without Growth: Smaller by Design, Not Disaster.
Columbia University and architect of the carbon
The event attracted several hundred attendees, and
credit emissions trading market underlying the
garnered media attention from the ABC, SKY TV,
Kyoto Protocol.
AAP, Financial Review, The Australian and SMH.
Peter Cosier: Chair, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Ross Gittins AM: Economics Editor, Sydney Morning Herald and economics columnist at The Age.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 84
D
Q&A PANEL DISCUSSION On the evening of 12 December, we held a televised Q&A event at UNSW’s Scientia, hosted by Ticky Fullerton (journalist for the ABC and presenter of The Business). Several of the symposium keynote speakers participated: Graciela Chichilnisky, Peter Cosier, Ken Henry, Graeme Maxton, Jorgen Randers, Peter Victor, and Gemma Van Halderen, plus Julian King (from Pottinger Group). Over three hundred people attended this interactive event, which generated a lively debate and attracted many questions from audience members. The Q&A was filmed for Australia’s Public Affairs Channel
“Réduites à des théories générales, les mathématiques seraient une belle forme sans contenu. Reduced to general theories, mathematics would be a beautiful form without content.” Henri Lebesgue
(Foxtel). Photos from the symposium and Q&A are available on our Facebook page: facebook.com/Mathematics.Statistics. UNSW
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 85
PUBLIC LECTURE: PROFESSOR HIROAKI KITANO + LIVE ROBOT SOCCER MATCH The School of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at UNSW jointly hosted a public lecture by Professor Hiroaki Kitano, President and CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories, on 10 October 2013. The lecture was supported by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute as part of the Special Year for the Mathematics of Planet Earth. Hiroaki’s talk illustrated how mathematics is the key to questions of healthcare and global sustainability, and why mathematics should feed into strategic and policy decisions. Hiroaki is best known for developing Sony’s AIBO (Artificial Intelligence roBOt) and is the founder of the robotic world cup tournament known as Robocup, in which CSE competes annually. The talk was preceded by a live robot soccer match featuring Australia’s leading robotic soccer team rUNSWift.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 86
ECO-STATS SYMPOSIUM
The first ever Eco-Stats Symposium was held on July
You can watch the forum online at: http://www.
11-12, 2013 at UNSW. With a sample size of 142
youtube.com/watch?v=MBDU9SbJybo
ecologists and statisticians from nine countries in attendance, the event was an outstanding success.
On Day 2, following the five special-topic sessions, breakout sessions gave everyone a chance to delve
There were five special-topic sessions organised;
deeper into the session topics and their cross-
on presence-only analysis, maximum entropy,
disciplinary opportunities. Enough ideas were
multivariate analysis, bioclimatic mapping and
generated to justify an upcoming special issue for
phylogenetic diversity. The speaker line-up included
Methods in Ecology and Evolution (a high-impact
international speakers in statistics and ecology. Each
cross-disciplinary journal from the British Ecological
session was specially designed to have one
Society). Another important outcome was the
ecologist and one statistician each giving their views
recognition of the need for greater communication
and opinions on the topic at hand; the dual field
and collaboration between statisticians and
setup proved to be a highlight.
ecologists.
Another highlight was the public forum, “Can Maths Save the Planet?”, chaired by Mark Horstman from ABC’s Catalyst program, on the evening of Day 1, with over 200 in attendance plus an on-line following.
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 87
CONFERENCE HELD IN SPAIN TO COMMEMORATE PROFESSOR MICHAEL COWLING’S BIRTHDAY A five-day workshop was held in Spain in July 2014
high profile mathematicians including Fields
in celebration of Professor Michael Cowling’s 65th
Medallists Terence Tao and Charles Fefferman.
birthday. The workshop was held at the Hotel San Antonio El The conference, “Harmonic Analysis to celebrate
Real, a refurbished 15th century monastery Segovia,
Michael Cowling’s 65th”, featured talks by several
Spain.
Harmonic Analysis
Organisers S. Buschenhenke, R. Lucà, F. Macià, G. Negro, J. Ramos, K. Rogers and J. Tejero
Segovia, 1-5th of July, 2014
Main Speakers J. Bennett (Birmingham) A. Carbery (Edinburgh) C. Fefferman (Princeton) U. Haagerup (Københavns) I. Łaba (UBC) S. Lee (Seoul National) G. Mauceri (Genova) D. Müller (Kiel) S. Petermichl (Toulouse) F. Ricci (Scuola Normale) T. Tao (UCLA) A. Vargas (UAM)
E. Breuillard (Paris XI) M. Christ (Berkeley) A. Greenleaf (Rochester) A. Ionescu (Princeton) M. Lacey (Georgia Tech) V. Lie (Purdue) S. Meda (Milano-Bicocca) C. Muscalu (Cornell) G. Pisier (Paris VI-TAMU) C. Sogge (Johns Hopkins) A. Valette (Neuchâtel) J. Wright (Edinburgh)
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 88
AUSTRALIAN STATISTICAL CONFERENCE The UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics was a proud sponsor of the Australian Statistical Conference which was hosted in conjunction with the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Annual Meeting in July 2014. This conference was a joint meeting between the Statistical Society of Australia and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Delegates from all areas of statistics joined with world class Australian and international statisticians and mathematicians to develop, network and share their knowledge and expertise. The conference
“In short, if we adhere to the standard of perfection in all our endeavors, we are left with nothing but mathematics and the White Album.” Daniel Gilbert Stumbling on Happiness
provided opportunities for presentations on a wide range of topics and recognised the role that statistics plays in all aspects of modern life. Staff from our Statistics Department were very active participants in the conference. Members of the Department and the School delivered 15 talks at the event. Four of these were invited talks.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 89
AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE
AMSI is a collaborative venture of many of
The UNSW School of Mathematics and Statistics is
Australia’s universities, professional societies and
one of the founding joint venture partners of AMSI.
government agencies. Its mission is the radical
A former Head of our School, Professor Garth
improvement of the capacity and capability of the
Gaudry, became the first Director of AMSI in 2003.
mathematical sciences in the Australian community
Professor Gary Froyland is currently the Deputy
through:
Director of AMSI and Professor Bruce Henry is a member of the AMSI Board.
The support of high quality mathematics education for all young Australians.
