Nira Cyril Chamberlain (born 17 June 1969) is a British mathematician based in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, UK. He is a Principal Consultant at

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Early life and education

Born in

, Chamberlain always enjoyed mathematics at school and, despite a lack of encouragement from his teachers, studied a BSc in Mathematics at Coventry Polytechnic, graduating in 1991. He then moved to

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public university, public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university sinc ...

, where he achieved an MSc in Industrial Mathematical Modelling in 1993. In 2014, he completed a PhD at

Portsmouth University The University of Portsmouth (UoP) is a public university in Portsmouth, England. Comprising five faculties, the university offers a wide range of academic disciplines. in 2022, with around 28,280 students enrolled in undergraduate and postgr ...

, under the supervision of Professor Andrew Osbaldestin entitled "Extension of the gambler's ruin problem played over networks".

Research and career

Chamberlain has worked all over the world, helping a range of industrial partners with mathematical modelling. He created a mathematical cost capability trade-off for , modelling the lifetime running costs of aircraft carriers versus operating budgets. This use of mathematics in the real world was cited in the ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Society''. In 2012, Chamberlain was involved with the UK

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

Project "Being a Professional Mathematician", where his interview was selected for an iTunes podcast. In 2014 he was named by the

Science Council The Science Council is a UK organisation that was established by Royal Charter in 2003. The principal activity of The Science Council is the promotion of the advancement and dissemination of knowledge of and education in science pure and applie ...

as one of the UK's top scientists. Only five mathematicians were selected for this accolade. He is currently a member of the

Institute of Mathematics and its Applications The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) is the UK's chartered professional body for mathematicians and one of the UK's learned societies for mathematics (another being the London Mathematical Society). The IMA aims to advance ...

(IMA),

European Mathematical Society The European Mathematical Society (EMS) is a European organization dedicated to the development of mathematics in Europe. Its members are different mathematical societies in Europe, academic institutions and individual mathematicians. The curren ...

Operational Research Society The Operational Research Society (ORS), also known as The OR Society, is an international learned society in the field of operational research (OR), with more than 3,100 members (2021). It has its headquarters in Birmingham, England. History The ...

and

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 ...

. He was appointed President of the IMA for the 2020–2022 term. Chamberlain became the first Black mathematician to join the exclusive list of living British mathematicians to feature in the biographical reference book Who’s Who. Established in 1849, the book contains information on more than 33,000 influential people from around the world. Chamberlain regularly gives public lectures, discussing the significance of mathematics in human achievements and debating its relevance in everyday life. In 2016 he ran a one-day workshop at the

London International Youth Science Forum The London International Youth Science Forum is a two week residential forum held at Imperial College London and The Royal Geographical Society. Overview Each year almost 500 students aged 16-21 years attend the forum from both the United Kin ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. He was a keynote speaker at the 2017 ''

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'' workshop "The Mathematical World". In 2018 he was awarded the title of "World's Most Interesting Mathematician" from the Big Internet Math Off run by the Aperiodical website. In 2019, he gave a Maxwell Lecture at Maxwell Society titled "The Mathematics that can stop an AI apocalypse". Related talks were given in other UK universities. He makes regular appearances in UK media and is a

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expert voice, as well as a speaker for the UK charity, Speakers for Schools. In 2021 he was a guest on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 science programme, presented by Jim Al-Khalili, in which each episode is dedicated to the biography and work of a living scientist. The programme consists of an interview between Al-Khalili and the featur ...

. Chamberlain was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

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for services to mathematical sciences.

Diversity

Chamberlain is of Jamaican parentage, and campaigns for more diversity within the mathematical sciences. He frequently gives talks in UK state schools, through the charity Speakers for Schools. His lecture "The Black Heroes of Mathematics" is popular all over the UK and repeated regularly during

Black History Month Black History Month is an annually observed commemorative month originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of the Af ...

. In 2016 he was asked by the

Black Cultural Archives Black Cultural Archives (BCA) is an archive and heritage centre in Brixton, London, devoted to the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. Also known as BCA, it was founded in 1981, by educationalist and historian Len G ...

to submit his own mathematical biography, parts of which were published in ''Mathematics Today''. In 2017 he was included on ''

Powerlist The Powerlist is a list of the 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage in the United Kingdom. The list is updated annually and has been published in book format by Powerful Media since 2007. The Powerlist is not lim ...

'', an annual publication celebrating the 100 most influential British people from African and African Caribbean heritage, and was most recently included in the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

editions.

Faith

Chamberlain is a

Born-Again To be born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelical Christianity, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is d ...

Christian. At the front of his doctoral thesis, he quoted

Philippians The Epistle to the Philippians is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and Timothy is named with him as co-author or co-sender. The letter is addressed to the Christia ...

4:13: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me". Chamberlain also discussed his Christian faith in the book ''Black and Great: The Essential Workplace Toolkit''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlain, Nira 1969 births Living people English mathematicians Alumni of Coventry University Alumni of Loughborough University Alumni of the University of Portsmouth English people of Jamaican descent Officers of the Order of the British Empire Scientists from Birmingham, West Midlands