Would you please give our readers a brief history of
Mathematics at the University of Nottingham?
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“It is important that we are able to respond
flexibly to important emerging social and scientific issues.
Being able to draw together our collective expertise across
different branches of mathematics is particularly valuable.” |
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Mathematics has been taught and researched at the University
of Nottingham since the University gained its Royal Charter in
1948. The School of Mathematical Sciences currently has around
60 faculty members working in pure mathematics, applied
mathematics and statistics.
What are the School’s key research goals in this area, in your view?
The School conducts research across a broad spectrum of the
mathematical sciences. Outstanding work in fundamental areas
underpins collaborative work on applications across diverse
disciplines.
An area that seems to get a lot of attention, judging by the list of
top papers, is math as it applies in medicine and biology. Would you
please talk a little about this research, and why it attracts
attention?
Over the last decade the School of Mathematical Sciences at
the University of Nottingham has built up a large team of
researchers working on the application of mathematics to
medicine and biology. The group is now closely involved in major
systems biology initiatives addressing areas such as plant
biology, tissue regeneration and cancer; the group also has
strengths in areas such as epidemic modeling, image analysis,
neuroscience, cell signaling, gene networks and biomechanics. A
key to the success of this work is collaboration, which is
facilitated by embedding mathematical researchers in
multidisciplinary working environments.
Have any particular papers become a particular source of excitement
or pride, regardless of citations?
The paper by Ward and King (1997), in what is now the IMA
journal Mathematical Medicine & Biology, has been
particularly influential in the development of continuum models
of growing avascular tumors. This research area brings powerful
mathematical tools for the analysis of free boundary problems to
bear on a biomedically significant topic (Ward JP and King JR,
"Mathematical modeling of avascular tumour growth," IMA J.
Math. Appl. Med. Biol. 14[1]: 39-69, March 1997).
What research fields or capabilities do you see as critical for the
future of the School?
It is important that we are able to respond flexibly to
important emerging social and scientific issues. Being able to
draw together our collective expertise across different branches
of mathematics is particularly valuable.
What are the implications of the School’s work for the future of
this particular field or neighboring fields?
The School's work in systems biology, for example, is pulling
together experts in statistics and applied mathematics to tackle
some highly challenging biological problems. The techniques that
are being developed in complex systems, multiscale modeling and
the handling of large datasets are likely to have payoffs in a
range of other areas.
Professor Oliver E. Jensen
Head, School of Mathematical Sciences
University of Nottingham
University Park, Nottingham, UK
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University of Nottingham's
most-cited paper with 69 cites to date: |
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Ward JP and
King JR, “Mathematical modeling of avascular tumour growth,”
IMA J. Math. Appl. Med. Biol. 14(1): 39-69, March
1997. Source:
Essential Science Indicators |
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cites
