Send us a text Welcome to the latest episode of Living Proof , our podcast produced in collaboration with Plus.maths.org In this episode we spoke to Sarah Hart, a mathematician interested in not just the maths itself, but also its connections to other areas of literature and art. She's done an amazing number of things throughout her career — from research in pure mathematics and heading up a maths department, to being the first woman Gresham Professor of Geometry and President of the Britis...
Apr 23, 2025•25 min
Send us a text Welcome to the latest episode of Living Proof , our podcast produced in collaboration with Plus.maths.org In this episode, we dive into the importance of communicating mathematics to a broader audience, a growing priority within the maths community. Sara Khan, Communications Manager at the Isaac Newton Institute, shares how the INI is championing mathematics communication. Then, Rachel Thomas and Marianne Freiberger, editors of Plus.maths.org, revisit their conversation with Hanna...
Apr 09, 2025•29 min
Send us a text Welcome to the latest episode of Living Proof , our podcast produced in collaboration with Plus.maths.org In this episode, we talked to famous Maths historian, David E. Rowe , who provided scientific advice for the play Diving into math with Emmy Noether, which was staged as part of the Modern History of Mathematics research programme and the Inclusivity in the Mathematical Sciences workshop at the INI. We dive deep into the life and work of Emmy Noether, and about what it's ...
Apr 08, 2025•29 min•Ep. 64
Send us a text In the latest episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Aleks Mijatovic (Warwick, Alan Turing Institute) and Codina Cotar (UCL) about the Stochastic systems for anomalous diffusion programme. They’ll be speaking about the theme and challenges of their highly interdisciplinary six-month research project, but the conversation starts with comments on some truly remarkable headwear… Stochastic systems for anomalous diffusion programme: https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/ssd/ Submit a p...
Oct 07, 2024•29 min•Ep. 63
Send us a text In the latest episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Professors Lionel Mason (Oxford) and Maciej Dunajski (Cambridge) of the Twistor Theory programme ( https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/twt ). Over the 30 minutes, they share their experiences of the scale and challenges of this far-reaching topic that - amongst other things - aims to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics. 00:00 - Introduction 00:42 - Welcome 01:48 - “I have been excited about this programme for 40 year...
Oct 03, 2024•30 min•Ep. 62
Send us a text In the latest episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Professors Mark Blyth and Sasha Korobkin , organisers of the INI Satellite Programme “ The mathematics of multiphase flows with applications ” (https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/mfa/). In the conversation, Mark and Sasha explain the programme’s research themes and share their insights into the challenges and rewards of organising an INI programme at your home institution - in their case the University of East Anglia in Norwic...
Sep 25, 2024•33 min•Ep. 61
Send us a text In the latest episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Professor Kevin Buzzard of Imperial College London. Inspired by a lecture given by Thomas Hales at INI’s Big Proof ( https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/bpr/ ) programme in 2017, Kevin has spent the past seven years working alongside fellow enthusiasts on the “Maths Library” project. In this conversation he explains the project in detail, touching on why the programming language of Lean was chosen, and how it interacts with his...
Sep 25, 2024•56 min•Ep. 60
Send us a text Established in 2021, the INI Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics scheme enables “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Dr Luke Davis to learn about his journey through mathematics so far, and to find out what being awarded this Fellowship – which involves spending six months on the INI research pr...
Aug 30, 2024•19 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Send us a text In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel is joined by three guests: Daniel Gardham (Surrey), Katherine Benjamin (Oxford), and Francisco de Melo Virissimo (LSE), all of whom won medals as podium finishers at the 2024 STEM for Britain awards at the UK parliament in March. The conversation covers their success in the highly competitive poster exhibition, how it felt to present their mathematical research to politicians and the public, and what the future holds for each of them from...
Apr 24, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Send us a text Now in its third year, the INI Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics scheme enables “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speak to Dr Swapnil Jaideo (SJ) Kole to learn about her journey through mathematics so far, and to find out what being awarded this Fellowship – which involves spending three months on th...
