Funded by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and supported by many international scientific bodies including the IMU, the Gender Gap in Science Project is collecting data to develop a broader picture of the status of mathematicians and scientists across the world. The results will provide data about the situation of scientists and mathematicians worldwide, as well as focused information about women in these fields. The data will help inform interventions by ICSU and member unions to increase participation, especially for women.

The London Mathematical Society (LMS) congratulates Professor Luis Caffarelli (University of Texas at Austin) on his award of the 2018 Shaw Prize in the Mathematical Sciences.

The Royal Society has released details of its newly-appointed Fellows, among whom were Professor Alexander Dawid (University of Cambridge), Professor Nancy Reid (University of Toronto), Professor Geordie Williamson (University of Sydney) and Professor Daniel Wise (McGill University) Other elected Fellows included Professor Peter O’Hearn (University College London), and Israeli cryptographer Professor Adi Shamir (The Wiezmann Institute of Science) who was elected a Foreign Member.

The London Mathematical Society (LMS) immediate past President, Professor Simon Tavaré FRS, has been elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences. Another notable mathematician to receive this honour is Professor Gerd Faltings ForMemRS, Director, Max Planck Institute, Bonn. Professors Tavaré and Faltings were among 21 new Foreign Associates who were recognised for their ‘distinguished and continuing achievements in original research’.

The LMS notes the current crisis in the Higher Education (HE) sector caused by the dispute over proposed changes to the USS pension scheme. The Society wishes to express its deep concern over the planned major downgrades to pensions of academic and related staff, including many members and LMS employees. The Society is concerned about the negative impact on the attractiveness of academic careers in the UK and in particular the retention of the best early career mathematicians.

The Learned Society of Wales (LSW) has announced the election of 42 new Fellows, including two new Honorary Fellows, one of which is LMS Honorary Member Professor Sir Vaughan F.R. Jones KNZM FRS FRSNZ FAA HonFLSW (Vanderbilt University). New Fellows include LMS Member Professor Biagio Lucini FLSW (Swansea University) and Professor Idris Eckley FLSW (Lancaster University). The LMS congratulates each on their election.

More information about the new Fellows is available here

Professor Sir Ian Diamond DL, FBA, FRSE, FacSS, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Aberdeen is to be the new Chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS). It is anticipated that he will take up the post in September 2018, succeeding Professor Sir Adrian Smith FRS, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London.

Early career mathematicians took part in the annual STEM for BRITAIN competition for the fifth time on Monday 12 March. Thirty posters presenting research in the Mathematical Sciences were presented at Parliament to politicians and a panel of expert judges, who awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes to the top three exhibitors.

Dr Celine Maistret of the University of Bristol was awarded Gold for her research into the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, one of the Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) Millennium problems.

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the 2018 Abel Prize to Professor Robert P. Langlands, Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton University, ‘for his visionary program connecting representation theory to number theory’.