Author Archives: TMS

TMS AGM

The TMS AGM will be happening on Wednesday 13th March, at 7:30, in the Blue Boar Common Room. All Ordinary Members are invited to come along and vote for next years committee. Standing will be:

President: Mary Fortune

Vice President: Tim Large

Secretary: Alex Chamolly

Junior Treasurer: Sam Tickle

Constable: Jonathan Lee

Prof. Michael Proctor, So Many Dynamos

Speaker: Prof. Michael Proctor (DAMTP)
Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre
Time: 11/03/2013 20:30, drinks from 20:15

Dynamo theory is concerned with the generation of magnetic fields by motion in electrically conducting fluids. This process, quite straightforward in a conventional generator, is more complex in homogeneous fluids. I will discuss various different mechanisms of dynamo action and their application to the magnetic fields of astrophysical bodies.

Prof. Simon Tavaré, Combinatorics and Cancer

Speaker: Prof. Simon Tavaré (DAMTP)
Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre
Time: 4/03/2013 20:30, drinks from 20:15

Dynamo theory is concerned with the generation of magnetic fields by motion in electrically conducting fluids. This process, quite straightforward in a conventional generator, is more complex in homogeneous fluids. I will discuss various different mechanisms of dynamo action and their application to the magnetic fields of astrophysical bodies.

TMS Symposium 2013

This years Trinity Mathematical Society Symposium is running from 10:00 to 17:45 on Sunday 24th February, in the Winstanley Lecture Theatre. We have talks by fellows and PhD students, ranging across all areas of mathematical research. The event is free and open to all; no particular specialist knowledge is assumed. There is no need to stay for the whole day – just drop in on talks you find interesting.

The timetable will be:

10:00 – 10:45      Prof. Timothy Gowers: Some Open Problems in Additive Combinatorics
10:45 – 11:15       Kenny Wong: Even physicists use group theory!
11:15 – 11:45       Hiro Funakoshi: Simulating Quantum Mechanics on Computers
11:45 – 12:15       Freddie Manners: Finitary and Infinitary Mathematics, Regularity and the Crossover Between Combinatorics and Analysis


12:15 – 13:15       -LUNCH-
13:15 – 14:00      Dr. Marj Batchelor: Making it Count: Looking Forward to a Life in Mathematics
14:00 – 14:30      Kirsty Wan: Tails of our ancestors
14:30 – 15:00     Tom Gillespie: Proof by Picture
15:00 – 15:30      Steffen Loesch: Programming Languages, Treated Formally


15:30 – 16:00      -BREAK-
16:00 – 16:30     Damon Civin: Noether, Bruhat, Morawetz
16:30 – 17:00       Zhen Lin Low: The Humble Arrow in Mathematics
17:00 – 17:45       Dr. Hugh Hunt: The remarkable accuracy of the Trinity College Clock

20:00 –                Annual Dinner

(Made possible by the kind support of the Heilbronn Fund)

For more details, see http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/43502

Dr. Julia Goedecke, Abstraction in Mathematics

Speaker: Dr. Julia Goedecke (DPMMS)
Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre
Time: 18/02/2013 20:30, drinks from 20:15

The word abstraction often sounds daunting to many non-mathematicians, and probably also to some mathematicians. However, abstraction is all around us: not only in mathematics, but also in the way we form terms and concepts in our language. For example we all group together houses, schools, college chapels and skyscrapers under the word “building”. So if we know something that is common to all buildings (for example that they have to be maintained), then we know this for every building we meet without having to work it out anew in each case.

Mathematics builds heavily on abstraction. Some even say that abstraction is the main ingredient in mathematics. I will present some examples of mathematical concepts that arise as abstractions of well-known situations which every undergraduate has met. My research area – category theory – can be called the most abstract area of mathematics. We will try to explore the point of view and underlying principles that drive category theorists to their very abstract way of thinking.

Dr. Susan Pitts, Risk and Ruin

Speaker: Dr. Susan Pitts (StatsLab)
Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre
Time: 11/02/2013 20:30, drinks from 20:15

Mathematical models for premium income and claim payments are important in the assessment of risk in insurance. I will describe some current risk models, and illustrate the use of mathematical ideas and techniques in ruin theory.

Prof. Grae Worster, Marine Ice Sheets

Speaker: Prof. Grae Worster (DAMTP)
Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre
Time: 4/02/2013 20:30, drinks from 20:15

Melting of the great ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland has the potential to raise sea level significantly. Whereas many inland ice sheets are controlled by a balance between accumulation of snow at high altitudes and melting at low altitudes, marine ice sheets, which flow into the ocean, are controlled dynamically by the rate at which ice detaches from the submarine bedrock along which it flows to form floating ice shelves. Fundamental aspects of the flow of marine ice sheets can be understood using viscous fluid dynamics. I shall describe recent laboratory and mathematical studies of marine ice sheets, which are helping us to understand what controls them from collapse.

Prof. Martin Hyland, Understanding the Lambda Calculus: 40 Years in the Dark

Speaker: Prof. Martin Hyland (DPMMS)
Venue: Winstanley Lecture Theatre
Time: 28/01/2013 20:30, drinks from 20:15

The lambda calculus is the foundation for modern functional programming. The pure calculus first appeared in a paper by Alonzo Church in 1932. I encountered it 40 years later, but only 40 years after that did I begin to understand what it is. The story is indicative of the nature of abstraction in mathematics.