AMSI has delivered a great deal for the mathematical sciences in Australia; funding
Improving the supply of mathematically well-
annual Summer Schools and Winter Schools on
prepared students entering tertiary education by
Mathematics and Statistics at Australian Universities,
direct involvement with schools.
funding vacation scholarships, funding specialised
The support of mathematical sciences research and its applications including cross-disciplinary areas and public and private sectors. The enhancement of the undergraduate and postgraduate experience of students in the mathematical sciences and related disciplines.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 90
workshops, establishing intern placements for PhD students, delivering new mathematics textbooks for secondary schools, championing gender equity in the mathematical sciences, and lobbying governments for increased support for education in mathematical sciences.
GIRLS DO THE MATHS
THE UNSW SCHOOL MATHEMATICS COMPETITION
Our Girls Do The Maths (GDTM) workshops for
The UNSW School Mathematics Competition has
female students finishing high school aim to
run annually since 1962. It is open to participation
encourage young female students to consider
by secondary school students in New South Wales
mathematics as a career. A popular feature of the
and the Australian Capital Territory. It is run in two
workshop is the invited talks, where women discuss
divisions: Junior, up to and including Year 10, and
their career paths and how they use mathematics
Senior, Years 11 and 12.
and statistics in their work, in such diverse fields as medical research, finance, and engineering.
The competition is designed to assess mathematical insight and ingenuity rather than efficiency in
The School founded the GDTM workshops in 2005,
tackling routine examples. Students are encouraged
as part of an effort to attract and retain more
to enter the competition if they are able to make
female students in mathematics and statistics. A
some progress towards the solution of at least one
number of former participants have continued on
of the sample problems that are included with the
to undergraduate mathematics study at UNSW,
publicity material.
including the current holder of the Girls Do The Maths undergraduate scholarship.
The competition is a three hour open-book exam. Entrants are permitted to take any books
With the help of generous external funding from the
and materials, but not computers with internet
David and Claire Paradice Fund, the program was
connections, into the examination.
expanded in 2014 to encourage female participation in mathematics and statistics at all levels, via
Around 1000 students participate each
networking, prizes and communication.
year, 500 in each division, and prizes and/or certificates are awarded to approximately 60 in each division at a ceremony at UNSW each September. In recent years, the UNSW School Mathematics Competition has served as one of the selectors for the Australian team in the International Mathematical Olympiad. Some of our winners have gone on to receive medals there. Above: Director, School Mathematics Competition Dr. Denis Potapov UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 91
PARABOLA INCORPORATING FUNCTION
In 2014, we celebrated Parabola incorporating Function’s 50th birthday with the launch of its brand new website, www.parabola.unsw.edu.au. Along with improving ease of access and functionality, it has given us the opportunity to expose Parabola to a wider audience. Parabola, which first appeared in 1964, publishes articles that can contribute to the teaching and learning of mathematics at the senior secondary school level, in the areas of applied mathematics, mathematical modelling, pure mathematics, statistics and the history of mathematics. The journal’s readership includes mathematics students, plus teachers and researchers with interests in promoting excellence in senior secondary school mathematics education.
‘If it (Parabola) should succeed in introducing gifted students to the delights of mathematics and in inducing some to embark upon a mathematical career, it will have been a source of benefit, not only to the individuals thus affected, but ultimately to the community as a whole’ Inaugural Vice Chancellor, UNSW, Professor Phillip Baxter.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 92
OUR INDUSTRY LINKS
ED MCDONALD
GEOFFREY LIU TOMAS BEUZEN INDUSTRY SPONSORED MATHEMATICS PRIZES
TRISTAN MEYERS
The School maintains strong links with industry, and
We also have a range of industry sponsored
members of the School have consulted on problems
prizes which are awarded to students within the
for many leading organisations. We have links with
School, from organisations such as Westpac, the
organisations such as Roads and Maritime Services,
SAS Institute, and Weatherzone.
CommBank and SIRCA. Since 2005, the School has taught a second-year Through their connections with industry, our
course on Data Management for Statistical Analysis,
researchers are tackling real-world problems; for
sponsored by SAS. SAS awarded the School a major
example Professor John Murray is working with
international prize for the venture.
the organisation Calimmune to produce innovative mathematical modelling to determine incorporation
SAS and the CBA are sponsors of Australia’s
of gene therapy in different cell lineages.
first degree program in Quantitative Risk. SAS announced an industry-linked scholarship for the
Associate Professor Chris Tisdell and Associate
QR program, which began in 2009. CBA and SAS
Professor Norman Wildberger have formed
also sponsor the School’s second-year course
educational partnerships with internet giant Google,
on Quantitative Risk and the summer internship
invited to become “YouTube Partners in Education”.
program associated with the course.
Such a partnership enables innovative and wideranging advancements in the creation and sharing
For seven years, our Master of Financial
of online learning videos.
Mathematics degree has been delivering top quality education to provide students with a path to
A/Prof Chris Tisdell has also consulted with the
high-level careers in the financial industry.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as an educational advisor for their “ABC Splash!” initiative.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 93
BIG DATA WORKSHOP
STATISTICS METHODS FOR RESEARCH WORKERS SHORT COURSE
Over 100 people attended this full day workshop
For several years we have offered a statistics short
in July 2014, which brought together industry
course, directed at postgraduate students and
representatives from CBA, SIRCA, SAS, DSTO and
active researchers. This is a “hands-on” course
WHO with UNSW academic staff.
where statistical concepts are discussed in a lecture followed by an application of these methods
Several School members delivered presentations
using the R Studio statistical software package.
at the workshop, including Pierre Del Moral, Quoc
Students are taken through various stages of an
Thong Le Gia and Scott Sisson.
analysis: data entry and input into software package,
The event was hosted by Head of School Professor Bruce Henry, and organised by the UNSW Science’s
computation of descriptive statistics and statistical plots, data analysis and interpretation of results.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Associate Dean
A wide variety of topics are discussed including
(Strategic Industry Relations), and Uttra Benton,
hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, categorical
Industry Relations and Communications Manager.
