The London Mathematical Society is pleased to announce Professor Simon Tavaré FRS, University of Cambridge, as President Designate. Professor Tavaré will take over from the current President, Professor Terry Lyons FRS, in November 2015. Professor Tavaré is a versatile mathematician who has established a distinguished international career culminating in his current role as Director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and Professor in DAMTP, where he brings his understanding of stochastic processes and expertise in the data science of DNA sequencing to understand cancer biology.
Simon Tavaré obtained his PhD in probability and statistics in 1979 from the University of Sheffield. He then began his research career in the US where he held positions at the University of Utah and Colorado State University, moving to the University of Southern California (USC) where he held a professorship in mathematics as well as the Kawamoto Chair in Biological Science.
In 2003 Professor Tavaré returned to the UK from his distinguished chair at USC to take up joint roles at the University of Cambridge as Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Professor of Cancer Research (Bioinformatics) in the department of Oncology. In 2006 he was appointed to the Cambridge Research Institute, which became the Cambridge Institute when it merged with the University in January 2013. In February 2013, Professor Tavaré became Director of the new Institute. In 2009 Professor Tavaré was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and in 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
Professor Tavaré would be the first to acknowledge that his current work relies on strong training in combinatorics and probability theory; in his earlier years he published papers in the Annals of Probability and the first volume in the EMS Monographs in Mathematics series.
Simon Tavaré is recognised as an internationally excellent communicator. He is invited to give this year’s Einstein Lecture to the American Mathematical Society, one of the most prestigious of the AMS lectures; other recent speakers were Tao and Simons.
Professor Tavaré said ‘I am honoured to be the next President of the LMS. An important role for the office is promoting the central importance of mathematics in society and the necessity of ensuring the overall health of the discipline, and, with the help of the LMS members and the wider mathematical community, I hope to continue Terry’s efforts in this direction.’
Professor Lyons, said, ‘I am delighted that Simon has accepted the nomination to become the next LMS President. Simon personifies the way that mathematics can to contribute to wider society at a high level; he brings deep expertise in data science, and a strong background in rigorous mathematics, to his research into critical questions in cancer. He is a tremendous communicator and has experience in making the case for Mathematics with ministers and funders. I am confident that his presidency will bring a great deal to the society, to our members, and to the wider mathematical communities.”
Picture courtesy of - University of Cambridge