Mar 15, 2024•8 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Send us a text From 8-12 January 2024, the " Equivariant methods in geometry " took place in INI's main seminar room in Cambridge, UK. So far, so routine procedure. However, this workshop had the unique twist of being run in parallel with a team at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Linked by audio-visual streaming connections, the two events were remotely connected and operated as one throughout the week. Following successful interactions across continents (on top of t...
Mar 07, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Send us a text In this short episode, Dan Aspel speaks to Professor Ben Allanach (Cambridge, CERN) about his talk " The Force Awakens: Quantum Collisions " which he'll be delivering in INI's main seminar room for this year's Cambridge Festival . Taking place on Saturday 23 March at 11:00, the talk is in fact now sold out . However, if you'd like to join the waiting list for any cancelled tickets you can do so here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-force-awakens-qu...
Feb 14, 2024•10 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Send us a text Episode published 30/01/24 In February 2022, Olena Domanska and her family left their home in Ukraine. The ongoing Russian invasion has meant that they are yet to return to the world they left behind. However, through her engagement with INI's Solidarity for mathematicians programme, she and her family are currently based near the University of Manchester where she is continuing her work on neural networks "at the intercept of artificial intelligence and differential equ...
Jan 30, 2024•20 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Send us a text Episode published: 20/11/23 Thanks to the generous support of the Simons Foundation, the INI-Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics is now in its second year of enabling “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speak to Dr Samuel Stark to learn about his journey through mathematics so far, and to find out...
Nov 20, 2023•5 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Send us a text Episode published: 10/10/23 Thanks to the generous support of the Simons Foundation, the INI-Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics is now in its second year of enabling “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speak to Dr Zhao-He Watse Sybesma to learn about his journey through mathematics so far, and to...
Oct 10, 2023•11 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Send us a text Episode published: 09/10/23 Thanks to the generous support of the Simons Foundation, the INI-Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics is now in its second year of enabling “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speak to Dr Paul Pruzina to learn about his journey through mathematics so far, and to find out...
Oct 09, 2023•5 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Send us a text In the latest episode, Dan Aspel speaks to Simon Cox and Adil Mughal - organisers of the 2023 programme " GeomPack: Geometry and packing in material structure and biology ". The second ever INI satellite programme, GeomPack is being held at Aberystwyth University in its 150th year. Simon and Adil explain the joys and challenges of organising such an event, as well as the fascinating research which has seen them and the participants tackle "some of the knottiest prob...
Sep 08, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Send us a text Episode recorded: 17/07/23 In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Coralie Colmez , author of the young adult novel " The Irrational Diary of Clara Valentine " - recently chosen as one of Chalkdust magazine 's "books of the year". A Cambridge maths graduate herself, it was Coralie's ambition to write a story rich in both mathematics and mystery - with the Chalkdust review highlighting that "the explanations of the solutions to these ...
Jul 18, 2023•17 min•Season 1Ep. 56
Send us a text Episode recorded: 07/07/23 In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel and Marianne Freiberger are joined by Tomer Schlank (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Jeremy Hahn (MIT). Working alongside Robert Burklund and Ishan Levy, Tomer and Jeremy's recently announced a disproof of Ravenel's telescope conjecture at the June 2023 INI workshop "A panorama of homotopy theory". Here, they explain why this was such a significant announcement, and what effect it has had...
Jul 07, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Send us a text The 23rd of June 2023 marks exactly thirty years since Sir Andrew Wiles announced his historic first proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem . He did so at the Isaac Newton Institute, during the culmination of three days of special lectures, delivered as part of the June 1993 L-functions and arithmetic programme - one of the first research meetings to take place at the recently founded INI. To mark this happy occasion, we - together with our colleagues at Plus magazine and the Maths on the...
Jun 22, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Send us a text This year, and more specifically during the week of 20 March, the Newton Gateway to Mathematics will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. A "knowledge intermediary for the mathematical sciences" and the "impact initiative" of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the Gateway has spent the past decade connecting mathematical research with industry, businesses, the public sector and other scientific disciplines. To mark this happy occasion - and t...
