Asia Pacific Mathematics Newsletter

Application of Graph Theory in Phylogenetics: The Primate Approach

The theory of evolution seemed puzzling, was counter intuitive and contradicted deeply held prejudices; but it has caused one of the major paradigm shifts in science. This seemingly simple theory whose only tool of operation is a simple mechanism called ‘natural selection’ has the ability to challenge all the ideas

anti electron

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the Renaissance Man

Bhabha is a great lover of music, a gifted artist, a bril-liant engineer and an outstanding scientist. He is the modern equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci. — Sir C V Raman at the Annual Meeting of the Indian Academy of Science, Nagpur, 1941 Homi Jehangir Bhabha was undeniably one of the

Ngo Bao Chau

Interview with Tony Chan (陳繁昌)

Professor Tony Fan-Cheong Chan is currently President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He was previously Assistant Director of the US National Science Founda-tion (NSF) in charge of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate, which is the largest directorate of the NSF in funding. Prof Chan had

Algebraic Numbers

Jugendtraum of a Mathematician

1. Kronecker’s Jugendtraum There is a phrase “Kronecker’s Jugendtraum (dream of youth)” in mathematics. Leopold Kronecker was a German mathematician who worked in the latter half of the 19th century. He obtained his degree at the University of Berlin in 1845 when he was 22 years old, and

ICTS

International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) - A New Initiative in Indian Science

The idea of the ICTS of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, naturally grew out of a strongly felt need in the Indian scientific community to enhance the research and education eco-system of Indian science. There is a need in India today, to create an institution where researchers from India

Shaw Prize

Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences 2013 — David L Donoho

The Shaw Prize was established by the well-known 106-year-old Hong Kong media mogul and philanthropist Sir Run Run Shaw in 2002. Often considered as the Asian Nobel Prize, it was first awarded in 2004 and honours individuals who have made “significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research or application and

AMS Satter Prize

Iranian Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani Receives 2013 AMS Satter Prize

Iranian math scientist Maryam Mirzakhani has received the 2013 biennial Satter Prize in mathematics presented by American Mathematical Society. The Satter Prize is dedicated to a woman to recognize and appreciate the winner’s mathematical accomplishments. This prize was established in 1990 using funds donated by Joan S Birman in

Gross-Zagier formula

Two Evenings with B H Gross

Professor Benedict H Gross is the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He is a number theorist who has made fundamental contributions to many aspects of the subject. His most famous result is the Gross-Zagier formula, whose generalisations and higher dimensional analogues continue to fascinate mathematicians. Professor

Figurate Numbers

Elena Deza and Michel Marie Deza World Scientific, 2011, xviii+456 pp. This book is about special types of numbers (integers) that have geometric associations and that have intriguing spatial properties. The ancient Greeks were perhaps the first to study what are called “figurate numbers” — numbers that can be represented

2025

The Mathematical Sciences in 2025

By Committee on the Mathematical Sciences in 2025; Board on Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications; Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences; National Research Council 191 pages, Published 2013, National Academies Press, Washington, USA. ISBN: 0309268796 The Mathematical Sciences in 2025, a new report from the National Research Council, finds that

2011

The Best Writing on Mathematics 2011 and 2012

The Best Writing on Mathematics 2011 Paperback, 383 pages, Published November 7, 2011 Princeton University Press, ISBN: 0691153159. The Best Writing on Mathematics 2012 Paperback, 288 pages, Published October 22, 2012 Princeton University Press, ISBN: 0691156557. These two volumes of anthology bring together from around the world the finest mathematics

A Beautiful Mind

Math Goes to the Movies

Burkard Polster and Marty Ross Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012, ISBN: 978-1-4214-0483-7 (hardback) Also available in paperback (ISBN: 978-1-4214-0484-4) and for Kindle This is an entertaining grab bag of mathematical and movie titbits that will delight mathematically minded movie buffs. The authors also have a website that includes links to

Bass conjecture

Topological Fixed Point Theory

1. Introduction Fixed point theory is very simple, but is based on fundamentals in Mathematics. For any continuous function $$f:Xrightarrow X$$ a fixed point of $$f$$ is a point $$xin X$$ satisfying the identity $$f(x)=x.$$ Two fundamental theorems concerning fixed points are Banach Theorem and Brouwer Theorem.

