News from the Department of Mathematics

On Wednesday, 25 October, an event for the department's alumni was organised for the first time. About fifty people came to see fellow students and teachers, to network with other mathematicians and, not least, to take part in the programme items with the theme AI. Several of the department's teachers/researchers and students also participated.

The Swedish Research Council (VR) has awarded five project grants and one starting grant totaling just over 22 million SEK to researchers at the Department of Mathematics at Uppsala University during 2023-2027. VR rewards research of the highest scientific quality in national competition. In the same call, VR distributed a total of approximately SEK 82 million for research in mathematics.

Hello there Anders Karlsson, Professor of Mathematics at both Uppsala University and the University of Geneva. You have been invited to give a talk on AI at a Game Changer Talks event in connection with the BNP Paribas Nordic Open* tennis tournament in Stockholm on 19 October. That sounds interesting!

On Friday 29 September there was a re-inauguration of Arne Beurling's bust, which has now been relocated to the green area outside Café Ångström. It was a small, very pleasant event where about 40 people had gathered to maintain and honour his memory.

The Department of Mathematics organised a geometric puzzle activity during the Friday programme of the SciFest science festival on 22 September. More than 1200 school students visited the festival that day, many of whom came out to try to solve the puzzles. The festival took place at Fyrishov in Uppsala.

This week we had the pleasure of receiving Arne Beurling's grandchildren and great-grandchildren visiting from the USA. In connection with the visit, FRA opened the hood of the German encryption machine der Geheimschreiber (the G-writer), which has been deposited by FRA at the department and is displayed in the Explanatorium exhibition at the Ångström Laboratory.

On the International Congress of Basic Science in Beijing this summer, newly established prizes in mathematics were awarded. In the category Frontiers of Science Awards the Department of Mathematics at Uppsala University has two laureates, motivated by two different articles. They get the prize for research that is of highest scientific value and originality and that have made an important impact on its area.

On 29 June, the department together with the Swedish National Committee for Mathematics arranged a seminar during the Almedal Week on Gotland entitled "Nobody understands AI - what's the problem?". The seminar included a product designer, two maths researchers and a member of parliament, all of whom gave their views on where we are in AI development and then formed a panel for questions from the audience. 

In order for Sweden to regain an international leading position in the field of mathematics, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, together with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, is providing support by giving the best young researchers international experience and recruiting both young and more experienced mathematicians to Sweden. The 2023 award includes four researchers at Uppsala University.

On July 3-7, the 29th Nordic Congress of Mathematicians will take place in Aalborg, Denmark. The congress is usually held every four years. Researchers from the Department of Mathematics at Uppsala University are involved in arranging two of the congress's special sessions.

UTN's pedagogical award for 2022 was awarded to Anna Sakovich for her pedagogical efforts in the Single Variable Calculus course! Thanks to Anna's drive, dedication and interest in the students' learning, she makes the students enjoy the studies.

When 2022’s grants decision came from the Swedish Research Council, mathematician Annika Heckel was on the recipient list. The four-year starting grant means more time for research on random graphs. “My research is in theoretical mathematics. But random graph theory is never too far away from possible applications to large and disordered networks in our daily lives, from the internet to social networks and models for the spread of disease.”

The Swedish Research Council (VR) has awarded five project grants and one starting grant totaling almost 22 million SEK to researchers at the Department of Mathematics at Uppsala University. VR rewards research of the highest scientific quality in national competition. In the same call, VR distributed a total of approximately SEK 94 million for research in mathematics.

David Sumpter, professor of applied mathematics, receives this year's Disapris for his popular science books on mathematics. David Sumpter has been a professor in the Department of Mathematics but is now active in the Department of Information Technology.”

Michele Del Zotto at Uppsala University has been appointed a principal investigator within the Simons Collaboration on Global Categorical Symmetries. This collaboration brings together world leading theoretical physicists and mathematicians from several different universities and gives Uppsala University a financial support of around 500,000 USD during four years. 

Seidon Alsaody is the 2021 pedagogical laureate at Uppsala University in the field of mathematics, science and technology. He was notified at the mathematics department's staff meeting by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Coco Norén, who made an unexpected visit.

Johan Asplund, who will soon defend his doctoral thesis in symplectic geometry, has received a postdoctoral position at Columbia University in New York, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. He is looking forward to exciting mathematical conversations and to finding himself as a mathematician.

This year's Abel Prize has gone to László Lovász and Avi Wigderson for their basic contributions to discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science. Stephan Wagner and Svante Janson, who both conduct research in discrete mathematics, tell about what the prize means for their field.

On 14 March every year, the world celebrates the peculiar number pi. Meet the mathematics lecturer Jordi-Lluís Figueras in a conversation about pi and mathematics.

Last year's pedagogical award from the Uppsala Union of Technology and Science Students (UTN) goes to the mathematics lecturer Seidon Alsaody, because he has "through his teaching method succeeded to inspire, support and motivate his students in a way that few teachers have managed to do".

"I was really happy and surprised when UTN told me about it", says Seidon Alsaody. 

Thomas Kragh receives the 2020 year's Wallenberg Prize "for his work in sympathetic geometry and topology, especially for his important contribution to Floers homotope theory and Lagrange topology."

Fake news don't affect people's worldview as much as we might think, said David Sumpter in a lecture he held as part of a symposium organised by Uppsala University in collaboration with Tokyo Tech.

In August, the department organized the fifth round of the Summer Math Camp. The camp is aimed at students who want to try mathematical research. In this year's edition, under the theme finite fields and their applications, four students participated: Mikolaj Cuszynski-Kruk, Sara Freyland, Johannes Granér and Einar Waara. We've asked the students about their thoughts on the camp.

The new Uppsala mathematician Julian Külshammer has received the algebra prize ICRA 2018

Uppsala mathematicians Jordi-Lluís Figueras and Alejandro Luque are awarded The Moore Prize for Applications of Interval Analysis for the article "Rigorous Computer Assisted Application of KAM Theory: A Modern Approach", which they written with Alex Haro. Thus, Uppsala University is the only one that has recieved the Moore Prize twice. The first time the award went to a matemathematician from Uppsala was in 2002, when the prize went to Warwick Tucker.

The students have rewarded Hania Uscka-Wehlou with no less than two awards, the Electrotechnical Educational Prize 2018 and the F-Teacher Award 2018.

Uppsala student Nima Akbarian knows 3141 decimals of pi. He has demonstrated this skill at an event that took place in early June at the Sorbonne Université in Paris.

Knut och Alice Wallenberg foundation continues to invest in mathematics. According to the chair Peter Wallenberg jr, mathematics is important for handling the huge amounts of data that we are exposed to today. Therefore, the foundation is investing in development of basic research in mathematics and awarding grants to fourteen mathematicians. One of the researchers to receive a grant is Samuel Edwards, who will defend his doctoral thesis at the department of mathematics in Uppsala on June 8. 

From Facebook to job evaluations, mathematics now plays an important part in every aspect of our social lives. And, increasingly, mathematicians are actively using their skills to improve society. The Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematics will thus run a theme around "Maths for social activism" culminating in a workshop on June 4th and 5th.