Mar 17, 2023•16 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Send us a text In this 50th (!) episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speaks to Rachel Thomas and Marianne Freiberger of Plus magazine . Plus works closely with INI to help explain, celebrate and publicise the research that happens at the Institute. But what challenges does that present? And why should it happen in the first place? 00:00 - Introduction 00:44 - Welcome, discussing “ Communicating Mathematics for the Public ”, the importance of trustworthiness 05:30 - Who you’re speaking to vs what y...
Mar 02, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Send us a text In episode #49 of Living Proof, Dan Aspel and Maha Kaouri are joined by presenter, writer and comedian Timandra Harkness . The author of Big Data: Does Size Matter? And Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society speaks about her current projects, how to make maths "funny", and how she came to fall in love with mathematics from an arts and humanities background. > Visit timandraharkness.com or find Timandra on Twitter @TimandraHarknes 00:00 - Introduction 00:44 - Welcome,...
Feb 22, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Send us a text Episode published 15/02/23 In episode #48 of Living Proof, Dan Aspel and Maha Kaouri speak to Hannah Thomas of Government Analysis Function ( analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk ). Hannah's role at this "network for civil servants", is that of "Lead Support for Communicating Data, Statistics and Analysis" - making her the perfect person to discuss how to make data accessible. This conversation was inspired by the Newton Gateway event " Communicating ...
Feb 15, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 50
Send us a text Thanks to the generous support of the Simons Foundation, the INI-Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics is now in its second year of enabling “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speak to Dr Nicolas Boulle to learn about his journey through mathematics so far, and to find out what being awarded this F...
Oct 31, 2022•8 min•Season 1Ep. 49
Send us a text Thanks to the generous support of the Simons Foundation, the INI-Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Mathematics are enabling “exceptional early career researchers in the mathematical sciences” to gain “experience, independence and new connections on their way to a successful academic career”. In this episode of Living Proof, Dan Aspel speak to Dr Patrick Sprenger to learn about his journey through mathematics so far, and to find out what being awarded this Fellowship – which invol...
Oct 31, 2022•11 min•Season 1Ep. 48
Send us a text Forced to leave Ukraine, and his work at the Institute of Hydromechanics at the National Academy of Sciences, due to the Russian invasion of February 2022, Yuriy Semenov found sanctuary in Britain at the University of East Anglia . This was in part thanks to support from INI's " Solidarity for mathematicians " programme. This episode of the podcast tells Yuriy's story in his own words. 00:00 - Introduction 00:43 - Welcome 01:20 - Discovering the Solidarity for ...
Oct 21, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 47
Send us a text Professor Nataliya Vaisfel’d was until recently Head of the Chair of methods of mathematical physics at Odesa I. I. Mechnykov National University . She is currently a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London . Forced to flee Ukraine after the Russian invasion of her home country in February of this year, Nataliya has since travelled across Europe with her wheelchair-bound mother and their dogs, eventually finding sanctuary in Britain in part thanks to INI’s " Solidarity for m...
Oct 21, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 46
Send us a text Episode published 20/09/22 In episode #45 of Living Proof, Dan Aspel and Christie Marr are thrilled to meet Ben Sparks and Katie Steckles . Ben is a mathematician, musician and speaker based at the University of Bath who works with groups as diverse as the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme and the hugely popular Numberphile YouTube channel. Katie, meanwhile, is a mathematician and communicator who lectures at Sheffield Hallam University and is regularly found presenting enter...
Sep 20, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 45
Send us a text Episode published 31/08/22 In episode #44 of Living Proof, Dan Aspel and Christie Marr speak to both Don Zagier and Silke Zagier . Don is a widely respected number theorist and currently and currently "Retired Scientific Member and Director" of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn. This summer he has been involved in two INI programmes: K-theory, algebraic cycles and motivic homotopy theory and New connections in number theory and physics . Silke, meanwhile, ...
Aug 31, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 44