data analysis and linear regression. In response to student feedback, we have added a third day to our usual two-day course to include advanced statistical topics. This includes lectures and tutorials on generalised linear models, survival analysis and linear mixed models. Student feedback from this course has been overwhelmingly positive and enrolment is consistently full.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 94
WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS
The School of Mathematics and Statistics runs a “Women in Mathematics and Statistics” program, to support female staff and students and provide them with networking opportunities. The Women in Mathematics and Statistics program encompasses a series of public lectures by prominent female researchers, additional funding for scholarships and prizes for female students,
High Profile Alumnus: Lynne Billard, PhD in Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW, 1969. President of the American Statistical Association 19951996. Currently University Professor, University of Georgia
and regular Women in Mathematics and Statistics lunches for female staff and students. In May 2014, we were very pleased to host mathematical historian Professor Karen Parshall from the University of Virginia, who gave a public lecture entitled “Becoming a Mathematician in Turn-of-theTwentieth-Century America: The Women’s Story”. The program also comprises the School’s long-running Girls Do The Maths workshops for female high school students, which take place annually in May. Each year we offer scholarships targeting females, including the Girls Do the Maths Scholarship, the Beautiful Mind Scholarship and the Michael Dorrell Award. UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 95
HOW DO THEY SURF BIG WAVES? One of the most common manoeuvres to ensure you make a big wave is to drop down the face, do a bottom turn and return to another point further along the top, ahead of the breaking part, or peel of the wave. People see monster waves and think ‘wow, how can anyone surf that?’ But size helps. If the wave was half the size at the same peel breaking speed, it may not be possible to make. Making a wave can mean the difference between exhilaration and horror for big wave surfers at places like Mavericks, Jaws, Outer Log Cabins, and Cow Bombie.
This assumes that the face of the wave is planar, there is no friction, no acceleration from pushing against the fins and the path is smooth. It is all very approximate, but if you look at the wake of big wave surfers you will see them surfing brachistochrones. Further details can be found in Parabola, at: www. parabola.unsw.edu.au/1990-1999/volume-34-1998/ issue-3/article/surfing-brachistochrones The image below shows Garret McNamara about to drop down the face of a big wave at Outside Avalanche. (Photograph by Sean Davey)
How do you know if you can make a wave until you give it a try? The answer was contained within the solution to a famous mathematical problem posed by Johan Bernoulli in 1696: Given two points A and B in a vertical plane, what is the curve traced out by a point acted on only by gravity, which starts at A and reaches B in the shortest time? The solution is the brachistochrone[1] curve; A to B is part of a cycloid shown as a solid line in the figure from A to B and back up to C. Here we have shown B at the bottom of the curve. The image below shows Sebastien Steudtner surfing a brachistochrone at Jaws.
đ?‘Ľ = a (1 - cosâ?Ź)
A
y = a (â?Ź- sinâ?Ź)
đ?‘Ľ = 2a
y =2Ď€a C
B The cycloid from A through B and back to C along the top is the fastest smooth path for the surfer to follow to get from the top of the wave to a lower point and back to the top again. If this time is greater than the time it takes for the breaking part of the wave to move from A to C, then the surfer cannot make the wave. With a few calculations it can be shown that the surfer can make the wave all the way to the bottom and back along a cycloid if it is big enough; but how big?
2v H> g
2
H is height of the wave v
is the speed that the wave is breaking along the top
the acceleration due to g is gravity
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 96
[1] A Brachistochrone curve (Gr. Î˛Ď ÎąĎ‡ÎŻĎƒĎ„ÎżĎ‚, brachistos - the shortest, Ď‡Ď ĎŒÎ˝ÎżĎ‚, chronos - time), or curve of fastest descent, is the curve between two points that is covered in the least time by a body that starts at the first point with zero speed and is constrained to move along the curve to the second point, under the action of constant gravity and assuming no friction.
APPENDIX
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 97
STAFF OF THE SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH STAFF Dr Angell, David Dr Angstmann,Christopher Dr Austin, Timothy Dr Barker, Paul Dr Barthelemy, Xavier Dr Botev, Zdravko Dr Britz, Thomas Mr Brown, Peter Director of First Year
Dr Keating, Shane Honours Coordinator - Applied Dr Kerry, Colette
Dr Le, Kim Ngan
A/Prof Wildberger, Norman
Dr Le Gia, Quoc Thong
Prof Wilson, Sue
Dr Lerner, Boris
Dr Wishart, Justin
Dr Li, Libo
A/Prof Womersley, Robert
Dr Li, Guoyin
Dr Zanin, Dmitriy
Dr Lian, Heng Dr MacNamara, Shev
Miss Cetina Heredia, Paulina
Dr McCarthy, Alan
A/Prof Chan, Daniel Honours Coordinator - Pure Mathematics
Sci. Prof McDougall, Trevor
Dr Chan, Leung Lung
Mr Milburn, Stuart
Dr Chen, Feng Honours Coordinator - Statistics
Mr Morison, Russel
Prof Cowling, Michael Mr Crocker, David Prof Del Moral, Pierre A/Prof Dick, Josef Dr Donald, Margaret A/Prof Doust, Ian Head of Pure Mathematics Prof Du, Jie Prof Dunsmuir, William Dr Fan, Yanan Dr Fewster-Young, Nicholas Prof Franklin, James Dr Frants, Marina Prof Froyland, Gary Dr Geenens, Gery Director of Postgraduate Studies - Coursework Dr Gonzalez-Tokman, Cecilia A/Prof Greenhill, Catherine Dr Grossman, Pinhas Dr Grundling, Hendrik Dr Harvey, David
A/Prof McLean, William Dr Meagher, Stephen
