̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Nigel Peake

Award-winning broadcaster Hannah Fry joins Cambridge as Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics

sc604 — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:04:32 +0000

Fry brings outstanding experience to the role of communicating to diverse audiences, including with people not previously interested in maths. She will follow in the footsteps of giants of public engagement with mathematics, including David Spiegelhalter and the late Stephen Hawking as she joins the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP).

“I’m really looking forward to joining the Cambridge community,” said Fry, “to those chance encounters and interactions that end up sparking new ideas and collaborations: it’s so exciting to be in an environment where every single person you speak to is working on something absolutely fascinating.”

Fry won the Christopher Zeeman Medal for promoting mathematics in 2018 and the Royal Society David Attenborough Award in 2024, and is the current President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

She is currently Professor of the Mathematics of Cities at UCL, where she works with physicists, mathematicians, computer scientists, architects and geographers to study patterns in human behaviour – particularly in an urban setting. Her research applies to a wide range of social problems and questions, from shopping and transport to urban crime, riots and terrorism, and she has applied this research by advising and working alongside governments, police forces, supermarkets and health analysts.

“When you create a mathematical model, it doesn’t really matter how beautifully crafted your equations are, or how accurate your simulations are,” said Fry. “You have to think about how the work you’ve created is going to be seen and perceived by other people and how it’s going to be understood or misunderstood.”

̽��ֱ��new professorship builds on Cambridge’s long track record in sharing maths. DAMTP is also the home of the largest subject-specific outreach and engagement project in the ̽��ֱ�� – the Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP).

Fry says she plans for her work at Cambridge to follow on from Spiegelhalter's extensive public communication work, which she sees as a vital part of the research process.

“Communication is not an optional extra: if you are creating something that is used by, or interacts with members of the public or the world in general, then I think it’s genuinely your moral duty to engage the people affected by it,” she said. “I’d love to build and grow a community around excellence in mathematical communication at Cambridge – so that we’re really researching the best possible methods to communicate with people.”

“Hannah is an outstanding mathematician and researcher, and one of the UK’s best maths communicators,” said Professor Colm-cille Caulfield, Head of DAMTP. “Mathematics affects so many aspects of our everyday lives in interesting and exciting ways, and Hannah will strengthen the excellent work already being done at Cambridge in this area. We in DAMTP and our Faculty of Mathematics colleagues in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics are so excited to have her join us.”

Professor Fry announced her appointment at an event yesterday (21 November) organised by the MMP in collaboration with the Newton Gateway to Mathematics at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��event – Communicating mathematical and data sciences – what does success look like? – explored evidence for effectively communicating mathematical and data science research to policymakers, mainstream media and the wider public.

“Professor Fry is one of the most exciting voices in science and mathematics today,” said Professor Nigel Peake, Head of the School of the Physical Sciences. “Her deep commitment to sharing the excitement of maths with people of all ages and backgrounds, at a time when mathematical literacy has never been so important, will be an enormous benefit to Cambridge, and the UK as a whole.”

Professor Hannah Fry, mathematician, best-selling author, award-winning science presenter and host of popular podcasts and television shows, will join the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge as the first Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics on 1 January.

Lloyd Mann

Hannah Fry

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cambridge to offer studentships to Posse scholars

ps748 — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:09:27 +0000

Initially offering one fully-funded studentship (fees and maintenance) for a Posse student accepted into a full-time MPhil programme in the Department of Geography within the School of the Physical Sciences, it is hoped that the affiliation will expand to offer more studentships in other departments.

Professor Nigel Peake, Head of the School of the Physical Sciences at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge: “We are excited about welcoming Posse alumni to Cambridge and proud to be Posse’s first international partner. This is a significant addition to our efforts to widen access and participation at Cambridge to ensure we continue to attract and nurture the brightest talent.”

Established more than 30 years ago, the Posse Foundation partners with 64 US colleges and universities each year, which together have awarded US$1.7 billion (about £1.3 billion) in scholarships to more than 10,000 students since 1989. In 2010, Posse was one of only 10 organisations that then-President Barack Obama chose to recognise with a portion of his US$1.4 million Nobel Prize award.