Quasi-Monte Carlo Rules

Approximating Integrals in High Dimensions— An Informal Report

1. Introduction For half a century or more many researchers have grappled with the problem of numerical integration in many dimensions— on the one hand to understand what is possible, on the other to construct and analyse effective algorithms. This is an informal and rather personal account of one part

Ian Sloan

An Interview with Ian Sloan

September 3, 2012, in Sydney (Ian Sloan) and Singapore (Peter Hall) Introduction. Ian Hugh Sloan was born in Melbourne on June 17, 1938, and educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, and Ballarat College, before going on to undergraduate degrees in physics and mathematics at the University of Melbourne. Shortly after completing

Difference Equations

Applications of Lie Groups to Difference Equations

Vladimir Dorodnitzy Chapman & Hall/ CRC, 2010, 344 pp. The invariance of differential equations under transformation groups, usually Lie groups, naturally comes from the models they formalise, and there is a lot of literature dedicated to applications of Lie groups in differential equations. The difference schemes for solving differential equations, on

2010

The Best Writing on Mathematics 2010

Mircea Pitici (editor) Princeton University Press, 2011. Mircea Pitici is a mathematics education specialist at Cornel l University. He also teaches writing courses and has edited this anthology as a way of presenting nontechnical expositions of mathematical topics to a general audience. The articles are organized somewhat arbitrarily into six

Leibnizian Calculus

The Tangled Origins of the Leibnizian Calculus

Richard C Brown World Scientific, 2012, xxi+310 pp. As the title of the book suggests, this book attempts to unravel the threads that lead to the creation of the revolutionary symbolism of differential and integral calculus by the polymath Gottfried Wilheim Leibniz (1646–1716). We are all aware that

Mathematics

How to Fold It: The Mathematics of Linkages, Origami and Polyhedra

Joseph O’Rourke Cambridge University Press, 2011, xii+177 pp. This book presents in three parts some geometric and physical aspects that have, for a long time, fascinated many people attracted by elegant structures provided by linkages, paper folding and polyhedral models. Linkages used to be mainly associated with mechanical

Logic

Seduced by Logic : Emilie du Chatelet, Mary Somerville and the Newtonian Revolution

Robyn Arianrhod University of Queensland Press, 2011, 352 pp. There can be no doubt in the 21st century about the power of mathematical physics to transform our material existence. The atomic bomb, television and mobile phone are among its many offspring. Robyn Arianrhod’s Seduced by Logic opens in 1706,

Roads to Infinity

John Stillwell A K Peters Ltd, 2010 In 1963, Edwin E. Moise published Elementary Geometry from an Advanced Standpoint and his book became a classic. Roads to Infinity could well be entitled Advanced Logic from an Elementary Standpoint and deserves the same outcome. Its subtitle is actually The Mathematics of

Kähler Geometry

Kähler Geometry of Loop Spaces

Armen Sergeev Mathematical Society of Japan, 2010, 228 pp. This book concerns Kahler geometry and the geometric quantisation of loop spaces. The main objects are three important examples of infinite Kahler manifolds: loop spaces of compact Lie groups, Teichmuller spaces of complex structures on loop spaces, and Grassmannians of Hilbert

Markov chains

Markov Chains and Decision Processes for Engineers and Managers

Theodore J. Sheskin CRC Press, 2010, 492 pp. Writing yet another book about Markov chains and Markov decision processes needs — without doubt — some justification. The author of the present textbook reveals his motives in the preface: most books on these topics are highly theoretical or, else, merely provide algorithms to

Ashoke Sen

An Interview with Ashoke Sen

Ashoke Sen was born in Calcutta and studied physics at the Presidency College of the city, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, and did his doctorate at Stony Brook. He has been with the Harish-Chandra Research Institute for the last seventeen years. His main area of work is

Stamps on Asian Mathematicians

Xiong Qinglai (1893–1921) Xiong Qinglai was a Chinese mathematician from Yunnan. He was the person who introduced modern mathematics to China. He studied in Europe for eight years (1913 to 1921) before returning to China to teach. In 1921, he set up the Department of Mathematics of National Southeastern