Exploring Euclidean spaces, epidemics, and strategies to combat climate change...

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University of Cambridge

Mathematics alumni news

Mathematics, climate change and refreezing the Arctic: discover the Centre for Climate Repair

A young polar bear crossing ice floes in the high Arctic. Image: iStock, used under licence.

The multidisciplinary Centre for Climate Repair has recently taken up residence at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). The Centre's research aims to learn more about possible options for reducing emissions, removing excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and refreezing the Arctic, so that society can make more informed decisions as to whether these ideas could play a role in the journey to a 1.5 degrees Celsius world.


Director Dr Shaun Fitzgerald explains the Centre's work, how world-leading expertise in DAMTP is involved, and the Centre's contribution to the recent COP28 summit.

Read our interview

Professor Oscar Randal-Williams

Shedding new light on topology: meet the new Sadleirian Professor

Oscar Randal-Williams took up the prestigious Sadleirian Professorship of Pure Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics in January. We talked to him to learn more about his recent work, which promises exciting answers to a fundamental question in topology: what are the symmetries of Euclidean spaces?

Exploring Euclidean spaces

Professor Douglas Gough FRS

Professor Douglas Gough awarded 2024 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy

Douglas Gough, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in DAMTP and the Institute of Astronomy, has been awarded the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy. The prize recognises his pioneering work in developing our understanding of the interior of the Sun and other stars.

Investigating the interior of the Sun

Mathematics for all

Professor Julia Gog OBE Image credit: Royal Institution

Contagious Maths: bringing mathematics research into the classroom

Professor Julia Gog from DAMTP has launched new classroom resources to help inspire the mathematical researchers of the future. From measles to COVID, the 'Contagious Maths' resources enable students to explore the maths behind epidemics, and discover for themselves how mathematics tackles real-world problems.

Inspiring future mathematicians

Fragment of aperiodic tiling by hats. Image: David Smith, Joseph Samuel Myers, Craig S Kaplan, and Chaim Goodman-Strauss

A tip of the hat: celebrating the aperiodic monotile discovery

In December 2023 the Centre for Mathematical Sciences hosted a celebration of the famous 'hat' - the aperiodic monotile discovered earlier last year. The occasion brought together discoverer David Smith, Chaim Goodman-Strauss from the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York, and Joseph Myers, the Cambridge alumnus who provided the crucial proof, for a talk about the hat and some of the astonishingly creative ways it has inspired people across the world.

Celebrating the hat

Abstract rendition of AI network. Image credit: iStock

Shadow Secretary of State visits Cambridge to discuss AI policy and innovation

The Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology visited Cambridge in January to discuss AI policy and innovation. He met with University experts, including John Aston, Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life, to discuss both the challenges it presents and the enormous potential for AI to serve science, people, and society.

Read more

Adult periodical cicada. Image credit: William Krumpelman via iStock

Swarming cicadas, stock traders, and the wisdom of the crowd

In spring 2024, billions of cicadas are expected to appear in the eastern United States as two different broods – one that appears every 13 years and another that appears every 17 years – emerge simultaneously.


Now DAMTP researchers have discovered that the springtime emergence of these vast swarms can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making with similarities to models describing stock market crashes.

Join the crowd

Meet the new generation of researchers

Dr Kweku Abraham

Cambridge snapshots: Dr Kweku Abraham

Dr Kweku Abraham is a postdoctoral researcher in statistics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, working on the mathematics of deep learning. He tells us about why he enjoys statistics, revisiting a favourite mathematical moment from his third year now he's teaching the same course, and what life as an early career researcher involves.

Read Kweku's interview

Carmen Embil-Villagra

Student stories: Carmen Embil-Villagra

Carmen Embil-Villagra is a first-year PhD student in DAMTP. In this interview Carmen talks about the excitement of cosmology, highlights of Cambridge life, and the difference it made to receive the first Wolfson College – CDT PhD Studentship for Women in the Physical Sciences.

Read Carmen's interview

Professor Stephen Hawking and Professor Thomas Hertog at the Stephen Hawking 75th Birthday symposium. Photo by Dr Tobias Baldauf

'On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory'

Ahead of the annual Cambridge Festival, we revisit one of the highlights from 2023. Professor Thomas Hertog was Stephen Hawking's PhD student in DAMTP, and became one of Hawking's closest collaborators. In this fascinating talk, given at last year's Cambridge Festival, he reflects on working with Hawking, the theory that they developed together, and what it may reveal about the origins of the Universe.

Watch now

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