Although the overwhelming majority of Posse alumni come from low-income backgrounds and are under-represented minorities, the Foundation does not screen for race or need. Instead, Posse scholars are selected for their academic promise and outstanding leadership potential.

Deborah Bial, President and Founder, the Posse Foundation said: “We are thrilled to partner with the School of the Physical Sciences, our first overseas affiliation. ̽��ֱ��need for visionary leaders in the environmental sciences has never been greater. ̽��ֱ��department of Geography at Cambridge, among the best in the world, produces scientists of the highest calibre, and this affiliation will help to ensure that Posse Scholars are among them. We look forward to working with Professors Peake and Vira and the entire team at Cambridge on this exciting new endeavour.”

Professor Bhaskar Vira, Head of the Department of Geography at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “This partnership has the potential to transform lives. Posse awards are made on the basis of merit. Through this affiliation, the Department will admit talented students who will both benefit from and contribute to Cambridge’s vibrant community. We’re looking forward to meeting the first Cambridge Posse Scholar.”

Photo courtesy of the Posse Foundation

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has become the first higher education institution outside of the USA to partner with the Posse Foundation, offering graduate studentships to young people from under-represented backgrounds.

This partnership has the potential to transform lives

Prof Bhaskar Vira

Posse Foundation

Posse students

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From extravagant to achievable - pushing the boundaries of research to find life beyond Earth

sc604 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:27:07 +0000

Led by 2019 Physics Nobel Laureate Professor Didier Queloz, the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Life in the Universe will be the driving force for the development of a new Cambridge research community investigating life in the Universe, from understanding how it emerged on Earth to examining the processes that could make other planets suitable for life.

̽��ֱ��initiative comes at a crucial moment in science, as scientists are able to study exoplanets – planets orbiting stars other than our Sun – in ever-greater detail, and outstanding progress is being made in prebiotic chemistry: carefully-regulated laboratory experiments to recreate the conditions when life first formed on Earth.

In addition, the recent successful landing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover set in motion one of the greatest international scientific endeavours of recent decades. Within the next ten years, samples returned from a four-billion-year-old lake deposit on Mars will offer a unique window on the Solar System as it was when life originated on Earth and could provide evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.

“These recent revolutions and future perspectives offered by next-generation space missions mean that the planets are aligned for us to create a vibrant new field at the cutting edge of modern science,” said Queloz, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and Director of the Initiative.

Building on the ̽��ֱ��’s research excellence and enhancing the multidisciplinary research conducted in various departments of the School of the Physical Sciences, the focus of the research within the new Initiative will be to understand the origins and physical properties of planets throughout the Universe, as well as the chemical and biological processes capable of starting and sustaining life.

“By bringing together chemists, geologists, biologists, and astrophysicists to work creatively together toward a common goal, the Initiative will ensure we truly exploit the full potential of this exciting new field of research, bringing us closer to understanding life in the Universe and finding life beyond Earth,” said Queloz.

̽��ֱ��School of the Physical Sciences and its various departments (Cavendish Laboratory, Chemistry, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Earth Sciences and the Institute of Astronomy) recently committed to an initial funding package that will support the Initiative as it builds the foundations of its vision and will create the conditions for its research and educational ambitions to grow and develop.

Professor Nigel Peake, Head of the School of the Physical Sciences, said: “During the last decades our understanding of the microbiology of life has made spectacular progress, but knowledge on origins of life on Earth, and more generally in the Universe, are still nascent. This is about to change. I am proud that Cambridge is leading the way to a radically new approach based on a convergence of recent results in astrophysics, planetology and molecular chemistry.

“With the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Life in the Universe, we will provide the infrastructure that will allow scholars from various disciplines to combine their interests to address the fundamental question of our origins in the Universe. This sets the scene for a revolution to come.”

For more information, news and updates about the Cambridge Initiative for Planetary Science and Life in the Universe, visit www.iplu.phy.cam.ac.uk.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is creating a new research initiative, bringing together physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and earth scientists to answer fundamental questions on the origin and nature of life in the Universe.