Prof Murray, John Dr Nichols, James Dr Nguyen, Linh A/Prof Olivier, Jake Dr Ostafe, Alina Mr Pahor, Milan A/Prof Penev, Spiridon Head of Statistics Dr Potapov, Denis Dr Ramadurai, Reshma Prof Roberts, John Deputy Head of School A/Prof Roughan, Moninya Dr Salopek, Donna Ms Schaeffer, Amandine Prof Schief, Wolfgang Head of Applied Mathematics Dr Sha, Min
Dr Abel, Richard Julian Prof Anderson, Stuart E/Prof Banner, Michael Dr Blennerhassett, Peter Prof Brown, Bruce Dr Donovan, Peter Prof Dooley, Anthony
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Prof Duong, Xuan Thinh
Alviola, Florita School Manager
Dr Freislich, Mary Ruth
Fan, Francy Student Services Officer
Dr Galbraith, Sally
Hebblewhite, Julie Student Services Manager
Prof Faierman, Melvin Ms Forsyth, Lyn Dr Fu, Qiang Prof Ganesh, Mahadevan Prof Goldys, Ben
Hervir, Mary Finance and Resource Manager
Dr Golodets, Valentyn
Lim, Venus Admin Assistant, School Office
Dr Hughes, Roy
Lin, Jan Finance Officer
Dr Hammerlindl, Andy Dr Hirschhorn, Michael A/Prof Hunt, David Dr Jefferies, Brian Dr Jiao, Yong
Sedgers, Kaye Executive Assistant to HoS
Dr Joe, Stephen
Waters, Susannah Communications Officer
Dr Kozlowski, Walter
COMPUTING STAFF
Dr McKee, William
Salmon, Tim Mathematical Application Support Officer
Prof Perram, John
San, Soputtra Systems Administration
Dr Kachoyan, Bernard Prof Mahomed, Fazal Mr Monahan, Gregory Dr Newstead, Anne Dr Peters, Gareth E/Prof Rogers, Colin Prof Shevchenko, Pavel A/Prof Shi, Jingtao
Sedgwick, Thomas Computing Centre Manager
Ms Stove, Judith
Prof Sloan, Ian
Smith, Duncan Deputy Manager
Mr Wilson, Roy
Dr Steele, John Director of Undergraduate Studies
Thompson, Martin Systems Administration
Prof Shparlinski, Igor A/Prof Sisson, Scott
Dr Stephen, Sharon
A/Prof Holzer, Mark
Dr Straka, Peter
Ms Howe, Annett
Prof Sukochev, Fedor
Prof Huppert, Herbert
A/Prof Tisdell, Christopher Associate Dean (Education), Science
Dr Stoklosa, Jakub
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 98
ADJUNCT AND HONORARY STAFF
Sedgwick, Kevin Helpdesk Operator
Ms Shaw, Chanthanom Teaching Fellow (2014)
Prof Henry, Bruce Head of School
Prof Jeyakumar, Vaithilingam
Dr Wang, Jia Jia (Joanna)
A/Prof Kuo, Frances
Dr Mak, Chi
Dr Coster, Adelle
Dr Voineagu, Mircea Prof Warton, David Director of Postgraduate Studies - Research
Dr Kress, Jonathan
Dr Cai, Anna
Dr Combe, Diana
A/Prof Tran, Thanh
A/Prof Standish, Russell Dr Tang, Chunming
2013/14 RESEARCH STUDENTS PhD Students Ali Hussian Alkhaldi Trad Haza A Alotaibi Carlos Enrique Aya Moreno Boris Beranger Gregory Mark Buckley Joshua Capel Andrew Chernih
Research Area Hypergroup structures on hyperbolic quadrance graphs Functional analysis Wavelets, non-parametric statistics, functional data analysis Models and dependence for multivariate extremes Circular geometry in the hyperbolic plane Classification and pertubations of superintegrable systems Computational mathematics
Supervisor (s) Norman Wildberger Fedor Sukochev Spiridon Penev Scott Sisson Norman Wildberger Jonathan Kress Ian Sloan Scott Sisson & Ashish Sharma (Civil Eng) Anthony Dooley Bruce Henry
Stephanie Clark
Spatio-temporal modelling in hydrology
Shaun De Roza Isaac Donnelly
Kylie-Anne Richards Stefan Riha Thais Carvalho Rodrigues Guilherme Souza Rodrigues Stephen Sanchez Sabarina Binti Shafie Tim Siu Robyn Stuart Pattarasuda Sudsaen Anna Tomskova Cuong Viet Tran Ilya Tregubov Alexandr Usachev Paul Veerhuis Bo Wang Yuguang Wang Harry Ward Thomas Watson Damien Wee Louise Wilkinson Julie Wood Wei Wu Meng Zhe Zhang Xin Zhang Houying Zhu Wanchuang Zhu
Ergotic theory and number theory Pattern formation, anomalous diffusion and networks Reaction-diffusion equation modelling of the early stages of sexual infection with HIV and the impact of microbicides Nonlinear differential equations Fourier analysis Stochastic differential equations Mathematical modeling of hepatitis D virus Mathematical modelling of the insulin signalling pathway in adipocytes Detecting and Modelling Series Dependence in non Gaussian and non linear time series. Arithmetic functions Ecological statistics Financial maths Number Theory Computational Maths Triangle geometry and elliptic curves in universal hyperbolic geometry Nonparametric cluster analysis Functional analysis The horizontal residual mean: overcoming the limited spatial resolution in ocean climate models Optimisation Dynamical systems in random graphs Harmonic Analysis Numerical analysis Nonlinear dynamics, stochastic processes Oceanography (biochemical cycles) Multivariate and spatiotemporal modelling of species abundance data Circulation & mixing driving nutrient enrichment on the continental shelf of NSW Statistical models and methods for limit order execution in financial markets Construction of Neutral Density in real time in ocean models Computational Bayesian statistics, Bayesian quantile progression Approximate Bayesian computation Functional Analysis Computational Mathematics Dynamical Systems Dynamical systems Bayesian methods in latent variable modelling Functional Analysis Stochastic volatility modelling in finance Computational maths Analysis and functional analysis Statistical Econometrics and unconventional monetary policy Regression methods for general insurance data Analysis on the sphere (computational mathematics) Axiomatic quantus field theory Dynamical systems and ergodic theory Statistical models for high frequency financial time series Dynamical systems Eddy driven upwelling on the Sydney shelf Statistics Stochastic analysis, financial maths Approximate Bayesian computation Markov chain quasi Monte Carlo methods Bayesian inference
William Dunsmuir & Gareth Peters Trevor McDougall Yanan Fan Scott Sisson Ian Doust Thanh Tran John Roberts Gary Froyland Spiridon Penev Fedor Sukochev William Dunsmuir & Ben Goldys Thanh Tran Fedor Sukochev Pavel Shevchenko William Dunsmuir Ian Sloan Hendrik Grundling Gary Froyland William Dunsmuir Anthony Dooley Moninya Roughan Ben Goldys Leung Chan Scott Sisson Josef Dick Yanan Fan
