Here’s a round-up of some news from this month not otherwise covered on the site.
The UK government has appointed two operational researchers as direct ministerial appointments: Professors Christina Pagel and Martin Utley will use operational research methods to advise the UK Government on efficiency and modernisation in the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts.
Fields medallist and general all-round maths guy Terry Tao has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia as part of their Kings’ Birthday Honours. Adelaide-born Tao has been recognised “for his service to mathematical sciences and academia”.
The 2026 Simon Norton Prize for Mathematics Outreach has been awarded to the Museum of Mathematics “CUBOID” in Ukraine, for its remarkable mathematics outreach activities, developed and adapted under wartime conditions.
In its first year “CUBOID” reached more than 43,000 visitors, including approximately 550 organised school groups from across Ukraine. Over 4,000 educators participated in professional development activities connected to the project, which is focused on inquiry-based learning, puzzles, modelling, and classroom adaptation of museum exhibits.
Results have been published from the ‘First Proof’ project, which challenged AI to solve unpublished mathematics problems, aiming to measure reasoning rather than pattern-matching. Four different AI systems were presented with ten brand-new research-level math problems that had never been published or posted online, and a team of humans attempted to solve them at the same time. According to the project write-up, AI showed some progress, but the humans solved all the problems. A second batch of problems has been released recently, and there’s a series of webinars discussing the project.
And finally, record-breaking number fan Favour Ogechi Ani has counted from 1 to 1,070,000, smashing the world record for a human counting out loud by 70,000 (the previous record being a straight 1 million). The feat took 70 days of counting for 14 hours a day, and the whole thing was streamed live on Favour’s YouTube channel. (via Richard Elwes)