By bringing together chemists, geologists, biologists, and astrophysicists to work toward a common goal, we can exploit the full potential of this exciting new field of research, bringing us closer to understanding life in the Universe and finding life beyond Earth

Didier Queloz

Prof. Didier Queloz introduces Cambridge IPLU

NASA, ESA, G Illingworth, D Magee, and P Oesch, R Bouwens and the HUDF09 Team

̽��ֱ��Hubble eXtreme Deep Field

Yes

New institute is set to push the boundaries of information science

pbh25 — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 11:46:11 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Cantab Capital Partners LLP are launching a new institute which is set to push the boundaries of information science.

Established through philanthropic support of £5m from Cantab Capital Partners, a multi-billion dollar systematic hedge fund manager based in Cambridge, the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information will sit within the ̽��ֱ��’s renowned Faculty of Mathematics.

̽��ֱ��new institute will draw on fundamental techniques from mathematical sciences to tackle head on the challenge of deciphering meaning in the reams of data which surround us. Bringing together some of the world’s leading academics in various related disciplines to advance understanding on multiple fronts, the Institute will ultimately help ensure all available information is used when, for example, doctors make clinical diagnoses, financial institutions make sensible evaluations of risk, or planners build the cities of the future.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has been at the forefront of the study of mathematics and its benefits to society for many centuries. Today Cambridge stands as a world leader in mathematics and its applications across government, education, health, science, business and finance, and in particular in the development of advanced techniques for data gathering and information extraction.

Dr Ewan Kirk, CIO of Cantab Capital Partners, said: “Mathematics is the foundation of all sciences and, in the 21st Century, information and data plays an increasingly vital role in a diverse range of fields. Now more than ever, using mathematical and statistical techniques to understand vast information sets can have a huge impact on our daily lives. Cantab is immensely proud to be supporting the research which will be at the forefront of this information revolution. ̽��ֱ��Institute aims to galvanise and accelerate progress in the mathematics of information and become a centre of excellence for innovative research both in the UK and internationally.”

Professor Nigel Peake, Head of the ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: “Many institutions currently working in this space focus their efforts on incremental advances on what is now a well-established discipline of financial mathematics. At Cambridge, we are looking to build on the world-leading expertise available to us to develop a broader and more enduring approach, reflecting the very latest insights into the mathematics of information. We are naturally delighted that Cantab has provided us with such a substantial donation, enabling us to turn this vision into a reality.”

Image: Dr Nigel Peake. Credit: Dr Ed Brambley.

Philanthropic support of £5m from Cantab Capital Partners, establishes the Cantab Capital Institute for the Mathematics of Information.

Now more than ever, using mathematical and statistical techniques to understand vast information sets can have a huge impact on our daily lives.

Dr Ewan Kirk, CIO of Cantab Capital Partners

About Cantab Capital Partners LLP

Cantab Capital Partners LLP is a multi-billion dollar hedge fund manager based in Cambridge, UK.
̽��ֱ��firm employs a rigorous, systematic, multi-strategy, multi-asset approach, often referred to as systematic macro, CTA or managed futures. Cantab manages assets for some of the most sophisticated institutional investors worldwide including large pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations and fund of funds.
Cantab was founded in 2006 by Dr Ewan Kirk and Erich Schlaikjer. Cantab manages two programmes, the CCP Quantitative programme and the CCP Core Macro programme. ̽��ֱ��cornerstone of Cantab’s investment philosophy is the marriage of science with cutting-edge technology, high levels of transparency and robust risk systems.
̽��ֱ��majority of Cantab’s team are dedicated to investment and technology research and combine a diverse skill set. Most come from academic backgrounds having excelled at statistics, maths, physics, computer science or other quantitative disciplines, with the common denominators being academic excellence and collegial spirit.
www.cantabcapital.com

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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̽��ֱ��owl and the wind turbine: how stealth feathers could help reduce noise pollution

amb206 — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 13:54:14 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

Owls fly silently: not all species of owl but those species that rely on stealth in hunting small animals. People have known this for hundreds of years but until recently no-one has understood quite how these magical birds manage to swoop undetected on their scurrying prey.