Masters by Research Students Gregory Buckley Alexander Katz Natalya Levenkova Yuxin Sun Kwok Aun Tan Yu-Heng Ting Huaxin Xu
Research Area
Supervisor(s)
Circular geometry in the hyperbolic plane Norman Wildberger Financial mathematics Donna Salopek Graph theory and applications to the modelling of infectious diseases Catherine Greenhill Computational Mathematics Thanh Tran A comparison of numerical methods to simulate the atmospheric circulation Trevor McDougall Oceanography/Atmospheric Science Mark Holzer Using GPU's to improve bayesian simulation algorithms Scott Sisson
Austen Erickson Nicholas Fewster-Young Xin Gao Timothy Glass Ashish Goyal Catheryn Gray Jieyi He Randell Heyman Francis Hui Alexander Katz Bryce Kerr Kim Ngan Le Nguyen Hong Le Xin Lei Galina Levitina Yuehua Li Stephen Maher Daniel Mansfield Cassandra Naymie James Nichols Juan Ignacio Ortega Piwonka Benoit Pasquier Gordana Popovic Nina Ribbat
John Murray Christopher Tisdell Michael Cowling Anthony Dooley John Murray Adelle Coster William Dunsmuir Igor Shparlinski David Warton Donna Salopek Igor Shparlinski Ben Goldys & Thanh Tran Norman Wildberger Spiridon Penev Fedor Sukochev Trevor McDougall Gary Froyland Anthony Dooley Michael Cowling Ian Sloan Bruce Henry Mark Holzer William Dunsmuir & David Warton Moninya Roughan
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 99
2013 PUBLICATIONS [1] S. V. Astashkin, C. P. Sukochev, F. A. Wong, Distributionally concave symmetric spaces and uniqueness of summetric structure, Advances in Mathematics, 232(1) (2013), 399–431. [2] M. Baake, N. Neum¨arker, J. A. G. Roberts, Orbit structure and (reversing) symmetries of toral endomorphisms on rational lattices, Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series A, 33(2) (2013), 527–553. [3] M. R. Bambach, R. J. Mitchell, R. H. Grzebieta, J. Olivier, The effectiveness of helmets in bicyle collisions with motor vehicles: A casecontrol study, Accident Analysis and Prevention, 53 (2013), 78–88. [4] A. F. Ber, V. I. Chilin, F. A. Sukochev, Continuity of derivations of algebras of locally measurable operators, Integral Equations and Operator Theory, 75(4) (2013), 527–557. [5] Z. Brzezniak, B. Goldys, T. Jegaraj, Weak solutions of a stochastic LandauLifshitz-Gilbert equa- tion, Applied Mathematics Research Express, 2013(1) (2013), 1–33. [6] B. Cameron, S. Galbraith, H. Li, A. Lloyd, Correlates and characteristics of hepatitis C virus- specific T-cell immunity in exposed uninfected highrisk prison inmates, Journal of Viral Hepatitis, 20(4) (2013), e96–e106. [7] Y-Y. Chen, F. Chen, D. Gunnell, P. S. F. Yip, The impact of media reporting on the emergence of charcoal burning suicide in Taiwan, PL o S One, 8(1) (2013), e55000. [8] J. Dick, F. Y. Kuo, I. H. Sloan, Highdimensional integration: The quasiMonte Carlo way, Acta Numerica, 22 (2013), 133–288. [9] J. Gilmore, A. D. Kelleher, D. A. Cooper, J. M. Murray, Explaining the determinants of first phase HIV decay dynamics through the effects of stage-dependent drug action, PLOS Computational Biology, 9(3) (2013), e1002971(11pp). [10] M. A. Goberna, V. Jeyakumar, G. Li, M. Lopez, Robust linear semi-infinite programming duality under uncertainty, Mathematical Programming, 139(1-2) (2013), 185–203. [11] M. J. Golding, J. E. Huppert, J. A. Neufeld, The effects of capillary forces on the axisymmetric propagation of two-phase, constant-flux gravity currents in porous media, Physics of Fluids, 25(3) (2013), Article 036602(18pp). [12] M. Griebel, F. Kuo, I. H. Sloan, The smoothing effect of integration in d R and the ANOVA decomposition, Mathematics of Computation, 82(281) (2013), 383–400. [13] C. A. R. Hogg, C. L. Marti, H. E. Huppert, J. Imberger, Mixing of an interflow into the ambient water of Lake Iseo, Limnology and Oceanography, 58(2) (2013), 579–592. [14] E. G. Kalnin, J. M. Kress, W. Miller Jr, Superintegrability in a nonconformally-flat space, Journal of Physics A:Mathematical and Theoretical, 46 (2013), Article 022002 (12pp). [15] E. G. Kalnins, J. M. Kress, W. Miller Jr, Extended Kepler-Coulomb quantum superintegrable systems in three dimensions, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 46(8) (2013), Article 085206 (28pp). [16] Y. Maesono, S. Penev, Improved confidence intervals for quantiles, Annals of the Institute of Sta- tistical Mathematics, 65(1) (2013), 167–189. [17] Y. Matmoura, S. Penev, Multistage optimization of option portfolio using higher order coherent risk measures, European Journal of Operational Research, 227(1) (2013), 190–198. [18] K. L. McDonald, R. W. Rapkins, J. Olivier, J. L. Zhao, K. Nozue, D. Lu, S. Tiwari, J. Brewer,
J. Kuroiwa-Trzmielina, H. R. Wheeler, M. P. Hitchins, The T genotype of the MGMT C>T (rs16906252) enhancer SNP is associated with promoter methylation and longer survival in glioblas- toma patients, European Journal of Cancer, 49(2) (2013), 360–368. [19] K. Mustapha, W. McLean, Superconvergence of a discontinuous Galerkin method for fractional diffusion and wave equations, SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, 51(1) (2013), 491–515. [20] C. Orbe, M. Holzer, L. M. Polvani, D. Waugh, Air-mass origin as a diagnostic of tropospheric transport, Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 118(3) (2013), 1459–1470. [21] S. E. Perkins, A. J. Pitman, S. A. Sisson, Systematic differences in future 20-year temperature extremes in AR4 model projections over Australia as a function of model skill, International Journal of Climatology, 33(5) (2013), 1153–1167. [22] E. Schvoerer, R. Moenne-Loccoz, J. M. Murray, A. Velay, M. Turek, M. B. Zeisel, I. Fofana, S. Fafi- Kremer, A-C. Erba, F. Habersetzer, M. Doffoel, J-P. Gut, F. Stoll-Keller, T. F. Baumert, Hepatitis C virus envelope glycoprotein signatures are associated with treatment failure and modulation of viral entry and neutralization, Journal of Infectious Diseases, 207(8) (2013), 1306–1315. [23] E. Semenov, F. Sukochev, Extreme points of the set of Banach limits, Positivity, 17(1) (2013), 