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Welcome from The Head of School, Peter Duck Welcome to the summer 2016 edition of the School of Mathematics <strong>Alumni</strong> <strong>Newsletter</strong>. This has been another good year academically for the School. Since last summer, we have made five new academic appointments, and by the end of the summer, all four Turing Fellows will have arrived at the School. The Turing Fellowships are funded by a very generous external donation with the aim of supporting some of the very best early career mathematicians to work on challenging mathematical problems. I was recently delighted to learn that eight members of staff had been promoted, including four to chairs (Andrew Hazel to Professor of Applied Mathematics, Mark Kambites to Professor of Pure Mathematics, Will Parnell to Professor of Applied Mathematics and Louise Walker to Professor of Mathematics). All the promotions are well deserved, and indicative of the quality of our staff. During the last academic year the School has set up a committee to administer the Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw legacy, with a view to attracting leading figures in mathematics to visiting positions here in Manchester, to further build on our outreach activities, and also to support the annual Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Public Lecture. As you will find on page 23, last year this lecture was given by Marcus du Sautoy, a lecture that filled the main theatre in University Place. We are delighted that Hannah Fry (also a figure regularly seen on TV) has agreed to give this year's lecture. If any of our alumni would like to attend, please email Jenny Sloan (jenny.sloan@manchester.ac.uk). On 9th March 2016, in association with The British Society for the History of Mathematics, the School celebrated the lives of three female mathematicians, Hanna Neumann, Phyllis Nicolson and Bertha Swirles, who not only made significant contributions to science but also lived incredible lives, thus earning themselves a place in the history of mathematics in Manchester. A number of friends and relatives of these remarkable ladies were able to attend, and the evening concluded with the naming of three ground floor rooms in the Alan Turing Building, in their honour. Please see the next page for more details about the event. The School was greatly saddened to learn of the death of three former members of staff - Mick McCrudden, Eric Watson and Jack Williams. Obituaries for these former colleagues can be found in this issue. It is always a pleasure to meet our alumni and from time-to-time we receive requests to visit us - we are always very happy to show our alumni around our (relatively) new building, and to reminisce over the past. Please let us know if you are passing and would like to drop by! Keeping Alan Turing’s memory green Staff and students from across The University of Manchester congregated to plant an apple tree in memory of Alan Turing on Monday 29th February 2016. Situated outside St. Peter’s Chaplaincy, the ceremony was jointly organised by St. Peter’s Chaplaincy, the University’s Sustainability Team and ALLOUT (the University’s LGBTQ network), as well as Manchester City Council. Following a series of short speeches by Paul Marks-Jones (Equality and Diversity Advisor), Rev. Terry Biddington (Chaplaincy Coordinator) and Dr. James Hopkins (Historian and Heritage Manger—to the right), Turing was toasted with wine, juice and cakes. The tree that was chosen to mark Alan Turing’s life is a selfpollinating Malus Domesticus James Grieve, which produces a versatile fruit that can be used for eating raw, juicing, cooking and cider-making. While the tree was once grown and sold across Europe, it cannot tolerate modern supermarket handling, and is now only grown in gardens and for direct sale to consumers. 2
New Members of Staff After completing his PhD in Bordeaux, France, Mawussi Zounon joined The School of Mathematics as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in January 2016. In March 2016, Arno Fehm joined the University as a Lecturer in Pure Mathematics. Prior to starting his post, he worked at Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The University of Konstanz, Germany. Neil Walton started in January 2016 as a Senior Lecturer in Actuarial Science. Before moving to Manchester, Neil worked as an Assistant Professor at The University of Amsterdam. In April 2016, Steven Broom began his Lecturership in Applied Mathematics. Steven is also Head of Admissions, Recruitment and External Relations within the School of Mathematics at The University of Manchester. After working as a Postdoctoral Researcher at The University of Zurich, Switzerland, Alex Watson joined the School of Mathematics in September 2015 as a Lecturer in Actuarial Science. Alice Thompson began working as a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics at the University in February 2016. Before moving to Manchester, Alice was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Imperial College London. Celebrating the History of Women in Mathematics at Manchester In association with The British Society for the History of Women in Mathematics, the School’s Athena Swan committee hosted ‘Celebrating the History of Women in Mathematics at Manchester’ on 9th March 2016, in the Alan Turing Building. More than 100 people attended the free, public event which celebrated the professional lives of three female mathematicians who made incredible contributions to the field of Mathematics at Manchester: Phyllis Nicolson (below left), Hanna Neumann (below middle) and Bertha Swirles (below right). Staff, students, visitors and members of Nicolson’s own family attended. Peter Neumann (Oxford University) delivered a presentation on the life and works of his mother Hanna Neumann. Ruth Williams (Cambridge University) spoke about the mathematical contributions and personal life of her former colleague Bertha Swirles, and David Silvester and Catherine Powell (The University of Manchester) delivered a joint presentation on the Crank-Nicolson method and the life of Phyllis Nicolson. 3
Page 1: Alumni Newsletter THE SCHOOL OF MAT
Page 5 and 6: Science The new 2016 Extravaganza M
Page 7 and 8: Building of the Tower The Maths Tow
Page 9 and 10: Nevertheless, the demolition of the
Page 11 and 12: Your Maths Tower Memories I was at
Page 13 and 14: The Padlock Icon and a Million Doll
Page 15 and 16: Interview with an Alumnus By Jenny
Page 17 and 18: Jack Williams (1943-2015) Jack Will
Page 19 and 20: All aboard for Mathematics! Alumnus
Page 21 and 22: ongoing efforts to ensure that we p
Page 23 and 24: Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Lecture 2
Page 25 and 26: Einstein's theory of relativity mea

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