The UK Government have announced the latest list of honours, and we’ve taken a look for the particularly mathematical entries. Here is the selection for this year – if you spot any more, let us know in the comments and we’ll add to the list.
Chris Pritchard, Chair, Scottish Mathematical Council, Secretary, James Clerk Maxwell Foundation and lately President of The Mathematical Association. Appointed OBE for services to mathematics education.
Here’s a round-up of maths news from October and November 2025 which we didn’t otherwise cover on the site.
Awards and Grants
Applications for participation in the 13th Heidelberg Laureate Forum for Outstanding Young Researchers in Mathematics and Computer Science is now open . If you’re selected, you can join the conference in September in Heidelberg, Germany, and meet laureates of the most prestigious prizes in the fields of mathematics and computer science – including the Abel Prize, the ACM A.M. Turing Award, the ACM Prize in Computing, the Fields Medal, the IMU Abacus Medal and the Nevanlinna Prize – and engage in cross-generational scientific dialogue, including with other young researchers. The 13th HLF will take place from September 13 to 18, 2026.
The application period runs until February 11, 2026, and young researchers at all phases of their careers (undergrad, PhD or postdoc) can apply at application.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org. There are 100 spaces available for researchers from both mathematics and computer science, respectively, and all applicants will be notified by the end of April 2026 about whether or not they have been selected. For questions regarding the requirements and the application process, please see the HLF FAQs or visit heidelberg-laureate-forum.org.
Mathematician Nalini Joshi has been awarded New South Wales Scientist of the Year 2025, for her pioneering work which “has transformed the field of integrable systems. She is internationally recognised for introducing geometric and asymptotic methods to study discrete and continuous nonlinear mathematical models, [and] her results have led to crucial information about singularity structure and to improved tests for the identification of critical models called integrable systems.”
Algorithmic trading firm XTX markets has announced £26m funding for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in pure maths. According to the press release, “XTX Markets is launching the Early-Career Research Funding programme, designed to increase the number and quality of PhDs and postdocs entering the talent pipeline at top UK universities. The programme aims to create more than 100 new early career research positions, across seven universities, with entry in 2026, 2027 and 2028. The funding will support PhD students and postdoctoral research associates in pure maths.” (via Daniel Colquitt)
Other News
A Paris court has blocked Pascal’s La Pascaline calculator being exported from France – described as “one of the world’s first calculating machines”, the calculator is provisionally blocked from export due to heritage protection arguments. The auction, at which valuations suggested the machine could fetch €2m to 3m (£1.7m to £2.6m), has been postponed.
Here’s a round-up of maths news stories from this month we haven’t otherwise covered on the Aperiodical (not including, of course, the important enneahedron news Christian just posted about).
We’ve gone crashing into October and that means it’s also #Mathober, an annual maths/art celebration taking place on the internet. If you’re into maths or art, or both, and would like to try producing something creative this month, on an informal schedule, #mathober provides a structure for you to do that.
Here’s a round-up of mathematical news stories that happened in the last couple of months, that we didn’t otherwise cover on the site.
Mathematical Discoveries
A newly discovered shape (ArXiV paper), described as a monostable tetrahedron, always lands the same way up – whatever orientation you place it in, gravity pulls it to the same place. There’s a write up in Quanta Magazine about it with some lovely videos. The write up mentions a lost physical model built in the 1980s, but it turns out Colin Wright has the model! Colin shares the story and some pictures in a blog post MonostableTetrahedron.
Quanta magazine also reports some new developments in sphere packing, on how to get increasingly dense packings in higher-dimensional space.
Other News
MathsWorldUK has announced in its latest newsletter (PDF) plans to launch a second maths discovery centre location, in London. Located in the heart of Southwark (not far from the Tate Modern), the new site MathsWorld promises to be “a vibrant playground for mathematical exploration”.
The five UK maths teaching associations are to merge – the The Association of Mathematics Education Teachers (AMET), the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM), The Mathematical Association (MA), the National Association of Mathematics Advisers (NAMA) and the National Association for Numeracy and Mathematics in Colleges (NANAMIC) will henceforth be known as AMiE (the Association for Mathematics in Education).
And finally, a piece of sad news: mathematician and musical satirist Tom Lehrer has died. We’d like to share our favourite Tom Lehrer quote: “Some of you may have had occasion to run into mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they got that way.”
Tomorrow is the start of August, and if you’re anywhere near Edinburgh you’ll be aware that the city is already overrun with musicians, comedians and street performers plying their trade as part of the month-long Fringe festival. If you were wondering whether any of the shows were maths-related, the answer is yes! And we’ve saved you the hassle of searching the Fringe programme website for the word ‘maths’ and related terms – below is an outline of some maths-related shows you might enjoy.
The UK Government have announced the new set of King’s Birthday Honours. Here’s our selection of particularly mathematical entries for this year. If you spot any more, let us know in the comments and we’ll add to the list.
Ursula Martin, Emeritus Professor in the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, becomes a Dame for services to Science and Education.
Peter Cox, Professor of Climate System Dynamics in Mathematics, University of Exeter. Appointed CBE for services to Science and to Climate Modelling.
Tim Cole, Professor Emeritus of Population, Health and Practice, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London. Appointed CBE for services to Medical Statistics.
Philip Colligan, Chief Executive Officer, Raspberry Pi Foundation. Appointed CBE for services to Engineering and Technology for Societal Impact.
Rowland Raymond Kao, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science, University of Edinburgh. Appointed CBE for services to Mathematics and Infectious Disease Dynamics.
Emily Fleur Shuckburgh, Professor of Environmental Data Science and Director, Cambridge Zero, University of Cambridge. Appointed CBE for services to Climate Science and to the Public Communication of Climate Science.
Davin Crowley-Sweet, Chief Data Officer, National Highways. Appointed OBE for services to the Safety of the Road Network.
Alexander James Samuel Stewart, Senior Statistician, Office of the Chief Economic Adviser, Scottish Government. Appointed OBE for services to Scottish Economic Statistics.
Richard Cracknell, Lately Head of Social and General Statistics, House of Commons. Appointed MBE for services to Parliament.
Sarah Lowe, Senior Research Officer, Welsh Government. Appointed MBE for services to Data Research.
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Visiting Professor, University of Oxford. Appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to Astronomy and Physics and to Diversity.
James Brown, Discipline Leader (Maths), University of Technology, Sydney. Appointed OBE for services to Statistics in the United Kingdom and internationally.
Get the full list from gov.uk. Spot anyone we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments.
