(above) Programme picture for first virtual programme Infectious Dynamics of Pandemics which starts May 2020

INI NEWS BULLETIN
April 2020

Dear friends, associates and supporters of INI,

Welcome to the February 2020 edition of our monthly news bulletin. In this release you will find the following eight stories:

1. A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR: to INI friends and participants, past and present.
2. PODCAST SPECIAL SERIES: over the coming month we will be doing a special series on our podcast that will look at the mathematics behind the current COVID19 pandemic.
3. INFECTIOUS DYNAMICS OF PANDEMICS: information on INI's first ever virtual programme which will support the ongoing mathematical modelling work currently guiding government policy. 
4. VIRTUAL FORUM FOR KE IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES: details of the Virtual Forum for KE in the Mathematical Sciences (V-KEMS) activities which the Newton Gateway have been involved with.
5. FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY: a number of outstanding mathematicians were honoured with this prestigious award this month, we will be taking a closer look at their achievements in our #RSFellowFriday social media campaign.
6. CELEBRATING WOMEN IN MATHS: May12 is a day for celebrating women in maths, we take a look at some of the virtual events that will be taking place as part of this.   
7. GREEN TEAM NEWS: The latest updates on INI's efforts to promote sustainable practice and to embrace environmentally sound values.
8. FORTHCOMING WORKSHOPS/TALKS/EVENTS: looking forward to the month ahead at INI.

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1. A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR: to INI friends and participants, past and present.

(above) INI director David Abrahams at our correspondents day with ICMS in January 2019

I do hope that this INI Newsletter finds you safe and well, and managing under extraordinary circumstances. I thought it might be a useful time to offer a quick and personal update on the Institute over recent months.

Cognisant of the current world situation, we have now taken the decision to cancel all INI and Gateway physical activities at least through to the end of August 2020. We shall keep those activities scheduled for September-December 2020 under constant review, but planning for activities for the beginning of 2021 and beyond is continuing as usual. We are currently looking into mechanisms to enable them to run as soon as possible, and to not have wait until after the end of the already-scheduled programmes. I am most grateful to the organisers of all the cancelled meetings and programmes for their patience and understanding at this time.

As regards to dealing with the lockdown, there are a variety of activities going on, but for brevity I mention two substantial activities. 

1. The most exciting and challenging task over recent weeks has been the planning and creation of a virtual INI programme, called Infectious Dynamics of Pandemics (IDP) and can be seen as a follow-on from the highly successful 2013 (IDD) and 2014 (IDF) INI programmes on infectious disease dynamics. This virtual INI programme, which commenced this week, is closely aligned with the Royal Society's RAMP initiative. More details can be found in item 3 of this newsletter. 
2. We (INI and Gateway, the International Centre for Mathematical Science, the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), plus a few key mathematicians) have independently set up the Virtual Forum for KE in the Mathematical Sciences (V-KEMS), which is able to act very rapidly to organise virtual events (meetings, seminars, study groups, workshops, brokering sessions etc). More details can be found in item 4 of this newsletter.

In conclusion, the Isaac Newton Institute is still open for business; please contact me to discuss your research ideas and how they might translate into Institute activities, whether for a one-day event through to a full six-month programme. We welcome activity from all areas of the mathematical sciences, and encourage intra- and inter-disciplinary research topics. 

2. PODCAST SPECIAL SERIES: over the coming month we will be doing a special series on our podcast that will look at the mathematics behind the current COVID19 pandemic.

This month we will be doing a special series looking at the mathematical modelling that is being used in various aspects of the pandemic. Our guests include Dr Kit Yates from University of Bath, author of 'The Maths of Life and Death' and maths communicator, Dr Robin Thompson from University of Oxford, who has been involved in modelling the outbreak and Professor Steven Riley from Imperial college who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling which advises UKs response to COVID-19. The episodes this month will look at the mathematical techniques used to model infection spread, how data and uncertainty are incorporated and the mathematical challenges in infectious disease modelling. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast to get the episodes as soon as they are released or follow us on social media for podcast announcements. 

To subscribe to the podcast search for "Isaac Newton Institute" on your app of choice or find us on iTunes here.

