After careful consideration, the committee is unanimous in recommending that the J.H. Michell Medal be awarded to Dr Frances Y. Kuo from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales.

Dr Kuo completed both her Bachelor and PhD degrees at the University of Waikato. She then joined the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales in 2003 as a Research Associate, before obtaining a highly competitive UNSW Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow position. She followed up this distinction by winning a most prestigious ARC QEII Research Fellowship, which she holds until the end of this year, when she will take up a Senior Lectureship at UNSW.

Dr Kuo’s achievements in Applied Maths are manifold, substantial, and sustained. She is a recognized leader in the theory and applications of high dimensional integration and approximation, Monte-Carlo methods and information-based complexity, interested in applications in finance, statistics and porous media flow. She has published 29 journal articles and 3 articles in highly regarded conference series. These include 11 papers in the leading international journal in her field, the Journal of Complexity, one of which was a sole-authored paper for which she received the Information-Based Complexity Young Researcher Award. She has participated as an equal collaborator with many of the giants in her field, from around the globe as well as within Australia and New Zealand. Her significant research achievements have been recognized with plenary talks at major international conferences, and an editorial board position at the Journal of Complexity. These are remarkable accolades for so early in a research career, and speak to the quality and impact of Dr Kuo’s work.  Both are clearly of the highest order.

Dr Kuo has been undertaking research in New Zealand and Australia since 2002, has been a member of ANZIAM since 2007, and has published in the ANZIAM journal.

The Committee strongly recommends Dr Frances Kuo for the 2011 Michell Medal, and is confident that she will prove to be a future leader in Applied Mathematics.

The committee consisted of:

• Natashia Boland (Chair)
• Carlo Laing
  
• Mark Nelson