1996 Mathematics Colloquium Report
The 1996 mathematics colloquium was held at Massey University between semesters 1 and 2, in July 1996. The colloquium attracted 76 registrants, comprising 43 staff and 25 students from New Zealand universities, 5 staff from CRI's and 3 from overseas. The programme began with an informal gathering at Wharerata, the Staff Club on Sunday evening, June 30, followed by four days of contributed and Invited talks, with the final day, Thursday July 4 being the specialised "Mathematical Physics" day. On Tuesday afternoon excursions were arranged to visit the Tui Brewery, Mangatainoka, and the Mathemaction Display at the Science Centre in the Manawatu Museum, followed by the Annual Dinner at the Dong Fong restaurant.
The Invited Speakers were:
Professor Paul Callaghan, Physics Department, Massey University, who spoke on "Some Fourier Depictions of Diffusion and Flow in restricted Geometries";
Dr Colin Fox, Mathematics Department, Auckland University, who spoke on "Mathematics on Antarctic Sea Ice";
Professor Mikhail Gromov, Institut des Hautes Etudes, France, who spoke on "Problems in Riemannian Geometry";
Professor John Harper, Mathematics Department, Victoria University of Wellington (ANZIAM Lecturer) who spoke on "Bubbles Rising in Line: Why is the First Approximation so Bad";
Dr Jeffrey C Lagarias, A. T. T Research, Murray Hill, NJ, who spoke on "Mathematical Quasicrystals";
Professor Robert McKibbin, Mathematics Department, Massey University, who spoke on "Geothermal Fields: Fertile Ground for Mathematical Modelling";
Professor John Stillwell, Department of Mathematics, Monash University, who spoke on "Numbers and Geometry in the History of Mathematics".
There were 42 contributed 30 minute papers, including 12 from students entered for the Aitken prize for best student presentation. The judges awarded two first prizes this year, which went to Thomasin Smith, Massey University for her paper "On Arithmetic Degree Theory" and to Anton Raviraj, Massey University for his paper "Gauss' Equation and Backlund Transformations" and were presented by the NZMS President, Professor Douglas Bridges (see picture at right).
The organising committee were grateful for the sponsorship provided by the New Zealand Mathematical Society, the Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society and the Bank of New Zealand.
Mike Hendy, Convenor, Colloquium Organising Committee
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1996 Mathematical Workshop at Tologa Bay
From Sunday 5th to Monday 13th of January 1996 the second NZ Mathematical Workshop took place at Tolaga Bay, the first having been held at Huia from 10 to 20 December 1994. The theme of the workshop was mathematics related to Statistical Mechanics. The pattern which worked so well at the previous workshop was followed again at this. There was a collection of invited overseas speakers, each of whom presented a series of lectures, there were other visitors and a local who presented a single lecture, and there was plenty of time available for informal discussions.
The same timetabling was followed as at Huia, in that we had lectures in the mornings and evenings, with the afternoons free for less formal activities. Lecture series were given by the following: Rodney Baxter (Australian National University), Peter Goddard (Cambridge University), Michio Jimbo (Kyoto), Tetsuji Miwa (RIMS, Kyoto), Nicolai Reshetikhin (University of California).
Single lectures were given by the following:
Dietmar Bisch (University of California), Ruth Lawrence (The University of Michigan), Boris Pavlov (The University of Auckland), Yu-Kui Zhou (Australian National University), Tim Ziman (CNRS, Toulouse).
On Sunday we visited one of the 5 local marae. That was a very interesting experience, not only for the overseas visitors but also for the New Zealanders. The following attended from The University of Auckland: Jianbei An, Bill Barton (for the marae visit), Sergey Fedorov, David Gauld, Sina Greenwood, Vaughan Jones, Boris Pavlov, Ivan Reilly (for the marae visit), Arkadii Slinko, Mark Wilson, Barbara Burns (for the marae visit), Kelvin Hartnall, Christopher Heath, Elliot Lawes, John MacCormick, Abdul Mohamad, Benjamin So, Sanja Todorovic-Vasiljevic, Brian Van Dam, Rachel Weir.
Staff and/or students also attended from Massey University (both campuses), Waikato University, Victoria University of Wellington, St Petersburg University and the University of California at Berkeley.
Social events included the traditional windsurfing and walking. On Tuesday sixteen of us headed up Mt Hikurangi (the highest mountain in the North Island outside the volcanic National Parks), but the view from the top was thoroughly obscured by cloud; and also many walked to Cook's Cove. There were also opportunities to swim at the beach at Tolaga Bay, and also to visit other beaches. Some went horseriding, and others visited the city of Gisborne.
One bunch of Aucklanders (I won't say who!!) even took several wrong turnings on the way there, and ended up driving over a bank near Lake Waikaremoana - they arrived over a day late.
Despite advance concerns about the organization, the local community put on a superb welcome for us. They arranged a range of accommodation from tent sites to motel units. The local whare hauora was ideal for the students - they could work together without interference from oldies, but were close enough to join up when they wanted. The local people did up their town hall for our lectures and prepared amazing meals for us, beginning with a great dinner, and with the quality then monotonically improving. One night they turned on a barbecue on the beach; but somehow they got the weather wrong - that was the only rainy evening amongst the gloriously fine weather. The last dinner was fantastic, with a crayfish for each of us.