2007

During January to February, AMSI hosted its first Theme Program From Statistical Mechanics to Conformal and Quantum Field Theory at the University of Melbourne.
The meeting included a total of 78 one-hour research seminars and lectures, which brought together approximately 60 leading experts from all around the world.

2006

On 7 December, Prof. John Grue of University of Oslo spoke about Fully Nonlinear Simulations of Rogue Waves in Three Dimensions, and Comparison with Experiments using Particle Image Velocimetry.

On 13 October, Prof. Ed Smith of La Trobe University spoke about Alternative view of asymptotic expansions and the Stokes' phenomenon.

On 25 July, Dr Ejanul Haque of RMIT University spoke about Expansion of Hight Pressure Gas into Air- A More Realistic Blast Wave Model.

The AMSI Lecturer for 2006 was Professor Xiao-Li Meng, Department Chair of Statistics, Harvard University. He was be the plenary speaker on the final day of the Australian Statistical Conference/ New Zealand Statistical Association Conference 2006 (3-6 July). Then spoke at engagements in Sydney and Canberra from 10-14 July. He will return in 2008.

On 11 July, AMSI hosted Dr Emma McBryde who spoke about her current research into Mathematical and Statistical Modelling of Infectious Diseases in Hospitals. Emma is now Head of Epidemiology at the Victorian Infectious Disease Service.

On 23 June, AMSI and MASCOS hosted a lecture by Prof. Ian Enting, a climatologist with MASCOS and the CSIRO. He spoke on Algorithmic differentiation for analysis of global change and the carbon cycle.

On 27 April at St Peters College, Adelaide, ICE-EM sponsored a lecture by Dr Marcel Jackson at the annual conference of the Mathematical Association of South Australia. He dicussed polyhedra and in particular flexible polyhedra.

On 23 March ICE-EM hosted a lecture by Sarah Carpenter, Assistant Director of SIGMA - A Centre for Excellence in the Provision of University-wide Mathematics and Statistics Support, which is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Presentation overheads
Public lecture notice
Sigma Centre

February 2006. At the annual conference of ANZIAM at Mansfield, Victoria, AMSI Lecturer John Dennis spoke on Optimal placement of tsunami warning buoys and was an active participant in the discussions on optimisation. During February, he spoke at the Universities of Melbourne, Western Australia, Adelaide, Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, the Australian National University, Queensland University of Technology and Curtin University. At these, in addition to repeating the talk on tsunami buoys, he also presented talks on Optimisation using surrogates for engineering design and mesh adaptive direct search algorithms.

 

2005

Teachers' Day at the Australian Mathematical Society Conference 2005 (28 September 2005, Perth)

Approximately 50 participants registered for the special afternoon sessions designed for teachers at the Australian Mathematical Society 2005 Conference. Registration was free and ICE-EM provided financial support for non-Perth residents. The calibre of the speakers attracted many of the regular conference participants. Feedback from the teachers, who came from around Western Australia, was very positive.

Four presentations were given:

Unreal Numbers?
Dr Jacqui Ramagge
University of Newcastle

Ramanujan for Young and Old
Professor Bruce Berndt
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Visualization and Other Tools for Mathematics
Professor Jonathan Borwein
Dalhousie University, Canada

Clean Solutions for Dirty Problems
Professor Philip Broadbridge
Dirctor, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute

18 August 2005. ICE-EM co-hosted a public lecture at Swinburne University (Hawthorn) by Danny Calegari, Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, during National Science Week.

August 2005. ICE-EM hosted a series of public lectures by Professor Bill Casselman from the University of British Columbia. Professor Casselman covered four major mathematical themes using photographs of clay tablets, manuscripts, ancient books and computer animations. The lecture was of interest to everyone who enjoys geometry, mathematics and art. The next will be at Monash University Science Centre on Thursday 11 August at 7pm. Media release.

Visiting American mathematician and professional magician Art Benjamin gave a public performance at La Trobe University on 23 June 2005.

The world is in the midst of an extinction crisis. Prof. Hugh Possingham, Director of the Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland and obsessive bird watcher, explained the global hotspot approach, formulated it as a mathematical problem and solved it using optimisation tools. This public lecture was held at the Parnell Lecture Theatre, University of Queensland, on 7 July 2005, followed by supper.

John Mighton is an award-winning writer and mathematician from Canada who decided to do something for kids who were failing at maths. He started a volunteer teaching program called JUMP - Junior Undiscovered Maths Prodigies. He gave a public lecture at the University of Melbourne on 23 May and teacher professional development sessions on 24 May.