163–170. [24] K. T. Tonks, Y. Ng, S. Miller, A. C. F. Coster, D. Samocha-Bonet, T. J. Iseli, A. Xu, E. Patrick, J. Y. H. Yang, J. R. Junutula, Z. Modrusan, G. Kolumam, J. So ¨ckli, D. J. Chisholm, D. E. James, R. Greenfield, Impaired Akt phosphorylation in insulin-resistant human muscle is accompanied by selective and heterogeneous downstream defects, Diabetologia, 56(4) (2013), 875–885. [25] D. M. Walker, A. Tordesillas, G. Froyland, Examining evolving structural networks using minimal cycle similarity networks: applications to stick-slip granular dynamics, Nonlinear Theory and its Applications, IEICE, 4(2) (2013), 148–159. [26] S. R. Walter, J. Olivier, T. Churches, R. Grzebieta, The impact of compulsory helmet legislation on cyclist head injuries in New South Wales, Australia: A response, Accident Analysis and Prevention, 52 (2013), 204–209. [27] D. Waugh, F. Primeau, T. DeVries, M. Holzer, Recent changes in the ventilation of the southern oceans, Science, 339(6119) (2013), 568–570. [28] J. S. Wexler, P. H. Trinh, H. Berthet, N. Quennouz, O. du Roure, H. E. Huppert, A. Linder, H. A. Stone, Bending of elastic fibres in viscous flows: the influence of confinement, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 720 (2013), 517–544. [29] A. Williamson, R. Friswell, R. Grzebieta, J. Olivier, What do we tell drivers about fatigue man- agement, Ergonomics and Human Factors, (2013), 189–196. [30] P. S. F. Yip, S. S. M. Kwok, F. Chen, X. Xu, Y-Y. Chen, A study on the mutual causation of suicide reporting and suicide incidences, Journal of Affective Disorders, 148(1) (2013), 98–103. [31] B. Zhao, C. W. MacMinn, M. L. Szulczewski, J. A. Neufeld, H. E. Huppert, R. Juanes, Interface pinning of immiscible gravity-exchange flows in porous media, Physical Review E, 87(2) (2013), Article 023015 (7pp). [32] Z. Zheng, B. Soh, H. E. Huppert, H. A. Stone, Fluid drainage from the edge of a porous reservoir,Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 718 (2013), 558–568.
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[33] R. J. R. Abel, N. J. Cavenagh, J. Kuhl, Induced subarrays of Latin squares without repeated symbols, The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics, 20(1) (2013), Article 44 (13pp). [34] R. J. R. Abel, N. Chan, C. J. Colbourn, E. R. Lamken, C. Wang, J. Wang, Doubly resolvable nearly Kirkman triple systems, Journal of Combinatorial Designs, 21(8) (2013), 342–358. [35] R. J. R. Abel, D. Combe, A. M. Nelson, W. D. Palmer, GBRDs over supersolvable groups and solvable groups of order prime to 3, Designs Codes and Cryptography, 69(2) (2013), 189–201. [36] C. N. Angstmann, I. C. Donnelly, B. I. Henry, Pattern formation on networks with reactions: A continuoustime random-walk approach, Physical Review E, 87(3) (2013), Article 032804 (13)
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[134] K. McBride, Xu. Y., M. Bailey, N. Seddiki, M. Suzuki, J. M. Murray, Y. Gao, C. Yan, D. A. Cooper, A. D. Kelleher, K. K. Koelsch, J. Zaunders, The majority of HIV type 1 DNA in circulating CD4+ T lymphocytes is present in non-guthoming resting memory CD4 T cells, AIDS Reseach and Human Retroviruses, 29(10) (2013), 1330–1339. [135] D. O. McDaniel, D. Rigney, J. Olivier, K. Y. McDaniel, M. Brock, P. Redmond, J. Porter, Trauma induced inflammation, sepsis and ageing, Ageing International, DOI: 10.1007/S12126-0139195- 2 (2013). [136] T. McDougall, R. Feistel, R. Pawlowicz. Thermodynamics of Seawater, G. Siedler, S. Griffes,J. Gould, J. Church (eds), Open Circulation and Climate. Academic Press, 2013, 141–158. [137] P. D. Moral, G. W. Peters, C. Verge, An introduction to stochastic particle integration methods: With applications to risk and insurance, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics, 65 (2013), 39–81. [138] J. M. Murray, HIV treatment as prevention in a developed country setting: The current situation and future scenarios for Australia, Journal of Acquired Deficiency Syndrome, 64(4) (2013), 409–416. [139] J. M. Murray, R. Moenne-Loccoz, A. Velay, F. Habersetzer, M. Doffoel, J. Gut, I. Fofana, M. B. Zeisel, F. Stoll-Keller, T. F. Baumert, E. Schvoerer, Genotype 1 hepatitis C virus envelope features that determine antiviral response assessed through optimal covariance networks, PLoS One, 8(6) (2013), e67254. [140] J. M. Murray, J. J. Zaunders, K. K. Koelsch, V. Natarajan, Y. Badralmaa, K. McBride, A. Carrera,D. A. Cooper, S. Emery, A. D. Kelleher, Short Communication: HIV blips while on antiretroviral therapy can indicate consistently detectable viral levels due to assay underreporting, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 29(12) (2013), 1621–1625. [141] J. Olivier, M. L. Bell, Effect sizes for 2X2 contingency tables, PLoS ONE, 8(3) (2013), e58777 (7pp). [142] J. Olivier, M. L. Bell, The importance of statistics in cancer research, World Journal of Cancer Research, 1 (2013), 78–81. [143] J. Olivier, S. R. Walter, R. H. Grzebieta, Long term bicycle related head injury trends for New South Wales, Australia following mandatory helmet legislation, Accident Analysis and Prevention, 53 (2013), 1128–1134. [144] J. Olivier, R. Grzebieta, J. Wang, S. Walter, Statistical errors in anti-helmet arguments, J. Woolley (ed), A Safe System: The Road Safety Discussion, (2013), 20pp. [145] J. Olivier, S. R. Walter, Bicycle helmet wearing is not associated with close motor vehicle passing: A reanalysis of Walker, 2007, PLoS ONE, 8(9) (2013), e75424 (7pp). [146] J. Olivier, J. J. J. Wang, S. Walter, R. Grzebieta, On the use of empirical bayes for comparative interrupted time series with an application to mandatory helmet legislation, N. Leal (ed), Proceedings of the 2013 Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference, (2013), 10pp. [147] C. Pardy, S. R. Wilson, Detecting a wide diversity of associations in very large data sets, G. Z. Li, S. Kim, M. Hughes, G. McLachlan, H. Sun, X. Hu, H. Ressom, B. Liu, M. Liebman (eds), Proceedings of the 59th ISI World Statistics Congress, (2013), 3801–3806.
