Recent News
Pedro Rosesetto wins best first-year PhD/MSc/Hons presentation
Pedro Rosesetto has won the award for the best first-year PhD/MSc/Hons presentation at the New Zealand Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference 2020.
"Chaos in Plane Fronted Gravitational Waves"
"pp-waves are exact solutions for the full non-linear Einstein’s Equations which representidealized plane-fronted gravitational waves. In this talk I will discuss the motion of freeparticles in such spacetimes. Chaotic behaviour for this system is already known in the literature. Additionally I will demonstrate that pp-waves also present the Wada property. This contributes to the hypothesis that open dynamical systems with more than two exit options will normally exhibit Wada boundaries."
Outstanding Research Group Awarded to the Gravity Research Group
Outstanding Research Group Award
Gravity Research Group
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Members:
Professor Jörg Frauendiener
Dr Florian Beyer
Dr Jörg Hennig
Dr Christopher Stevens
This group is awarded for its outstanding contributions to the understanding and interpretation of solutions of Einstein's equations of General Relativity. Their work has shed important new light on the asymptotic structure of space-times, the structure of the early universe evolving from the Big Bang, and the properties of multi black hole space-times.
In the time-frame under consideration the group has published a total of 19 papers, almost all of them in highly ranked mathematics and physics journals. The focus of the research is on highly accurate numerical and mathematically rigorous analytic methods and the group has a high international prestige in this area. The group is part of a consortium to prepare the science and technology for a planned European Space Agency mission for the first space-based detection and accurate measurement of gravitational waves.
Jie Kang wins NZSA Best Student Presentation
Jie Kang has won the NZ Statistics Association Best Student Presentation prize at the recent NZ conference.
Jie was also gifted a prize from Phil, a smoked Sea-Run Brown Trout.
Vacancy: two-year fixed term position in Statistics
Full details: click here
Applications are invited for a two-year fixed-term position as Lecturer to join the Statistics Group in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. This opportunity would suit recent PhD graduate who is looking to pursue an academic career.
We encourage applications from candidates in any area of statistics. Research strengths of the department include Bayesian inference, ecological and environmental statistics, hidden Markov models, scoring rules, smoothing methods, spatial statistics and point processes, statistical inverse problems, stochastic modelling, clinical trials, epidemiology, quantitative genetics, and statistical genetics.
Antarctic scholarship
Congratulations to Taylor Hamlin for being awarded an Antarctica New Zealand Doctoral Scholarship. Taylor's research is investigating the movement, feeding habits, and breeding success of Adélie penguins at Cape Bird. In the news release Antarctica New Zealand Chief Scientific Advisor Professor John Cottle states that "Antarctica New Zealand is committing to expanding New Zealand’s Antarctic Science expertise and supporting the next generation of Early Career researchers".
Students wanted: Simon Marais Competition
The Simon Marais Competition for 2020 is on October 10. Students compete individually or in pairs for a prize pool of over $100,000!
Are you interested? To enter, please contact your local coordinators by September 24: Jörg Hennig (jhennig@maths.otago.ac.nz) or Robert Van Gorder (rvangorder@maths.otago.ac.nz)
History sometimes repeats
99 years after his great-grandfather received a Beverly Scholarship, Conor Hassan was awarded one too. Except for a twist of fate, this connection might have gone unnoticed. Conor is an Honours student in statistics and we're sure his great-grandfather would be very proud of his accomplishments.
