2008 Staff news

From MathsDept

• 4 December 2008, 2pm - 6:45 pm: The Department invites graduate students and other Departments staff to A triple celebration for David Smith, Joel Schiff and Paul Hafner in honour of their retirement from teaching and to recognise their significant contributions to Mathematics, over almost four decades.

• 3 December 2008 Professor Emeritus: The University Council has awarded Ivan Reilly, ONZM the status of Professor Emeritus.

• 6 October 2008 Dr Jari Kapio, formerly a Professor of Computational Physics at the Kuopio University in Finland, has joined the Applied Mathematics Unit. Welcome Jari!

• 29 September 2008 * Min-Ah Lee (previously a Student Resource Centre Coordinator) has joined our administration team.

• 8 September 2008DrEd Louise Sheryn has become a post-doctoral research fellow and will be working on the Pipeline Project, an international project tracking mathematics students from school through university to the workplace. Welcome Louise.

• 1 September 2008 Dr Edward Huang has left the department to take a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship,

following on from his NZ S&T Postdoc.

• 15 August 2008 Claire Postlethwaite has taken up a position as Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. Claire has a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and has since worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University and at the University of Houston. Claire's research interests are primarily in applied dynamical systems, particularly nonlinear differential equations. More recently, she has started work in several areas of mathematical biology, in particular fish locomotion, and amplification in the auditory system.

• 12 August 2008 Faculty Research Development Fund (FRDF) grants: Shixiao Wang, Shayne Waldron, Philip Sharp, Maxine Pfannkuch, Mike Meylan, David Bryant and Bill Barton have been awarded 10% of the current FRDF (Science) for their research projects.

• 7 July 2008 The General Assembly of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) has elected Bill Barton (Mathematics Head of Department) as its next President, from 2010 to 2012. Congratulations, Bill! This is great news for you and all of us, and especially in ICMI's centenary year.

• 2 July 2008 Congratulations to Rod Gover, on his promotion to a Professor position. This promotion reflects and acknowledges his distinguished contributions to research, teaching, and service, within the Department, the University, and the wider academic community.

• 1 July 2008 New appointment Lynda Pitcaithly has accepted the position of Department Manager. Lynda is currently Department Manager in Electrical and Computing Engineering. She will take up her new appointment with us on August 4.

• 30 June 2008 Marston Conder became the Royal Society of New Zealand's first Vice President International, at the end of his term as President of the Royal Society of New Zealand Academy.

• 30 June 2008 After several years of outstanding service to the Department and the wider Faculty, Daniela Rovere has taken a new position, with the office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Tamaki.

• 12 May 2008 Dr Amanda Elvin (Massey) has joined the department as a postdoctoral Research Fellow. She will work with Prof. James Sneyd, on Mathematical Physiology topics.

• 31 March 2008 New appointment Elisabeth Mealing joined the Department as a Personal Assistant to the Head and Departmental Secretary. Welcome, Elisabeth!

• 20 March 2008 The second - revised -edition of John Butcher's book Ordinary Differential Equations was released by Wiley on March 20 and the book's website was launched. Moreover, John just celebrated his 75th Birthday. Congratulations, John!

About this book (Editor's presentation): Authored by one of the world's leading authorities on numerical methods, this update of one of the standard references on numerical analysis outlines recent developments in the field and presents a detailed overview of the area. The only book to provide both a detailed treatment of Runge-Kutta methods and a thorough exposition of general linear methods, it also provides practical guidance on solving equations associated with general linear methods, thus providing assistance to those who wish to develop their own computer code. It is accompanied by a website hosting solutions to problems and slides for use in teaching. It is illustrated throughout by worked examples of key algorithms. It presents practical guidance on solving equations associated with general linear methods. It gives an introductory overview of the field before going on to describe recent developments. All methods are illustrated with detailed examples and problems sets.

• 1 March 2008 New appointment Emma Luxton-Reilly joined the University of Auckland as administrative officer of the New Zealand Office (based in the Mathematics Department) for University of California-Study Abroad Programme.

• New appointment The Department is pleased to announce that Claire Postlethwaite has accepted a position with the Department and will join the Applied mathematics Unit in semester 2 2008.

• New appointment: The Department is happy to announce that Jari Kaipio has accepted the University of Auckland offer of a position in our department. Jari will join the Applied Mathematics Unit in Semester 1 2008.

• 18 February 2008 Prof. Ivan Reilly's contributions to Mathematics and University administration will be celebrated during his retirement function and also via the Devonport Topology Festival

• 12 February 2008 Dr. Barbara Miller-Reilly's contributions to Mathematics Education were celebrated in a vibrant retirement function

• 1 February 2008 Dr, Isabel Hubard joined the Department as a temporary lecturer for the year. Isabel completed a PhD at York University (Toronto) last year under the supervision of Asia Weiss, on polytopes, and this is her first postdoctoral appointment. She'll be helping teach parts of 326 and 715 in the first semester, and 190 and 782 in the second semester.

Teaching and Research fellows for 2008

• Dr Heinrich Bäärnhielm has joined the Algebra and Combinatorics Group, as a Research Fellow. He will work mainly with Eamonn O'Brien.

• Peter Radonich has joined the Mathematics Education Unit, as the first Teaching Fellow at the Department of Mathematics. Peter will work with Bill Barton.

• Dr Eduard Huang has been awarded a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship. Edward will take up this fellowship in September 2008,

following on from his NZ S&T Postdoc.

• Dr Daniel Weiss from Universität Koeln joined the Applied Mathematics Unit for one year, under the auspices of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). His subject is numerical analysis. His guest in Auckland is John Butcher.

• Dr Paul Andi Nagy took up a 2 years NZIMA research fellowship within the programme Conformal Geometry and its Applications, directed by Rod Gover (Analysis and Geometry Group) and Gaven Martin (Massey). This follows Paul's UoA postdoctoral fellowship.

• Dr Dr Mahmood-ul Hassan from Pakistan joined the Applied Mathematics Unit for a one year research fellowship granted by the Pakistani Government.

• Dr Malte Peter has joined the Applied Mathematics Unit for a 2 years research fellowship starting in September 2008. He will mainly work with Mike Meylan.

• 25 January 2008 Rowena Knight-Brown has left the department to follow her husband into a University management position in Wales. The recruiting process for a new secretary/PA to the HoD is under way.

• 25 January 2008 The second appointee in Applied Mathematics, Claire Postlethwaite (USA), has accepted to join the department in Semester 2 2008.

• 4 January 2008 Jari Kaipio (Finland) has accepted a position with the Department (Applied Mathematics Unit) and will join early in Semester 1