3. INFECTIOUS DYNAMICS OF PANDEMICS: information on INI's first ever virtual programme which will support the ongoing mathematical modelling work currently guiding government policy. 

Infectious Dynamics of Pandemics: Mathematical and statistical challenges in understanding the dynamics of infectious disease pandemics, INI's first ever virtual programme starts in May. The programme, which has been put together is record breaking time, can be seen as a follow-on from the highly successful 2013 (IDD) and 2014 (IDF) INI programmes on infectious disease dynamics. Deirdre Hollingsworth (from the Big Data Institute, Oxford) will lead it, with Denis Mollison (Heriot-Watt) and Valerie Isham (UCL) helping shape the initial research activities and strands. (Denis and Valerie were organisers of the 2013/4 programmes.)

The programme, which commenced this week, is closely aligned with the Royal Society's RAMP initiative. RAMP has the remit of "bringing modelling expertise from a diverse range of disciplines to support the pandemic modelling community already working on Coronavirus (COVID-19)." The IDP programme is  to have some 100 active participants, many taken from the RAMP volunteer list, and will provide online presentational and other support materials for many others who signed up to RAMP.

4. VIRTUAL FORUM FOR KE IN THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES: details of the Virtual Forum for KE in the Mathematical Sciences (V-KEMS) activities which the Newton Gateway have been involved with.

We (INI and Gateway, the International Centre for Mathematical Science, the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), plus a few key mathematicians) have independently set up the Virtual Forum for KE in the Mathematical Sciences (V-KEMS), which is able to act very rapidly to organise virtual events (meetings, seminars, study groups, workshops, brokering sessions etc.). We have put together a suite of software to allow mathematicians and others to interact as closely as possible to the way they would do so in our building. We have now started to use these applications, our new-found knowledge and experience, and offer our assistance, for a range of activities. 

5. FELLOWS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY: a number of outstanding mathematicians were honoured with this prestigious award this month, we will be taking a closer look at their achievements in our #RSFellowFriday social media campaign.

The 2020 list of Fellows of the Royal Society award (FRS), announced this month, included a number of outstanding mathematicians. To highlight their amazing work we will be running a campaign over the following few months, shining the spotlight on one such recipient each week through our #RSFellowFriday campaign on our social media channels. Make sure to follow us on twitter, facebook or instagram to find out more.

6. CELEBRATING WOMEN IN MATHS: May12 is a day for celebrating women in maths, we take a look at some of the virtual events that will be taking place as part of this.  

The picture above was take at the "K-theory, algebraic cycles and motivic homotopy theory" workshop which ran at the beginning of this year.

May12th is an opportunity to celebrate women in maths. There are a number of virtual events running throughout May to highlight achievements of women in maths and to inspire the next generation. Check out the May12 website for more details.

7. GREEN TEAM NEWS: The latest updates on INI's efforts to promote sustainable practice and to embrace environmentally sound values.

In 2018 INI was accredited the University of Cambridge's Bronze Green Impact Award for taking measurable steps to reduce its environmental footprint related to water, waste, travel, energy, food, and other areas. This was followed in 2019 by the Silver award. The "Green Team", consisting of INI and Newton Gateway staff members, is now putting its efforts into trying to achieve that Gold award this year. In this regular section of our news bulletins we will update you with their most recent activities.

We (INI and Newton Gateway) had our green impact audit, which took place virtually. We were able to share some success stories and fortunately avoided an appearance from the Newton Gateway cat! 

8. FORTHCOMING WORKSHOPS/TALKS/EVENTS: looking forward to the month ahead at INI.

> Workshop: IDPW01 Models for an exit strategy 11th May 2020 to 15th May 2020

> Workshop: IDPW02 Models old and new 18th May 2020 to 22nd May 2020

As a reminder: the selection of non-workshop-based seminars undertaken as part of the current programmes can be found - and in most cases live-streamed or viewed after the event - via the seminars link below.

See all forthcoming INI events here: https://www.newton.ac.uk/events/calendar

See all forthcoming INI seminars here: https://www.newton.ac.uk/events/seminars

This image was taken