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[165] V. Sinescu, F. Y. Kuo, I. H. Sloan, On the chose of weights in a function space for quasi-Monte Carlo methods for a class of generalised response models in Statistics, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics, 65 (2013), 631–647. [166] Y. Song, C. Yang, R. Chen, G. Li, Advance in nonlinear analysis: Algorithm, convergence, and applications, Abstract and Applied Analysis, 2013 (2013), Article ID 154975 (2pages). [167] O. Stancevic, C. N. Angstmann, J. M. Murray, B. I. Henry, Turing patterns from dynamics of early HIV infection, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 75(5) (2013), 774–795. [168] J. Stoklosa, H. Gibb, D. I. Warton, Fast forward selection for generalized estimating equations with a large number of predictor variables, Biometrics, DOI: 10.1111/biom.12118 (2013). [169] F. Sukochev, A. Tomskova, (E, F)-Schur multipliers and applications, Studia Mathematica, 216(2) (2013), 111–129. [170] F. Sukochev, A. Usachev, D. Zanin, Generalized limits with additional invariance properties and their applications to noncommutative geometry, Advances in Mathematics, 239 (2013), 164–189. [171] F. Sukochev, A. Usachev, D. Zanin, On the distinction between the classes of Dixmier and Connes- Dixmier traces, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 141(6) (2013), 2169–2179. [172] F. Sukochev, D. Zanin, Traces on symmetrically normed operator ideals, Journal fu ¨r die reine und Angewandte Mathematik, 678 (2013), 163–200. [173] S. Taskinen, D. I. Warton, Robust tests for one or more allometric lines, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 333 (2013), 38–46. [174] H. L. Tolman, M. L. Banner, J. M. Kaihatu, The NOPP operational wave model improvement project, Ocean Modelling, 70 (2013), 2–10. [175] T. Tran, K. N. Le, A finite element approximation for the quasi-static Maxwell-Landau-Lifshitz- Gilbert equations, S. McCue, T. Moroney, D. Mallet, J. Bunder (eds), Proceedings of the 16th Biennial Computational Technques and Applications Conference, CTAC-2012, Australian Mathe- matical Society, (2013), C681–C698. [176] T. Tran, I. Tregubov, Effcient solvers for the Shallow Water Equations on a sphere, McCue, Moroney, Mallet, Bunder (eds), Proceedings of the 16th Computational Techniques and Applications Conference, AMS, (2013), C412–C428. [177] A. M. Waite, E. J. Raes, V. Rossi, M. Roughan, B. Tilbrook, P. A. Thompson, M. Feng, A. S. J. Wyatt, Formation and maintenance of highnitrate, low pH layers in the eastern Indian Ocean and the role of nitrogen fixation, Biogeosciences, 10(8) (2013), 5691–5702. [178] J. J. J. Wang, R. Grzebieta, S. Walter, J. Olivier, An evaluation of the methods used to assess the effectiveness of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation in New Zealand, J. Woolley (ed), A Safe System: The Road Safety Discussiion, (2013), 14pp. [179] J. J. J. Wang, S. Walter, R. Grzebieta, J. Olivier, A comparison of statistical methods in inter- rupted time series analysis to estimate an intervention effect, N. Leal (ed), Proceedings of the 2013 Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference, (2013), 11pp.
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RECENT INVITED PRESENTATIONS
APPLIED MATHEMATICS
4th International Workshop on SetOriented Numerics, TU Dresden, 29 September - 2 October 2013.
Johann Brauchart
Workshop on Mathematical Paradigms of Climate Science, Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (INdAM), Rome, June 2013.
RICAM Workshop 1 Uniform distribution and quasi-Monte Carlo methods, Linz, Austria, 14-18 October 2013. Constructing QMC-designs on the sphere - Separation and Covering properties, RICAM Linz, Austria, 17 October 2013. Stolarsky’s Invariance Principle and Discrepancy of Point Sets on the Sphere, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, Germany, 3 October 2013.
On Lagrangian Dynamics in Geophysical Flows, Snowbird SIAM, Utah, USA, May 2013.
Cecilia Gonzales-Tokman 5th International Workshop on Setoriented Numerics (SON2014), University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1-5 September, 2014.
Gary Froyland Risk: modelling, optimization and inference - UNSW-CSIRO Workshop, UNSW, 11-12 December 2014. Imperial College London (visit and seminar), Dept of Mathematics, London, 14-16 July 2014. Kingscliffe workshop on Singular Perturbation Theory, Kingscliffe, June 2014. Workshop on Mixing, Transport, and Coherent Structures, Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach, January 2014. Banff Workshop on Lagrangian Coherent Structures and Transport Barriers, Banff International Research Station, Banff, Canada, November 2013.
Southern Ocean Symposium, University of Stockholm, Sweden, 11 June 2014. Seminar at a symposium to celebrate the 65th birthday of Rainer Feistel, Warnemünde, Germany, April 2014. Southern Ocean Symposium, MIT, Boston, 28 January 2013.
John Roberts 2013 Annual Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Mathematical Physicists (ANZAMP), Coolum, November 2013.
Bruce Henry
Workshop: Discrete Integrable SystemsFollow-up Meeting, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, UK, July 2013.
38th Annual SANUM Conference, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 14-16 April 2014.
Workshop: The Art of Iterating Rational Functions over Finite Fields, Banff, Canada, May 2013.
Josef Dick Sequences and Their Applications (SETA) conference, Melbourne, November 2014.
Trevor McDougall
SJTU International Forum on Mathematics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, 10-12 January 2014. International Symposium on Fractional Partial Differential Equations: Theory, Numerics and Applications, Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island, USA, 3-5 June 2013.
Frances Kuo 59th Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society, Flinder’s University, Adelaide, SeptemberOctober 2015 (Forthcoming - Story in Our Research section). Eighth International Conference on Foundations of Computational Mathematics, Montevideo, Uruguay, 11–20 December 2014.
Ian Sloan 2015 International Congress for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM), Beijing, China, August 2015 (Forthcoming - Story in Our Research section).
Chris Tisdell “The future of classroom techniques and beyond (Flipping the classroom)” UNSW Teaching & Learning Symposium, Sydney, 1 December 2013. “Transforming e-Learning to FreeLearning”, Digital Technologies National Summit, Google Australia, Sydney, 7 November 2013. “The future of education”, National Symposium on Maths and Science Education Policy, Canberra (in conjunction with Australia’s Chief Scientist, Prof Ian Chubb), 26 June 2013.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 103
“Freely Teach, Extend Your Reach!” Big Science Communication Summit, UNSW, 6 June 2013.
