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Leading mathematicians renew strong links with UNE

July 17, 2006

MathsDu.thumb.jpgAn international mathematics conference at The University of New England this week is bringing several leading mathematicians back to the university that fostered their careers.

The conference is in honour of Professor Norman Dancer – now at the University of Sydney – who was a member of the Mathematics staff at UNE from 1973 until 1993 and Professor from 1987. Professor Dancer is a leader in the field of “nonlinear partial differential equations”, the subject of this week’s conference. He and about 40 other mathematicians from Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia are meeting at UNE to share and discuss their recent research results.

Among the participants are two mathematics professors from the Australian National University – Alan McIntosh and Neil Trudinger – who both gained their first degrees from UNE. All three of these distinguished professors are Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science, and Professor Trudinger is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

One of the UNE organisers of the conference, Associate Professor Yihong Du, said that UNE was a centre of research activity on nonlinear partial differential equations. “Nonlinear mathematical science is a vibrant area of modern international research,” Dr Du explained. “Work on nonlinear partial differential equations such as that conducted at UNE contributes not only to an important branch of pure mathematics but also to the mathematical foundations of applied sciences such as ecology, chemistry, and material science.” Dr Du and his UNE colleague Dr Shusen Yan (another organiser of the conference) both work closely with Professor Dancer in their research, and UNE has, over the years, been home to several other prominent researchers in the field.

Dr Du conducted his postdoctoral work at UNE under the direction of Professor Dancer, and they are now collaborating on a research project funded by the Australian Research Council. Dr Yan’s postdoctoral work was with Professor Dancer in Sydney.

Professor Dancer said it was a pleasure to be spending a week at UNE. “I always liked this place,” he continued, “and I’m glad I still have strong research ties with my colleagues here.”

Mathematicians from the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, England, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia have travelled to Armidale for the conference, which runs from Monday to Friday this week. Funded by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, UNE and the University of Sydney, it follows a conference on the same theme at UNE in 2003.

Dr Du explained that a conference such as this was the most efficient way of exchanging current research results. “It usually takes about two years for results to be published,” he said, “but we need to know what our colleagues are doing in the meantime. Very often, new research directions and new collaborations are formed at conferences.”

UNE regularly receives visits from internationally prominent mathematicians, and a conference as recently as January this year (on “several complex variables”) attracted specialists from Europe, Asia and New Zealand as well as from around Australia.

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows Professor Norman Dancer (second from right) with three of the conference organisers: (from left) Dr Shusen Yan (UNE), Dr Daniel Daners (University of Sydney), and Associate Professor Yihong Du (UNE).

Posted by Jim Scanlan at July 17, 2006 03:33 PM