News and Events
Discover what's happening in Mathematics and Statistics at La Trobe and around the world!
Grigoriy Perelman wins first Millennium Prize
Thursday 6 May
The Clay Mathematics Institute has awarded the first Millennium Prize to Grigoriy Perelman of the University of St. Petersburg, Russia. He has received this award for solving the Poincare Conjecture, one of the seven Millennium Problems formulated by the Clay Mathematics Institute at the turn of the last century. The seven Millennium Problems can be seen as the some of the most difficult outstanding problems in mathematics. The other six Problems, including the Riemann Hypothesis and the Yang-Mills Theory, still remain to be solved.
For more information on the Millennium Problems, visit: Clay Mathematics Institute
Professor Emerita Gilah Leder awarded Felix Klein Medal
Thursday 22 April
The Department congratulates IAS Distinguished Professor and Professor Emerita Gilah C. Leder from La Trobe University for receiving the Felix Klein Medal for 2009. The medal was awarded to her in recognition of her "more than thirty years of sustained, consistent, and outstanding lifetime achievements in mathematics education research and development".
For more information, visit: ICMI website
ARC succes in the department
Monday 26 October
Members of the department of Mathematics and Statistics have been awarded two ARC Discovery project grants to commence in 2010. Marcel Jackson and Brian Davey will receive a $ 255,000 ARC Discovery grant for their project "Complexity in Algebra and Algebra in Complexity: the role of finite semigroups and general algebra". Philip Broadbridge and Geoff Prince will receive $195,000 from the ARC for their Discovery Project "New Geometric and Entropy Techniques for Differential Equations".
Source: ARC website
Prof. Israil Moiseevich Gelfand dies at 96
Wednesday 7 October
Israil Gelfand, one of the most famous mathematicians of the 20th century, died October 5 at the age of 96. He wrote more than 800 articles and 30 books in many areas of mathematics. He was born in the Ukraine and obtained his Ph.D. from Moscow State University. Gelfand was professor at Moscow State University from 1941 until 1990 at which time he joined the faculty at Rutgers University. During his lifetime he received many awards.
Source: American Mathematical Society
Record amount of congruent numbers found
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Five mathematicians from North America, South America, Australia, and Europe have found the first trillion congruent numbers, an old mathematical problem concerning the areas of right-angled triangles. According to the American Institute of Mathematics' website, the advance was made possible by a clever technique for multiplying large numbers. The numbers involved are so enormous that if their digits were written out by hand they would stretch to the moon and back. The biggest challenge was that these numbers could not even fit into the main memory of the available computers, so the researchers had to make extensive use of the computers' hard drives.
Source: American Institute of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics and Statistics feature in i-SECT
Thursday 1 October 2009
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics recently featured in the fifth volume of iSECT magazine. The online publication which is dedicated to science, engineering, computing and technology also features an article by Professor Nalini Joshi, President of the Australian Mathematical Society who discusses opportunities available for maths enthusiasts in Australia.
Mathematics and Statistics in the news
Updated Wednesday 7 October 2009
Recent articles on the state of mathematics and statistics in Australia:
Jan Thomas, Access to mathematics is vital for equity, 29 September 2009, http://www.the-funneled-web.com/
Nalini Joshi, A disturbing set of numbers, The Australian, 18 February 2009: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
Peter Hall, Mathematics, learning, and survival, The-funneled-web, 6 April 2009: http://www.the-funneled-web.com/