Maths Oxford Class 8

[Salomon Thoj]

Inthe first two years of the course, lectures are supplemented with two to three hours of in-college teaching per week, in tutorials and small group classes; third- and fourth-year teaching is via classes. Pure mathematics is taught by Kevin McGerty, an expert in abstract algebra, and Greg Berczi, who works in Geometry. Applied mathematics is taught by Sam Howison and Chris Breward, who work on problems with an interdisciplinary emphasis. The thriving Christ Church mathematics society brings together the whole mathematics community for lectures, student presentations and an annual dinner.

Employers like people with maths degrees. Mathematics opens the door to a huge range of careers, for example, further study and research in academia or industry, investment banking, web design, and teaching.

New kinds of data are emerging all the time in science and industry requiring the expert knowledge and experience of statisticians to apply this data. The combination, of deep and mathematically well-grounded method building, and wide-ranging applied work with data, is what makes statistics a great subject.

Historically, there have been strong links between Mathematics and Philosophy; logic, an important branch of both subjects, provides a natural bridge between the two, as does the philosophy of mathematics.

Both views are correct, probably more so for maths than for any other subject. Indeed it could be said that during your undergraduate years you make the most of the first of these, before earning a living by the second. Equally, the course emphasis on applicable mathematics is also an important aspect of the undergraduate curriculum. Career opportunities for mathematics graduates are excellent. Many graduates choose careers where they exploit their mathematical knowledge, although the majority use their analytical training in ways that are not directly mathematical.

For further information about Mathematics at Oxford, see the Mathematical Institute website and the Mathematics, Mathematics and Computer Science and Mathematics and Statistics pages on the Oxford University website.

Keble is ideally placed to teach Mathematics, in terms of the expertise of its Fellows and its proximity to the Mathematical Institute where lectures are delivered to all first-year mathematics undergraduates (about 250). Students attend about 10 lectures per week during their first year; Tutorials at Keble are usually given in pairs and triplets, about 2 per week; Classes are given to groups of up to 8 students.

We admit students for Mathematics, Mathematics and Statistics, and Mathematics and Computer Science. Added to the Computer Science students, this means we have a large cohort of undergraduates in the mathematical sciences, plus graduates. Together they make up a diverse community of students from all sorts of backgrounds.

We have two Tutorial Fellows in mathematics and statistics. Professor Franois Caron teaches statistics and Professor Andrs Juhsz teaches pure mathematics. Between them, they cover most of the subjects in the undergraduate curriculum, with the exception of some specialised options, which are taught via inter-collegiate classes during the third and fourth years.

Mathematics at Corpus is taught by Dr Paul Dellar and Professor Pier Francesco Palamara, assisted by Dr Lucy Auton and Ms Victoria Patel. Within the Joint Schools, Computer Science is taught and overseen by Professor Luke Ong, Philosophy by Professor Marion Durand, and Statistics by Professor Pier Francesco Palamara.

Dr Dellar's research includes lattice Boltzmann approaches for modelling fluids and other physical systems, the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere and oceans, and mathematical problems in industry. Professor Palamara's research is at the intersection of statistics, computer science, and genetics.

Teaching is supported by the following lecturers: Mr Matija Tapuskovic, Dr Gonzalo Mena, and Mr Fabian Zaiser.

One of the things you will find on starting Maths at University is that there is a change in style and emphasis from what you do at school. You will find that pure mathematics at University introduces new and more abstract and fundamental ideas in courses on algebra and analysis; and in particular you will realise the central importance of proof. A subject like differential equations is treated as applied, for example because the problems of mechanics may be framed in their terms. (Indeed, the study of many parts of mathematics was first couched in terms of applications to physical problems.)

The first year course gives you a broad grounding in the basics of the subject, in both pure and applied mathematics, on which to build your mathematical understanding. At the end of Trinity (summer) Term you will take Prelims, a series of five exams.

