National Forum: Maths for the Future: Keep Australia Competitive

Date & Place: 7–8 February 2012; University House, Canberra.

The forum brings together business, industry and educators to address the supply of mathematicians and statisticians for Australia. Strategies to secure future mathematical and statistical skills for Australia will be proposed. Professor Celia Hoyles, former mathematics advisor to the British Government, will talk about initiatives employed in the UK that have improved standards, reversed teacher shortages and increased mathematics enrolments.

Other speakers include:

• Ian Chubb (Chief Scientist)
• Chris Evans (Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research)
• Doug Hilton (Division Head, WEHI)
• Steve Davies (APRA)
• Ron Sandland (AMSI)
• Attila Brungs (Australian Technology Network)
• Mike Manton (Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering)
• Rob Vertessy (Acting Director, Bureau of Meteorology)
• Sophie Mirabella (Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science)
• Chris Pyne (Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training)
• Glenn Wightwick (Chief Technologist, IBM Australia)

See http://www.amsi.org.au/mathsforthefuture.php and attached flyer.

Register your interest:

* enquiries@amsi.org.au

This seminar will be held the day before IISME's FORUM ON PREPAREDNESS FOR FIRST YEAR MATHEMATICS.
Please join us for refreshments from 4pm.

Date: Tuesday 14 February 2012, 4.30–5.30pm

Venue: Education Lecture Theatre 351, University of Sydney (main campus)

Speaker: Professor Celia Hoyles (OBE), Professor of Mathematics Education, Institute of Education, University of London

Professor Celia Hoyles (OBE), former mathematics advisor to the UK government and an internationally influential researcher in learning technologies and mathematics education will be presenting UK initiatives on mathematics, standards and teacher shortages, followed by discussions.

About Celia Hoyles

Professor Celia Hoyles is a Professor of Mathematics Education, Institute of Education, University of London and is the Director of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics as well as a researcher in the London Knowledge Lab. Professor Hoyles is in Australia as the keynote speaker at the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) national forum on Maths for the future: Keep Australia Competitive. The forum will propose strategies to secure future mathematical and statistical skills for Australia.

Please RSVP online by Thursday 9 February 2012, for catering purposes.

Best wishes,
Alexandra Yeung (alexandra.yeung@sydney.edu.au) on behalf of IISME

IISME's FORUM ON PREPAREDNESS FOR FIRST YEAR MATHEMATICS

Date: Wednesday 15 February 2012, 10:30am for 11am start. The formal proceedings will conclude at 5pm. Includes coffee and croissant on arrival, lunch and afternoon tea.

Venue: New Law School Auditorium (LT101), University of Sydney

Program

The day will begin with a keynote presentation from Jacqui Ramagge (UoW) bringing us up to date with the current pattern of mathematics study in Australian high schools.

There will be presentations:

• Quantitative skills in science: Curriculum models for the future — Dr Shaun Belward (JCU)
• Discipline Network: Australian mathematical sciences learning and teaching network — Dr Deborah King (Univ. of Melbourne).

There will be an opportunity for a representative from each university to give a 5-minute overview of what their university currently does to cater to diverse cohorts in first year and to raise one or two significant issues for later discussion.

Workshops

Workshops on at least four of the following five issues will take place at the end of the day to come up with some valuable strategies. Please indicate when registering for the event, which two you would prefer to attend.

• RESOURCES
  effectively supporting increases in underprepared student numbers using online resources, including social media collaborative development and sharing resources between institutions evaluating existing resources (incl. textbooks)
• MOTIVATION and ENGAGEMENT
  how can we be pro-active when students don't recognise the skills they need service teaching and nature of compulsory vs. optional courses what works to encourage the reluctant and math-phobic students comparing participation and drop-out rates across the country
• EVALUATION (and FEEDBACK)
  how do we know that bridging courses (and similar activities) are adequate? What is best practice for diagnostic testing of students evaluating student learning and also evaluating the courses and resources
• EDUCATIONAL THEORY
  what theory/frameworks can successfully be used with these students and courses, worked examples vs. problem sheets, the role of tutorials or peer-group teaching cognitive load theory, constructivist learning, threshold concepts
• BEYOND FIRST YEAR (maintaining maths skills and integration into other disciplines, after they "leave the nest"...this is huge and may be the next big thing we need to do)

Register online by Wednesday 8 February 2012.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please feel free to contact Ms Jessica Morris (iisme@sydney.usyd.edu.au).

Australian Universities Today and Tomorrow
NTEU’s Future of Higher Education Conference

Dates: 22–23 February 2012

Venue: Education Lecture Theatre 351, Education Building, University of Sydney

The NTEU believes that it is now the appropriate time to both reflect upon what is changing and consider the impacts. It is time to cast the public debate wider and deeper to pose the more profound question as to what we expect of our universities today and tomorrow. The objective of the conference is to better position the NTEU as major actor in the debates about Australian higher and tertiary education.

