Announcements

UBC Professor Pablo Shmerkin will give a PIMS Distinguished Lecture on "Incidences and line counting: from the discrete to the fractal setting" on Thursday Marhc 16 in David Strong Building C108. Meet and greet with coffee/tea is at 2:15 pm. Talk starts at 2:30 pm.

From predicting the spread of COVID-19 to protecting polar bears in the wake of climate change, mathematical biology is quickly becoming a vital tool for addressing world problems. During his 30 years in the field, Mark Lewis has been part of its explosive growth. Joining the University of Victoria in 2022 as the inaugural Gilbert and Betty Kennedy Chair in Mathematical Biology, Lewis is well-positioned to strengthen the discipline at UVic, while his numerous research projects continue to have extensive impacts around the world.

We invite applications for the Ian and Sheila Barrodale Award in Computer Science and Mathematics* Value: at least $2,000 | Number: Varies Awards of at least $2,000 each are awarded to one or more undergraduate students in the Department of Computer Science and one or more undergraduate students in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who: Are currently enrolled in Computer Science or Mathematics Co-operative Education or the Work Experience Program (WEP). Have demonstrated (a) determination to improve their academic standing, and/or (b) initiative through involvement in extracurricular activities in the community or within their program.

The application form for summer 2023 TA positions in Math and Statistics is now open until March 24th.

This unique Quantum Computing training program is co-delivered by faculty at three BC universities (UBC, SFU, and UVic) in collaboration with Quantum Computing industry partners. It will equip graduates with highly specialized technical expertise and commercial skills in both quantum computing hardware and software.

Congratulations to our PhD student in Statistics, Mehnaz Jahid on winning the Dr. Arne H. Lane Graduate Fellowships in Marine Sciences. This is a first for the department as winners in the past have been mostly from Earth and Ocean Sciences or Biology.

Congratulations to Professor Emeritus Hari M. Srivastava for being named once again a Web of Science Group (Clarivate Analytics) Highly Cited Researcher for 2022. Very few researchers earn this distinction and Srivastava has been named seven times, having done so previously in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. A Highly Cited Researcher has published multiple highly cited papers, defined as papers ranking in the top 1% by citation, considering both year and field of publication, during the last decade.

Congratulations to Heesoo Lee for winning the 2022 UVic Math Competition.

Congratulations to Xuekui Zhang has won a Michael Smith Health Research BC 2022 Scholar award. The Scholar Program supports early-career health researchers who are building leading-edge health research programs, training the next generation of scientists and expanding their potential to make significant contributions to their field.

Dr. Mark Lewis joins the Faculty of Science as the inaugural Gilbert and Betty Kennedy Chair in Mathematical Biology and Professor in the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics and Biology.

Congratulations to our graduate student in statistics Hanan Abousaleh. Hanan's talk on "Robust minimax A-optimal designs for regression models with heteroscedastic errors" won the best oral presentation prize at the Master's level at the 2022 Canadian Statistics Students Conference. Hanan is supervised by professor Julie Zhou.

Our undergraduate student Danielle Tsao won 1st prize in the poster presentation competition at the Tenth Annual Canadian Statistics Student Conference (CSSC). This conference is organized by the Statistics Society of Canada (SSC), and is a satellite conference of the 2022 SSC annual meeting.

Congratulations to this year's Canadian Journal of Statistics Award winners Li Xing (University of Saskatchewan and University of Victoria), Xuekui Zhang (University of Victoria), Igor Burstyn (Drexel University), and Paul Gustafson (University of British Columbia).

The Statistical Society of Canada's Case Studies in Data Analysis Poster Competition was held on Wednesday, June 1, 2022. The case studies are intended to provide enthusiastic teams of graduate and senior undergraduate students with the opportunity to use data analysis to address issues of current importance in society. Congratulations to UVic students Jianping Yu (current MSc) and Shreena Kalaria (incoming MSc) for winning this year's competition.

Don Sin of UBC and Xuekui Zhang of UVic has received $540,000 in funds from MITACS Accelerate for their project “Cellular Phenotyping Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: From Microbes to Epithelial and Macrophages”.

Three mathematicians, including UVic's Jonathan Noel, show, for the first time, how to form a square with the same area as a circle by cutting them into interchangeable pieces that can be visualized.

ILAS (International Linear Algebra Society) has announced that Pauline van den Driessche (UVic) and Nick Higham (University of Manchester, UK) are to receive the 2022 Hans Schneider Prize. The Hans Schneider Prize in Linear Algebra is awarded by ILAS for research, contributions, and achievements at the highest level of Linear Algebra. This prize may be awarded for an outstanding scientific achievement or for lifetime contribution.