̽��ֱ��puzzle of how the wings of certain species of owls are adapted to minimise the sound that their wings make has been solved by a partnership between researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and two institutions in the USA.

̽��ֱ��key to the puzzle lies in the intricate structure of owls’ feathers – and especially the plumage on the trailing edge of their wings.

̽��ֱ��researchers have now been able to replicate this structure by producing a prototype surface (patented in 2014) which has potential applications in wind turbines and a wide range of fans. Its use could significantly reduce the noise generated by these products.

An especially promising end-use for the surface is for on-shore wind turbines which are heavily ‘braked’ to reduce noise pollution. ̽��ֱ��braking makes the turbines less efficient.

̽��ֱ��story began in 2010 when Dr Justin Jaworksi, then a researcher in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, decided to look in detail at the structure of owls’ wings.

At DAMTP, Jaworski (who is now at Lehigh ̽��ֱ��) worked with Professor Nigel Peake, a specialist in aeroacoustics known for his work on aircraft, to identify how owls’ wings differed from those of other birds.

They found three key differences. ̽��ֱ��first difference, unrelated to silent flight, is that owls’ wings are have a serrated leading edge in a way that enables them to plunge steeply downwards and then take off again.

̽��ֱ��other two differences combine to enable owls to fly stealthily so that they can hear their prey without it hearing them. “ ̽��ֱ��feathers on the upper wing surface have a particularly detailed and complex micro-structure with layer upon layer of interleaved barbs and hairs,” said Peake.

Much of the noise from wings – whether the wing of bird, plane or fan – originates at the trailing edge where the air passing over the wing surface becomes suddenly turbulent.

Owls have a neat solution to this problem. “At the trailing edge of their wings, owl feathers produce a flexible and porous fringe which reduces air turbulence by smoothing the passage of air,” said Peake.

No other species of bird possesses these features. Even more significantly, species of owl (such as fish owls) not requiring an acoustic stealth advantage do not possess them either.

To understand how the features unique to owl wings contribute to soundlessness, and in order to replicate the surfaces created, Jaworski and Peake have been collaborating with Professors William Devenport at Virginia Tech and Stewart Glegg at Florida Atlantic ̽��ֱ�� in a project funded by the US Office of Naval Research.

“We used advanced mathematical tools in a wind tunnel to show that the role of the fringe on owls’ wings is to negate something called the ‘Flowes Williams and Hall effect’. ̽��ֱ��porous elastic fringe filaments are a much softer ‘sound scatterer’ than a sharp rigid edge,” said Peake.

̽��ֱ��role of the complex feather structure is more of a mystery but the collaborators have been able, to some extent, to replicate its effect in the laboratory. “What appears to be crucial is the way that the fine hairs form a ‘canopy’ perhaps shielding the basal surface of the wing from pressure fluctuations in the turbulent air flow,” said Peake.

" ̽��ֱ��whole project has been very exciting. We’ve been able to use advanced mathematics to understand an amazing natural phenomenon, which then inspired us to develop a practical engineering solution to a really challenging noise pollution problem."

̽��ֱ��intricate structure of owl’s wings was noted more than 300 years ago by Francis Willughby (1635 to 1672), the polymath who compiled one of the world’s first comprehensive and analytical ornithologies. Several species of owl feature in Willughby’s Ornithologia libri tres which was published by his more famous friend and colleague John Ray (1627 to 1705).

Willughby studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where the Wren Library holds a copy of the ornithology he authored. ̽��ֱ��lavishly produced volume contains dozens of plates showing birds categorised by their characteristics. ̽��ֱ��accompanying text reveals Willughby’s passionate interest in the wonders of the natural world.

Of the eagle-owl, Willughby writes: “ … in the great feathers of the Wings and Tail distinguished with broad, transverse, blackish lines or bars; which lines are so formed, especially in the Tail, that each of the broader are terminated above and below by other narrower ones, like borders or fringes, disposed in a triple order, and at certain intervals distant from each other, as in Hawks.”

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: P is for critters that are part of one of the most significant of all human-animal relationships.

