AIMS conference looks at latest trends in mathematics

Yes, mathematics is beautiful. That’s the message from the organisers of the Conference on the Diversity in Mathematics that will see some of the world’s leading mathematical minds speaking at AIMS in Cape Town from 13 to 17 July 2010.

The conference is being organised by the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Muizenberg, which provides postgraduate training and research opportunities in mathematics and science for students from across Africa.

According to AIMS director Prof Barry Green, the emphasis will fall on the beauty of mathematics and the diversity of research areas involved in an effort to encourage young researchers to become involved in this discipline.

“The talks and panel discussions will be of interest to a general mathematical audience, and will focus on current trends in the field,” he believes.

The plenary and invited talks have been chosen to represent a number of active research areas including both traditional and modern areas of interest. This includes mathematics and computation, mathematics and biomedical and biological sciences, statistics and topology.

Participants are expected from South Africa, Africa and elsewhere.

Among the leading speakers are the South African-born Prof Peter Sarnak and Prof Neil Turok.

Prof Turok of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada will discuss new theoretical developments relating to the Big Bang theory, while Prof Sarnak of Princeton University will focus on the search for prime numbers and diverse areas of mathematics that shed light on this question. Prof Igor Rodnianski, also of Princeton University, will discuss basic mathematical concepts relating to general relativity, while Prof David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University will present information about the use of mathematics in the monitoring of health and health services.

It is planned that there will be a number of panel discussion covering various themes ranging from the beauty of mathematics to areas of application, such as one on mathematics in biological/biomedical sciences which will be coordinated by Prof Wayne Getz from Berkeley.

Other topics of discussion will be modern cryptology, the use of modelling data to help decision-making about infectious diseases in the public health sector, the search for prime numbers and the statistical analysis of human genetic data.

• The conference is to be held AIMS at No 6, Melrose Road, Muizenberg, from 13 to 17 July.
• For a full programme, please visit http://www.aims.ac.za/en/programmes/workshops-conferences/diversity-in-mathematics
• For more information, contact Lynne Teixeira at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) Tel: + 27 21 7879320 or lynne@aims.ac.za

 * Background: The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)  www.aims.ac.za  
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a joint project supported by Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape, Oxford University, Cambridge University and University Paris-Sud-XI. Since its founding in 2003, it promotes postgraduate education and research in mathematics and science across Africa. Around sixty talented students are selected each year on merit from all over Africa to follow the AIMS postgraduate programme in Muizenberg. Local and international lecturers present courses in various classical and modern areas in the mathematical sciences, as well as in developing problem solving and computational skills.