(above) Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Director of Cambridge Zero, who will be INI's guest speaker at this year's Cambridge Science Festival.

INI NEWS BULLETIN
February 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. VIDEO INTERVIEWS: wise words from Organisers of the "K-theory, algebraic cycles and motivic homotopy theory" and "Groups, representations and applications: new perspectives" programmes.
2. PODCAST OF THE MONTH: discussing the promotion of mathematics to the young via social media with early career researchers Ollie Jones (Birmingham) and Kamilla Rekvényi (Imperial).
3. THE MATHEMATICS OF SHUFFLING: previewing Professor Cheryl Praeger (Western Australia)'s exciting Kirk lecture [17 March].
4. CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL: details of INI's sold out CSF event: "Mathematics: a tool kit to tackle climate change" by Dr Emily Shuckburgh [22 March].
5. SIR MICHAEL ATIYAH EVENT: "The unity of mathematics: a conference in honour of Sir Michael Atiyah" is coming to INI in September 2020, find out more below.
6. GENDER GAP IN SCIENCE REPORT: findings and insights from this extensive three-year project, funded by the International Science Council.
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. VIDEO INTERVIEWS: wise words from Organisers of the "K-theory, algebraic cycles and motivic homotopy theory" and "Groups, representations and applications: new perspectives" programmes.

(above, left to right) "K-theory, algebraic cycles and motivic homotopy theory" Organisers Rob de Jeu (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Roy Joshua (Ohio State University), James D. Lewis (University of Alberta), Charles Doran (University of Alberta), and Marc Levine (Universität Duisburg-Essen).

Two new programme Organiser video interviews are now available to view on INI's website and YouTube channel. Covering the Institute's two current six-month programmes, each interview is between 12-15 minutes in length and provides the Organisers' perspectives of the themes, goals, challenges and ambitions of their respective projects. Please click the links below to view them in full.

> "Groups, representations and applications: new perspectives" homepage.
> "K-theory, algebraic cycles and motivic homotopy theory" homepage.

(below, left to right) "Groups, representations and applications: new perspectives" Organisers Martin Liebeck (Imperial) and Colva Roney-Dougal (St Andrews).

2. PODCAST OF THE MONTH: discussing the promotion of mathematics to the young via social media with early career researchers Ollie Jones (Birmingham) and Kamilla Rekvényi (Imperial).

In Episode #21 of the Isaac Newton Institute podcast Dan Aspel is joined by Early career researchers Ollie Jones (Birmingham) and Kamilla Rekvényi (Imperial) to discuss life at an INI workshop, working alongside supervisors, promoting mathematics to the young via social media, and the ongoing struggle for gender balance.

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

00:00 – Introductions
01:14 – First experience of an INI workshop
05:55 - The “supervisor chain” and importance of networking
08:10 – The use of social media in promoting mathematics to the young (+ #wordwednesdays)
13:10 – Maths as a foreign language
15:30 – The struggle for gender balance

3. THE MATHEMATICS OF SHUFFLING: previewing Professor Cheryl Praeger (Western Australia)'s exciting Kirk lecture [17 March].

Professor Cheryl Praeger's keynote talk "The mathematics of shuffling", delivered as part of her role as Kirk Fellow for the "Groups, representations and applications: new perspectives" programme, will take place on Tuesday 17 March from 16:00-17:00.

All are welcome to attend this public lecture, which promises to be both insightful and entertaining.

The crux of a card trick performed with a deck of cards usually depends on understanding how shuffles of the deck change the order of the cards. By understanding which permutations are possible, one knows if a given card may be brought into a certain position. The mathematics of shuffling a deck of 2n cards with two "perfect shuffles" was studied thoroughly by Diaconis, Graham and Kantor in 1983. I will report on our efforts to understand a generalisation of this problem, with a so-called "many handed dealer" shuffling kn cards by cutting into k piles with n cards in each pile and using k! possible shuffles.