Have you missed the series so far? Catch up on Medium here.

Inset images: Barn owl in flight (Chris Thompson); Barn Owl (Pat Gaines); Owls from Ornithologia libri tres by Francis Willughby (Wren Library, Trinity College).

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, O is for Owl, the researchers using their wing structure to inspire aeroacoustic developments, and the lavish drawings of them found in one of the world's first ornithologies.

We’ve been able to use advanced mathematics to understand an amazing natural phenomenon, which then inspired us to develop a practical engineering solution

Nigel Peake

Wren Library, Trinity College

Small Owl from Ornithologia libri tres by Francis Willughby

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Silent flights: How owls could help make wind turbines and planes quieter

sc604 — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 23:03:07 +0000

An investigation into how owls fly and hunt in silence has enabled researchers to develop a prototype coating for wind turbine blades that could significantly reduce the amount of noise they make.

Early tests of the material, which mimics the intricate structure of an owl’s wing, have demonstrated that it could significantly reduce the amount of noise produced by wind turbines and other types of fan blades, such as those in computers or planes. Since wind turbines are heavily braked in order to minimise noise, the addition of this new surface would mean that they could be run at much higher speeds – producing more energy while making less noise. For an average-sized wind farm, this could mean several additional megawatts worth of electricity.

̽��ֱ��surface has been developed by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in collaboration with researchers at three institutions in the USA. Their results will be presented today (22 June) at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aeroacoustics Conference in Dallas.

“Many owls – primarily large owls like barn owls or great grey owls – can hunt by stealth, swooping down and capturing their prey undetected,” said Professor Nigel Peake of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, who led the research. “While we’ve known this for centuries, what hasn’t been known is how or why owls are able to fly in silence.”

Peake and his collaborators at Virginia Tech, Lehigh and Florida Atlantic Universities used high resolution microscopy to examine owl feathers in fine detail. They observed that the flight feathers on an owl’s wing have a downy covering, which resembles a forest canopy when viewed from above. In addition to this fluffy canopy, owl wings also have a flexible comb of evenly-spaced bristles along their leading edge, and a porous and elastic fringe on the trailing edge.

“No other bird has this sort of intricate wing structure,” said Peake. “Much of the noise caused by a wing – whether it’s attached to a bird, a plane or a fan – originates at the trailing edge where the air passing over the wing surface is turbulent. ̽��ֱ��structure of an owl’s wing serves to reduce noise by smoothing the passage of air as it passes over the wing – scattering the sound so their prey can’t hear them coming.”

In order to replicate the structure, the researchers looked to design a covering that would ‘scatter’ the sound generated by a turbine blade in the same way. Early experiments included covering a blade with material similar to that used for wedding veils, which despite its open structure, reduced the roughness of the underlying surface, lowering surface noise by as much as 30dB.

While the ‘wedding veil’ worked remarkably well, it is not suitable to apply to a wind turbine or aeroplane. Using a similar design, the researchers then developed a prototype material made of 3D-printed plastic and tested it on a full-sized segment of a wind turbine blade. In wind tunnel tests, the treatment reduced the noise generated by a wind turbine blade by 10dB, without any appreciable impact on aerodynamics.

While the coating still needs to be optimised, and incorporating it onto an aeroplane would be far more complicated than a wind turbine, it could be used on a range of different types of wings and blades. ̽��ֱ��next step is to test the coating on a functioning wind turbine. According to the researchers, a significant reduction in the noise generated by a wind turbine could allow them to be spun faster without any additional noise, which for an average-sized wind farm, could mean several additional megawatts worth of electricity.

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Office of Naval Research.

Inset image: Close-up view of a flight feather of a Great Grey Owl. Credit: J. Jaworski.

Homepage image: Owl, by Mirko Zammarchi via Creative Commons

A newly-designed material, which mimics the wing structure of owls, could help make wind turbines, computer fans and even planes much quieter. Early wind tunnel tests of the coating have shown a substantial reduction in noise without any noticeable effect on aerodynamics.

No other bird has this sort of intricate wing structure

Nigel Peake

m01229

Flying snowy owl

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