Last week I attended an enjoyable talk by Dr. Chris Sangwin on some of the interesting results from his book with John Bryant, “How Round is Your Circle?” at the invitation of the University of Birmingham Mathsoc. This was followed by an after-talk networking session put on by the Mathsoc using an IMA University Liaison…
Careers in Greenwich
Last week I visited the University of Greenwich and gave a lunchtime session on careers. I talked about careers for mathematicians, skills of maths graduates and an overview of the IMA. This was followed by a CV writing session to make it up to an hour and I think this combination of me giving a…
Podcast Episode 16 – Chris Bailey, Cutty Sark Restoration
These are the show notes for episode 16 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast. 16 is the only number of the form x^y=y^x with x and y as different integers, being both 2^4 and 4^2. More about the number 16 from Number Gossip. I visited the University of Greenwich last summer and spoke…
Podcast: Episode 15 – Maths news with Sarah Shepherd
These are the show notes for episode 15 of the Travels in a Mathematical World Podcast . 15 is the number of letters in the words “uncopyrightable” and “dermatoglyphics”, which in English are the only two longest words there are without repeating a letter. This fact and more about the number 15 from Number Gossip.…
Maths = A Good Job
I was pointed to a piece in the New York Times which says that being a mathematician is the best job in the U.S. A study evaluated 200 occupations against five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress. Being a mathematician – a career path that the New York Times says provides a…
Membership pays
I was pointed recently to a piece from the Times that claims membership of a professional body can provide great economic benefits. Specifically, a report by the Consultative Committee for Professional Management Organisations gives the estimated lifetime economic benefit of holding a professional qualification at £81,000 and being a member of a professional institute at…
Mathematics Today February: University Liaison Officer’s Report
IMA Prize Winners IMA Prizes are awarded in UK universities which offer mathematics degrees, at the discretion of the university. In 2008 I conducted a survey of Prize giving practice among IMA University Representatives (27 responses; a 37% rate). All respondents awarded Prizes on some measure of academic excellence (all 22 who answered that question),…