Head of School
Message from the Head of School
As we enter 2025, as Head of School, I have the privilege to write this message to our alumni and friends, and to reflect on our school’s many highlights and achievements from 2024.
Celebrating achievements
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Professor Kate Smith-Miles receives Order of Australia in King’s Birthday Honours
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Leading mathematician honoured by Australian Mathematical Society Medal
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Young Tall Poppy Awards recognise exceptional early career scientists
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Professor James McCaw awarded Australian Laureate Fellowship
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Professor Jennifer Flegg awarded the EO Tuck Medal
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A/Prof Matthew Tam awarded the JH Michell Medal
Vale William (Bill) Wood
Many alumni would have fond memories of past interactions with William (Bill) Wood, a long-serving staff member of the school. Unfortunately, Bill passed away on February 2, 2024.
Research highlights
AI and mathematics unite to revolutionise landslide early warning
A groundbreaking artificial intelligence system is set to transform landslide prediction, delivering life-saving alerts with unprecedented accuracy. Learn how Professor Antoinette Tordesillas led a team of scientists from the Universities of Melbourne, Tribhuvan (Nepal), Florence and Cambridge spearheading the development of SAFE-RISCCS. This cutting-edge system, currently being tested in Nepal, is a collaborative effort with the Government of Nepal and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Outreach and engagement news
The School’s Outreach Team had an incredible year delivering programs and activities across Victoria, as well as nationally and internationally.
Around 2000 primary and secondary students got to attend Micro Mathematicians workshops in 2024. Workshops were held during school holidays at the Parkville campus and virtually, while during term the team visited schools, delivering the workshops as incursions. Visits to Victorian public schools were funded by the state government VCES program.
More than 500 projects were submitted to the Mathematics and Statistics Research Competition from students across Australia and New Zealand. 27 finalists were selected for a fully funded visit to the Parkville campus to present their brilliant work to our panel of mathematicians and statisticians.
The Outreach Team were invited to New Zealand to present at the Joint Meeting of the American, Australian and New Zealand Mathematics Societies. The conference was a great opportunity to share our expertise in delivering public outreach as an internal university team. The team visited a local school in Auckland and delivered the first international Micro Mathematicians workshop!
Dominic Maderazo joined the Student and Scholarly Services team to engage students across Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Cindy Huang was invited to Rowville Secondary College to inspire students at their graduation ceremony, and the first hackathon for our undergraduate and postgraduate students saw teams design new outreach activities to engage high school students.
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Outreach Team: Cindy Huang, Susan James, Cait Pryse, Dominic Maderazo and Paul Fijn
Outreach Team members (left to right): Cindy Huang, Susan James, Cait Pryse, Dominic Maderazo and Paul Fijn -
Exploring knot theory using pipe-cleaners
Student volunteer Thomas Pugh introducing school students to Knot Theory using pipe-cleaner constructions -
Outreach Team in Auckland
Outreach Team takes research from the School of Mathematics and Statistics to school students in Auckland -
Einstein tiles
Dominic makes colourful Einstein tiles that inspires mathematical curiosity in people of all ages at public events
Get involved
To learn more about our programs, invite us to your local school, or get involved with outreach by presenting or designing an activity with us, email the Engagement and Outreach Administrator or explore all our outreach programs
Come to an event
You're always welcome to attend public lectures, Student Award Ceremonies and other events run by the School. We have also organised reunions for 1960s alumni and 1970s alumni, and we hope to hold more in the future.
Tell others about your career since studying with the School
You may be interested in producing a career profile for our careers page or giving a short talk to students about your career path at one of our career events.
Get involved in school outreach
You may also like to get involved with one of our school outreach programs by giving a presentation, creating an activity for a workshop, or contributing a question for the Mathematics and Statistics Research Challenge.
New career profiles
To showcase the range of career opportunities available to mathematics and statistics graduates, we collected career profiles from 14 of our alumni. The profiles are featured in our new Careers in Mathematics and Statistics section of the website.
If you are interested in contributing a career profile, please email the Engagement and Outreach Administrator.
More alumni news
In past years, we produced a downloadable newsletter for our alumni and friends newsletters; download the last few below or see the latest alumni news.