The Gavin Brown Prize for best paper was awarded this week for the paper "Dispersion relations, power laws, and energy loss for waves in the marginal ice zone" by Mike Meylan, Luke Bennetts, J Mosig, W Rogers, M Doble and M Peter. This is another accolade for CARMA member Mike Meylan and his colleagues whose work in sea-ice is well known in Australia and internationally. See https://austms.org.au/awards-grants/awards/gavin-brown-best-paper-prize/gavin-brown-prize-winners/ for the citation summary, which begins by noting "The paper has had a significant impact on the waves-in-ice field and beyond. In particular, the discovery of power-law relationship has modified the approach to data analysis and theory, and set a new benchmark for theoretical contributions to numerical prediction models, such as the WAVEWATCH III third-generation spectral wave model and the CICE sea ice model."

The first “University of Newcastle & Industry Emerging Technology Research Collaboration Meeting” was held via zoom 24/9/21; with over 80 company representatives. Mr. Bradd Perkins (Leading Edge), Business Director Newcastle/Hunter region organised, together with A/Prof Stephan Chalup (CARMA), speaking on “AI, Data Science & Machine Learning, and the Idea of a Hunter Silicon Valley”; Dr Alex Mendes (DHOS Marketing & Outreach, SIPS), speaking on “Collaborating with our researchers and how to access our students - Government grants, PhD, Honours, Final Year Projects, Work Integrated Learning, Industry Experience, and job ads.”; and A/Prof Jamil Khan (School of Engineering) speaking on “Wireless Sensor Network, IoT, Connected Systems and Energy Harvested Networks”. Prof Craig Wheeler – Assistant Dean – Research (Industry Engagement) in CESE introduced the event. Professor George Willis and Mrs. Joanne Wust (CEO 4Tel) were present as CARMA/Hunter Silicon Valley Initiative contacts. Plans include ARC Linkage.

The first “Indigenising University Mathematics” global Symposium was hosted by CARMA and Wollotuka on Zoom, 20-21 Sept 2021 AEST. Mathematicians and colleagues (Indigenous & non-Indigenous) came together from Australia, North America, Hawaii, New Zealand and the UK. The event was opened by the Head of the Wollotuka Institute Kathy Butler, UoN PVC Indigenous Strategy & Leadership Nathan Towney, CARMA organiser Judy-anne Osborn, AustMS Deputy President Geoff Prince and Statistical Society Australia President Jessica Kasza. Participants talked together about the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ of Indigenising Mathematics, especially in University settings. Pairs of leaders (Indigenous & non-Indigenous) led themes: Reimagining the living present, Country & Mathematics, Language & Oral Traditions, Indigenous Mathematics, Love & Pedagogy and Traditional Knowledge. Complementing these were a presentation by Rowena Ball on Decolonisation, several community contributions and a closing (for now) address by Bob Morgan.

The first of the new round of APRInterns across Australia was awarded to PhD candidate Fillipe Georgiou. Fillipe is currently working with Prof Natalie Thamwattana to predict locust outbreaks better. Fillipe is our fourth ARP intern from the mathematics discipline at the University of Newcastle. Fillipe will work with the company "Climate Risk" for three months, helping improve efficiency in climate impact modelling. Last year, we had Dr Ben Maldon, who worked with "Hyper Q Aerospace. Earlier this year, we had Dr Riya Arrgwahl who, after completing a project with Veris, was employed by them as an innovation engineer. Currently, we also have Kyle Stevens, who is about to finish his internship with Lake Macquarie City Council. All of these interns have been mentored by A/Prof Mike Meylan. Mike's expertise is in using mathematics to understand real-world problems. He is passionate about supporting PhD students to gain industry experience and apply cutting-edge research in an industry setting.

Congrats to the team who have recently submitted an expression of interest for a national centre on "Mathematical Thinking". The application is led by Laureate Professor George Willis with support from various CARMA members including Associate Professor Stephan Chalup and Professor Florian Breuer both playing key roles. Other Universities involved as nodes include Monash, UNSW, Sydney, Western Sydney and Macquarie. The centre plan is ambitious, spanning cognitive science, pure mathematics, industrial applications, and consequences for the broader society. Pulling together such a rich application and collaboration is an achievement at any time, and the more so in the very challenging times we find ourselves. Well done to the team!

Two recent graduates, Dr Matt Skerritt and Dr Riya Aggarwal, have each recently commenced full time jobs. Matt is a lecturer in mathematics and cyber security at RMIT, and Riya is working for Veris, a national surveying, digital and spatial planning business. Congratulations to Matt and to Riya.

The CARMA Colloquia are returning for 2021 with Michael Assis acting as the convenor. Regular time will be Thursdays 4–5pm in SR118 and also viewable online via Zoom. See the events page for information on upcoming talks.