NEWS
2001/2002
Issue No 11

EMS/ICMS Postgraduate Courses
During 2001, The Edinburgh Mathematical Society and ICMS jointly launched a pilot project to provide Courses for graduate students in mathematics and statistics. The aim was to complement and broaden existing postgraduate training by establishing a series of afternoon lectures on topics of broad interest and application to mathematics graduate students. Attending the Courses would also provide an opportunity for PGs to meet and interact with their peers.

The Organisers decided to plan two afternoon sessions of talks to ascertain the interest in and demand for postgraduate training of this sort, and to find out which topics and areas are especially important for the PG community.

The Organisers (Penny Davies for the EMS, Jim Howie and Robin Knops of Heriot-Watt University and Alastair Gillespie of Edinburgh University) organised the following courses. Students were strongly encouraged to sign up for both aftenoons.

Wednesday 14 March
Topics in Computational Mathematics (I): Solving ODEs and simple reaction-diffusion equations numerically – Dugald Duncan (Heriot-Watt)

Fourier Analysis and PDE (I) – Jim Wright (Edinburgh)


Wednesday 9 May
Fourier Analysis and PDE (II) – Jim Wright (Edinburgh)

Topics in Computational Mathematics (II): Subspace decompositions and applications in numerical analysis – Mark Ainsworth (Strathclyde)

The sessions were well attended and all Scottish universities with established mathematics research departments were represented. Feedback from the questionnaires was generally positive. It was decided to continue the programme in 2002. Four afternoon sessions will be organised between February and March. The first afternoon will take the form of a series of short talks on practical aspects of Postgraduate Study. The remaining three afternoons will address specific broad areas: Applied Analysis; Geometry and Topology; and Numerical/Applied Mathematics.

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