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150 honours and postgraduate students from across Australia will arrive in Melbourne in January for the 2013 AMSI Summer School. The 4-week event will be officially opened by Australian Statistician Brian Pink at the University of Melbourne on 7 January, and coincides with the launch of the 2013 International Year of Mathematics of Planet Earth in Australia.

The AMSI Summer School is the main networking event for the next generation of mathematicians and statisticians.

“Even at large universities, honours students in mathematics can feel very isolated ”, said Dr Marty Ross, a well-known populariser of mathematics who will be teaching at the Summer School.

“The Summer School is a reminder for them that there’s a large, thriving and friendly world of mathematics for them to enter,” Dr Ross continued.

The Summer School gives students the opportunity to immerse themselves in subject areas that may not be available at their home institutions, and to further develop their core mathematical skills in preparation for research or employment.

Students at the Summer School will participate in the launch of the 2013 International Year of Mathematics of Planet Earth. The year will highlight the importance of mathematics and statistics in addressing a wide range of global challenges and encourage public engagement with mathematics.

“Mathematics and statistics are essential to understanding the fundamental equations that govern the world that we live in,” said Associate Professor Jan De Gier, Director of the Summer School.

“They are helping us understand and analyse the huge amounts of data arising from astronomical and particle physics experiments, rainfall patterns, asset price fluctuations, bush fire prediction and criminal network analysis, to name but a few,” he said.

Students will also participate in a range of activities including a special Letters and Numbers night hosted by arithmetic guru Lily Serna.

Dr Keith Devlin, Stanford University, will speak at the Summer School dinner. His current research focuses on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis.

The AMSI Summer School, now in its 11th year, runs from 7 January to 1 February at the University of Melbourne.

Summer School website

Maths of Planet Earth Australia website

Contact: 

Emma Bland, (03) 9035 3683, emma@amsi.org.au

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