Press Releases 2009

• Endless opportunities – a new website shows that maths counts

  1 December: How are dance and mathematics linked? Can using mathematics save disappearing species? And would a zombie attack help in stopping the spread of diseases like swine flu? Answers to all these questions can be found on the new Maths Careers website, to be launched on 1 December 2009.

• 2009 David Crighton Award

  2 October:Cambridge mathematician Professor Keith Moffatt, FRS, has been honoured for a career which has combined world class research in applied mathematicians with determined efforts to draw mathematicians together from around the world.

• Keep maths textbooks independent of examining boards

  18 September: Maths teachers are feeling increasingly obliged to buy textbooks and other teaching resources endorsed by examining boards and written by examiners, fearing that their pupils would be disadvantaged if they did not, according to a statement by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA).

• Maths A-level numbers bounce back

  20 August: The number of A-Level Mathematics entries across the UK is up 12.2% on last year, with 72,475 students sitting the exam. The number of entries is now higher than it has been for 17 years.

• Mathematics skills “worse than they were 10 years ago”

  19 August: New research from specialist recruiters, Robert Half has found that nearly two thirds of Executives, Finance and Human Resource Managers in the UK think that the Mathematics skills of today’s graduates are worse than they were 10 years ago.

• Putting Science, Engineering AND Mathematics at the Heart of Government

  22 July: Sir David Wallace, chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, welcomed the IUSS report. In particular, he was pleased to see that the committee recognised the importance of protecting of basic research.

• UK Mathematical Societies’ support for new Maths A-level

  10 July: The UK’s learned and professional societies for mathematics today underlined their support for a new A-level aimed at students who want to be able to apply mathematical methods rather than focus on mathematical theory.

• Mathematics Counts in National STEM Project

  15 June: A new programme designed to help university mathematical sciences, physics, chemistry and engineering departments to increase the number of students graduating from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses will get underway this summer.

• Science fiction writer is first UK mathematician honoured for promoting mathematics

  3 June: The London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications are delighted to announce that Professor Ian Stewart, FRS, will receive the first ever Christopher Zeeman Medal for the Promotion of Mathematics to the Public.