Winter School: 11–15 July 2011 
Conference: 18–22 July 2011 
The University of Melbourne

Hyamfest, hosted by the University of Melbourne, consisted of two exciting weeks of lectures and workshops. The event brought together an impressive line-up of guests from the United States, Europe and Asia, and was attended by approximately 120 students and academics. Hyamfest was held in honour of Professor Hyam Rubinstein, and celebrated his contribution to topology and his long-standing role as an advocate for the mathematical sciences discipline.

Elisabeth Tarica from The Age wrote about Hyamfest in an article that appeared on Monday 18 July.  The article drew attention to the parlous state of mathematics in Australia, and how some of the nation’s best mathematical minds have been lost to overseas institutions. She wrote,

“They say that if Australia continues to slide backwards in maths education and the disciplines it supports, the shortage of workers with high-level mathematics and statistics capabilities could jeopardise the nation's economic and research capability.”

AMSI hosted a free public lecture on 19 July in conjunction with the conference. Professor Danny Calegari, from the California Institute of Technology, delivered the lecture entitled ‘The Shape of the Internet’. Calegari grew up in Melbourne, and he is a prime example of a mathematical scientist with exceptional talent who has left Australia in search of better support for his discipline.

Calegari took his audience on a grand tour of graph theory, demonstrating how a small number of parameters can be used to describe the shape of complex networks. Calegari’s innate sense of humour was well received as he used various Australian animals as models for possible shapes of the internet. He also touched on the ‘6 degrees of separation’ hypothesis and the mathematical modelling of social networks, which use ideas from graph theory.

So what is the shape of the internet? Unfortunately the jury is still out on that one.