Thanh Tran International Workshop on Computational Mathematics Advances in Computational PDEs, ICM 2014 Satellite Conference: 2014 NIMS Hot Topics Workshop, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, 9-12 August 2014. 2013 Mini-workshop “Mathematics from Novosibirsk to Sydney”, UNSW, 25 November 2013. 2013 Fourteenth Conference on the Mathematics of Finite Elements and Applications, Minisymposium on Finite Element Methods for Multiphysics Problems, Brunel University, UK, 11-14 June 2013. 2013 AMS Special Session on Frontiers in Geomathematics, Joint Mathematics Meetings, San Diego, California, 9-12 Jan 2013.
PURE MATHEMATICS Michael Cowling Probabilistic Aspects of Harmonic Analysis, Bedlewo, Poland, 26 April - 3 May 2014. Operator Spaces, Harmonic Analysis and Quantum Probability, Madrid, Spain, 10-14 June 2013.
Jie Du Taipei Conference on Representation Theory IV, Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, 20-23 December 2013.
James Franklin International Young Scholars Conference, Philippines, 17-19 May 2013.
Catherine Greenhill SIAM Conference on Discrete Mathematics, Minneapolis, USA, 16-19 July 2014.
Pinhas Grossman Subfactor Theory in Mathematics and Physics, Maui, USA, 14-18 July 2014.
Mike Hirschhorn The Combinatorics of q-series and Partitions, Nankai University, Tian-jin, China, August 2013. Workshop on q-series, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China, July 2013.
Genetic models and quasistationarity CIRM Luminy, Summer School, March 5-8 2013.
Spiridon Penev
Igor Shparlinski
IMS-SSAI international conference in Sydney, 7-10 July 2014.
Dynamics and Numbers, Max Planck Institute, Bonn, Germany, 21-25 July 2014.
Scott Sisson
Dressler Lecture: Kansas State University, USA, 10 April 2014.
6th Swedish Meeting on Mathematics in Biology, Linkoping, December 2014.
Fedor Sukochev
2014 AUT Mathematical Sciences Symposium, November 2014.
Operator Spaces, Quantum Probability and Applications, Besancon, France, 15-19 December 2014 (Forthcoming Story in Our Research section).
IMS-ASC international conference, Sydney, July 2014.
Spectral Theory and Mathematical Physics, Santiago, Chile, 24-28 November 2014.
International Workshop on Bayesian Econometrics and Computation, Kobe University, Japan, January 2013.
Noncommutative Geometry and Applications, Villa Mondragone, Italy, 16-21 June 2014.
David Warton
Positivity VII, Leiden, Netherlands, 2226 July 2013. Operator Spaces, Harmonic Analysis and Quantum Probability, Madrid, Spain, 10-14 June 2013. 5th St. Petersburg Conference in Spectral Theory, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2-6 June 2013.
STATISTICS Pierre Del Moral Maxwell Institute Colloquium Edinburgh (GB), colloquium and mini course, February 2015 (Forthcoming - Story in Our Research section). Risk: modelling, optimization and inference - UNSW-CSIRO Workshop, UNSW, 11 December - 12 December 2014. STM and CSM 2014, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo, Japan, July 2014. ABC in Sydney international workshop, UNSW, July 2014.
Subfactors and Fusion Categories, Banff, Canada, 13-18 April 2014.
IMS Australian Statistical Conference (Bayesian Statistics Session), Sydney, July 7-10 2014.
Subfactors in Maui, Maui, USA, 15-19 July 2013.
9th IMACS Seminar on Monte Carlo, Annecy-Le Vieux, July 2013. Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Summer School Probability, Beijing, China, July 2013.
UNSW SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS REPORT PAGE 104
V Congreso international de formacion y modelacion en ciencas basicas, Medellin, Colombia, May 2013.
ABC in Sydney international workshop, UNSW, July 2014.
Statistical Ecology and Ecological Monitoring conference, Queenstown, New Zealand, June 2015. Much more than U-statistics: A Symposium to celebrate Neville C Weber, University of Sydney, January 2015. Graybill/ENVR conference, Fort Collins, Colorado, September 2014. Acceptance talk for Christopher Heyde medal at Science at the Shine Dome, Canberra, May 2014. MAXENT13, Canberra, December 2013. International Biometrics Conference, Australasian region, Mandurah, December 2013.
Sue Wilson Plant Genomics Congress, Kuala Lumpur, March 2015. IMS-APRM 2014, ‘Large-Scale Genomic Data Integration, Analysis and Interpretation’, Taipei, Taiwan, July 2014. Statistics, Science and Public Policy XVIII: Evidence, Equality and Policy, ‘On Measuring Equality and Inequality’ Queen’s University International Study Centre, Herstmonceaux Castle, UK, April 2013.
Justin Wishart Much more than U-statistics: A Symposium to celebrate Neville C Weber, University of Sydney, January 2015.
PROBLEMS SECTION – PROVE OR DISPROVE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING: 1. Perfect Number Conjecture There are no odd perfect numbers. A perfect number is a positive integer that is numerically equal to the sum of its proper divisors. 2. Golbach’s Conjecture (Goldbach, 1742) Every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes. 3. The Collatz Conjecture (Collatz, 1937) Consider any natural number n. If n is even, divide it by 2, and if n is odd multiply it by 3 and then add 1. This will yield another natural number. Repeat the process indefinitely on each natural number generated. This process will always lead to the repeating sequence 1, 4, 2. 4. ABC Conjecture (Oesterle, 1988 – Masser, 1985) For every ℇ > 0, there exists a constant Kℇ such that for all triples (a, b, c) of coprime positive integers, with a + b = c, the inequality
c < Kℇrad (abc)1+ℇ where rad(n) denotes the product of the distinct prime factors of n. 5. The Beal Conjecture (Beal, 1993) If A, B, C are positive integers and x, y, z are positive integers greater than 2 then the only solutions to the equation
Ax + By = Cz are those in which A, B and C have a common prime factor. 6. Fibonacci Primes Conjecture There are infinitely many Fibonacci numbers that are also prime numbers.
Report 2012-2014 Never Stand Still
UNSW Science
School of Mathematics and Statsitcs