The conference is organised around a series of six thematic panels over two days. Speakers have been asked to reflect upon their knowledge and experience, to consider the issues of today and projecting into the future and to interrogate the ideological drivers, as well as political pragmatics about what is going to shape the future of our universities. Following some framing remarks from the Chair, each session will have a panel of 3–4 speakers addressing specific aspects of the theme, followed by debate amongst the panellists and Q&A with the audience.

Themes

1. funding policies
2. regulation and governance
3. students
4. the public intellectual
5. the 21st century university employee
6. the international context.

We are also planning a debate around the key question of whether the idea of the university is dead.

Registration is necessary!

Registration is $80 for NTEU members and there is no charge to casual members and full time students. $200 for others. I hope that Branches may consider assisting members to participate – and some members may be able to gain institutional support to do so. With a limit of 150 participants, this will be a high level, intensive and interactive conference.

Keynote address

… on ways of knowing, knowledge and universities will be given by:

• Professor Steven Larkin, Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Leadership, Charles Darwin University and Chair of the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Committee

Confirmed Speakers

• Professor Dennis Altman, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University
• Dr Meredith Burgmann, former President, NSW Legislative Council
• Dr Emmaline Bexley, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne
• Ian Dobson, Editor AUR
• Dr Sandra Grey, President of NZ Tertiary Education Union
• Professor Simon Marginson, Centre for University of Melbourne
• Professor Greg McCarthy, Head of School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide
• Arfa Noor, President, International Students Australia
• Jeannie Rea, President, NTEU
• Belinda Robinson, incoming CEO, Universities Australia
• David Robinson, Associate Director, Canadian Association of University Teachers
• Professor Margaret Thornton, Australian National University College of Law
• Professor Peter Van Onselen, Winthrop Professor, University of Western Australia
• Amanda Vanstone, former Minister for Education
• Dr Julie Wells, Vice President, RMIT University.

We are currently inviting further speakers to ensure we have a good mix of people prepared to debate their point of view. Negotiations continue with the leading politicians.

Watch the website for updates on the speakers the detailed program on the website.

IGA/AMSI Workshop on The Mathematical Implications of Gauge–String Dualities

Date & Venue: 5–9 March 2012; The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.

Program details:

A series of 10 hours of lectures by Professor Rajesh Gopakumar (Harish-Chandra Research Institute) on recent advances in understanding gauge-string dualities.

Titles of individual lectures

• Lecture 1: What are Gauge–String Dualities
• Lecture 2: From Knots to Counting Curves
• Lecture 3: From Gauge Theories to String Theories
• Lecture 4: What is the Simplest Gauge–String Duality?
• Lecture 5: Dualities for 2-Dimensional Conformal Field Theories

There will be additional talks given by invited speakers.

Registration

Registration is free. Intention to attend should be sent by Tuesday, 31 January 2012.

Biography

Professor Rajesh Gopakumar obtained his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1997 under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Professor David Gross. He was subsequently a research associate at Harvard University and he joined the prestigious Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI) in Allahabad, India as full-time researcher in 2001. He also held a visiting membership at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton during the period 2001–2004. Professor Gopakumar was awarded the 2004 B. M. Birla Science Prize in Physics and the ICTP Prize in 2006. He also received the highly esteemed Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 2009. He is a member of the Global Young Academy, the Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Academy of Sciences.

Professor Gopakumar is renowned for his outstanding contributions to the field of topological string theory, especially for his work with Cumrun Vafa on Gopakumar–Vafa duality and Gopakumar–Vafa invariants. His current research aims to understand gauge–string dualities better through simple examples with the eventual aim of a first principles derivation of this connection.

Contact

All enquiries may be emailed to:

• Pedram Hekmati (pedram.hekmati@adelaide.edu.au)
• Snigdhayan Mahanta (snigdhayan.mahanta@adelaide.edu.au)

Organisers:

• Peter Bouwknegt (University of Melbourne)
• Mathai Varghese (University of Adelaide)
• Snigdhayan Mahanta (University of Adelaide)
• Pedram Hekmati (University of Adelaide)

International Number Theory Conference

Date & Venue: 12–16 March; Noah's on the Beach, Newcastle

The purpose of the conference is to celebrate and promote number theory research in Australia and to commemorate the research and legacy of Alf van der Poorten, AM.