A conjecture of Medvedoff and Morrison suggests that all possible permutations of the deck of cards are achieved, as long as k≠4 and n is not a power of k. We confirm this conjecture for three doubly infinite families of integers, including all (k,n) with k>n. We initiate a more general study of shuffle groups, which admit an arbitrary subgroup of shuffles. This is joint work with Carmen Amarra and Luke Morgan.

4. CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL: details of INI's sold out CSF event: "Mathematics: a tool kit to tackle climate change" by Dr Emily Shuckburgh [22 March].

INI is proud to be hosting Dr Emily Shuckburgh (Cambridge Zero) for a guest talk as part of the 2020 Cambridge Science Festival. Titled "Mathematics: a tool kit to tackle climate change", the event was quick to sell out its 120 allocated tickets. However, those unable to attend in person should keep their eyes on newton.ac.uk for images and video footage after the event. 

Climate scientist, mathematician, and co-author of the Ladybird book on Climate Change, Dr Emily Shuckburgh will talk about her research on modelling localised effects of climate change including floods, droughts and extreme weather.

5. SIR MICHAEL ATIYAH EVENT: "The unity of mathematics: a conference in honour of Sir Michael Atiyah" is coming to INI in September 2020, find out more here.

From 22-24 September 2020 INI will be hosting the one-off event, "The unity of mathematics: a conference in honour of Sir Michael Atiyah". Few within the field of mathematics will be unfamiliar with the founding Director of INI, and this meeting - which includes a conference dinner at Trinity College where he was Master - will celebrate his passion for connections and interactions between every branch of the science.

A description from the Organisers follows below. Please click the link to view its homepage on the INI website. Registrations will open shortly, with demand expected to be high for what promises to be a memorable occasion.

The conference will consist of a selection of talks which we trust Sir Michael would have found interesting and which reflect the interactions which he so much appreciated.  The speakers cover a broad range of mathematical generations and topics, ranging from number theory to theoretical physics, and include representatives from Oxford, Cambridge, Bonn, Princeton and Edinburgh – places which played a fundamental role at various stages of Sir Michael’s long mathematical life. The presentations should be accessible to a broad audience.

6. GENDER GAP IN SCIENCE REPORT: findings and insights from this extensive three-year project, funded by the International Science Council.

The underrepresentation of women in mathematics is a pressing and ongoing issue with profound impacts on the science. The Institute is pursuing various means of helping to bridge this gap, but ultimately this is an issue that needs concerted effort from across the discipline. Initiatives such as the paper detailed and linked to below play a key part in informing the conversation and driving us all towards a more positive future for diversity and access. We would urge you to read its findings.

This book reports on a three-year project (2017–2019) funded by the International Science Council and involving eleven scientific partner organizations. The main goal of the project was to investigate the gender gap in STEM disciplines from different angles, globally and across disciplines. We have performed (i) a global survey of scientists with more than 32,000 responses; (ii) an investigation of the effect of gender in millions of scientific publications; and (iii) the compilation of best practices to encourage girls and young women to enter STEM fields, available as a website. We conclude that the gender gap is very real in science and mathematics. We present methodologies, insights, and tools that have been developed throughout the project, as well as a set of recommendations for different audiences: instructors and parents; educational institutions; scientific unions and other organizations responsible for science policy.

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.

- Free passes for Cambridge University's Botanic Garden are now available to borrow from INI's reception. These reusable tickets are for provided for programme participants and staff members to enjoy one of the city's most inspiring landmarks.

- The Institute has recently made a £50 donation to Water Aid. This was made possible by the sale of reusable water bottles (pictured below) provided by the University's Environment and Energy team. This is an ongoing initiative with further donations planned for the future.

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

> Workshop: GRAW03 Interactions between group theory, number theory, combinatorics and geometry 16th March 2020 to 20th March 2020

> Workshop: KAHW02 Algebraic K-theory, motivic cohomology and motivic homotopy theory 23rd March 2020 to 27th March 2020

> Workshop: KAHW03 Arithmetic geometry, cycles, Hodge theory, regulators, periods and heights 30th March 2020 to 3rd April 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