The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and its applications at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. It is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathematician and natural philosopher

Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book (''Mathe ...

, and occupies one of the buildings in the Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

History

After a national competition run by SERC, the Science and Engineering Research Council (now known as EPSRC

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British UK Research Councils, Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical scienc ...

), this institute was chosen to be the national research institute for mathematical sciences in the UK. It opened in 1992 with support from St John's College and Trinity College. St. John's provided the land and a purpose-built building, Trinity provided running costs for the first five years and the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

provided other support. Shortly afterwards at the institute, the British mathematician

Andrew Wiles Sir Andrew John Wiles (born 11 April 1953) is an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is best known for Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, proving Ferma ...

announced his approach to proving

Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive number, positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than . The cases ...

in three lectures on 21–23 June 1993. In 1999 the institute was awarded a Queen's Anniversary Prize in recognition of "world-class achievement in education." Although it is part of the national infrastructure for mathematical research, it is formally part of the

, from which it receives some funding. Nowadays five UK Research Councils, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, NERC, STFC support about 55% of its activity. A number of philanthropic individuals, family and educational trusts, private companies and bodies associated with the

generously give their support.

Scientific programmes

There are typically two or three programmes at any one time, each with up to twenty people and lasting between 4 weeks and 6 months. During these periods of activity there are courses and workshops for the attendees. Programmes are chosen from proposals that cover the entire range of mathematical sciences and their applications by a Scientific Steering Committee of mathematical scientists solely on their scientific merit and the likelihood that they will have significant impact in their subject. Although programmes are normally residential and planned several years ahead, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, an urgent 6-workshop virtual programme on the Infectious Dynamics of Pandemics was approved and ran from April to September 2020. This was a successor to a 2013 programme on Infectious Disease Dynamics, and was complemented by virtual study groups and commissioned modelling for government.

Directors

* 1991–1996 Sir

Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded the ...

OM FRS * 1996–2001 Keith Moffatt FRS * 2001–2006 Sir John Kingman FRS * 2006–2011 Sir David Wallace CBE FRS * 2011–2016

John Toland John Toland (30 November 167011 March 1722) was an Irish rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions ...

FRS * 2016–2021 David Abrahams * 2021– Ulrike Tillmann FRS The institute is chaired by technology entrepreneur and founder of Cantab Capital Partners, Ewan Kirk.

References

External links

*
Interactive map
of the Mathematical Sciences site including links to the departments. {{Coord, 52.20989, N, 0.10287, E, source:placeopedia, display=title Research institutes established in 1992 Mathematical institutes Institutions in the School of the Physical Sciences, University of Cambridge Research institutes in Cambridge