Invited Speakers

• Yann Bugeaud (Univ. Louis-Pasteur, Strasbourg)
• John Coates (Univ. of Cambridge)
• John Friedlander (Univ. of Toronto)
• Frank Garvan (Univ. of Florida)
• Roger Heath-Brown (Oxford Univ.)
• Harald Helfgott (ENS, Paris)
• Carl Pomerance (Dartmouth College)
• Jeffrey Shallit (Univ. of Waterloo)
• Cameron Stewart (Univ. of Waterloo)
• Michel Waldschmidt (Univ. Paris 6)
• Hugh Williams (Univ. of Calgary)

Organisers:

Jon Borwein (University of Newcastle), Igor Shparlinski (Macquarie Univeristy) and Wadim Zudilin (University of Newcastle).

Further details and the Registration form can be found at http://carma.newcastle.edu.au/alfcon/ Sponsored by AMSI, AustMS and CARMA

IGA/AMSI Workshop on Dualities in Field Theories and the Role of K-theory

Date & Venue: 19–23 March 2012; The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.

Program details:

A series of 10 hours of lectures by Professor Jonathan Rosenberg (University of Maryland) on mathematical aspects of dualities in field theories.

Titles of individual lectures

• Lecture 1: The basic idea of dualities in field theories and T-duality
• Lecture 2: K-Theory and its relevance to physics
• Lecture 3: Basics of C*-algebras and crossed products
• Lecture 4: Continuous-trace algebras and twisted K-theory
• Lecture 5: The topology of T-duality and the Bunke–Schick construction
• Lecture 6: T-duality via crossed products
• Lecture 7: Problems presented by S-duality
• Lecture 8: The AdS/CFT correspondence and problems it raises
• Lecture 9: KR-theory and some KR calculations
• Lecture 10: T-duality for orientifolds and applications of KR-theory

There will be additional talks given by invited speakers.

Registration

Registration is free. Intention to attend should be sent by Tuesday, 14 February 2012.

Biography

Professor Jonathan Rosenberg obtained his Ph.D. from University of California (Berkeley) in 1976 under the supervision of Professor Marc A. Rieffel. He subsequently spent some time at University of Pennsylvania at the rank of an Assistant Professor between 1977–81. He joined University of Maryland in 1981 where he currently holds the Ruth M. Davis Professorship. He has won several honours and awards in his career and he is widely regarded as a world leading researcher and a first-rate expositor on topics related to operator algebras, geometry, topology and T-duality in string theory.

Professor Rosenberg is renowned for his work on the Gromov–Lawson–Rosenberg conjecture. He was the CBMS principal speaker at TCU, Fortworth, Texas, entitled Topology, C*-algebras, and String Duality, June 2–6, 2008, where he gave a series of 10 highly successful lectures, which have been written up into a book published by the AMS. He was also one the three principal speakers at the prestigious Oberwolfach Seminar on Topological K-theory for Noncommutative Algebras and Applications, May 2005, which eventually became an authoritative book on the subject. He is a managing editor of the Journal of K-theory since 2007 and is on the editorial boards of several other prestigious international journals.

Contact

All enquiries may be emailed to:

• Pedram Hekmati (pedram.hekmati@adelaide.edu.au)
• Snigdhayan Mahanta (snigdhayan.mahanta@adelaide.edu.au)

Organisers:

• Peter Bouwknegt (University of Melbourne)
• Mathai Varghese (University of Adelaide)
• Snigdhayan Mahanta (University of Adelaide)
• Pedram Hekmati (University of Adelaide)

56th Annual AustMS Meeting

24–27 September, 2012; University of Ballarat, Mt Helen, Victoria.

The Australian Mathematical Society Conference in 2012 will be held at the University of Ballarat 24–27 September, hosted by the School of Science, Information Technology & Engineering.

Plenary Speakers

• Henning Haahr Andersen (Aarhus University)
• Michel Brion (Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble)
• Sidney A. Morris (University of Ballarat)
• Mary Myerscough — ANZIAM speaker (University of Sydney)
• Assaf Naor (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University)
• Narutaka Ozawa (Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Kyoto University)
• Aidan Sims (University of Wollongong)
• Kate Smith-Miles (Monash University)
• Fedor Sukochev (University of New South Wales)
• Benar F. Svaiter (Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics, Rio de Janeiro)
• Neil Trudinger (Australian National University)

International Congress of Mathematicians, 2014

Dates: 13–21 August

Venue: COEX Convention & Exhibition Center, Seoul, Korea

Hosted by: The Korean Mathematical Society.

The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest international congress in the mathematics community. It is held once every four years under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize, the Gauss Prize, and the Chern Medal are awarded during the opening ceremony on the first day of the congress. Each congress is memorialized by printed Proceedings recording academic papers based on invited talks intended to reflect the current state of the science.

The Korean mathematical community is delighted to host the next congress in Seoul, Korea in 2014. We will make every effort to make SEOUL ICM 2014 a turning point for mathematics; to reach out to the public and to be recognized and valued by society.