The first term of the second year continues with more core courses, and after that you will start to specialize in your chosen aspects of mathematics. At this point students have usually developed some preferences, and their mathematical style is beginning to emerge; so you head towards becoming an analyst, or an algebraist, or a probabilist.

Throughout your first two years you will have about two tutorials a week in college, typically as a pair and occasionally as a class of up to six. From the start of your third year you specialize further, and support for lectures is through classes of about 8 or 10 organised at a departmental level. All colleges have such a pattern of teaching.

Typical applicants have a mixture of A levels, often double Maths with at least one Arts subject, and they are committed to mathematics but also have a strong desire to retain a balance and explore the world of philosophy. You need to be good at both subjects to read Maths and Philosophy, and in particular to be comfortable writing essays that explore philosophical concepts.

The same applies to applicants in Maths and Computer Science as in Maths and Philosophy. You need to be good at both subjects to do this, though the computer science is mostly treated in a mathematical manner. Recent Corpus students have performed very well in this joint degree.

This is a popular course, which naturally prepares you in particular for statistical applications. The first year is identical to that for Mathematics. Because Statistics is more closely aligned with Mathematics, this course is more closely "joint" than the two joint degrees mentioned above.

The main distinction between the two courses is that the four year course enables you to go further. The fourth year is akin to a first graduate year (or an MSc). Typically half or more of our students carry on to the fourth year. (If you are unsure about which is for you, it is best to apply initially for the four-year course.)

The University's Mathematical Institute will run live broadcasts every Thursday from 5 pm until 7 pm (August 2022, until the test date in early November) which involves working through MAT problems and chatting about maths. For edited-down 'maths-only' videos from the 2020 livestream, please see the YouTube playlist.

"The course at Oxford is such that in your first year you study a large range of topics, this is the perfect chance to really explore the world of maths and see where your interests lie. Then, from your second year, you can start to specialise and go down whichever path you enjoy the most."

Some students go on to do doctoral research. Many others leave for jobs, often in finance or actuarial work, or in teaching. A good degree in mathematics or one of the joint courses is great preparation for many other graduate careers that do not necessarily require specialist mathematical knowledge.

The College admits up to 15 undergraduates per year to read Mathematics and its associated joint degrees (listed above). Whilst there is no fixed quota among these subjects, there are typically 7-8 Mathematics, 1-2 Mathematics & Statistics, 1-2 Mathematics & Philosophy and 2-3 Mathematics & Computer Science undergraduates each year. The emphasis is very much on support, rather than competition, and the different degree groupings are treated as a unit, both educationally and at the regular subject social events.

I am currently interested primarily in biological and demographic questions connected with ageing and mortality. I have been working on improving the probability-theory machinery that underlies some theoretical analyses of the evolution of ageing, and developing statistical methods that help to bring together experiments with these theories. This has largely been in the area of survival analysis, but I have also increasingly been concerned with Bayesian methods for analysing longitudinal data. My demographic interests have branched out to include the human sex ratio and genetic determinants of human life history traits.

I continue to work on fundamental questions of stochastic processes, in particular the behaviour of stochastic flows, the asymptotics of killed Markov processes, and the growth rates of populations dynamics in random environments.

Endre completed his doctorate in Mathematics at the University of Belgrade in 1985. He was appointed to an academic position at Oxford in the same year. He is now Professor of Numerical Analysis and a Fellow and Tutor in Mathematics. Endre is a Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), a Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc), a Member of the Academia Europaea, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Elizabeth is currently PhD student working in biomedical engineering, with a focus on using generative design and ML methods to optimise computational models. She graduated the Oxford MMath in 2021 and joined the Oxford CDT in Sustainable Approaches to Biomedical Sciences.

Max completed his MSc and DPhil at Oxford and was a Research Fellow at the University of Warwick before returning to Oxford as a Post-doc. He has been teaching maths and physical chemistry since his DPhil and is also a Post-doc at Princeton University (remotely) and teaches at other colleges.

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