Add new comment

Happy Ada Lovelace day 2022!

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, held on the second Tuesday in October every year, to celebrate the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The day is in honour of Ada Lovelace, a female mathematician and pioneer in computing who was born over 200 years ago. (You can read more about her in our article, Ada Lovelace - visions of today.)

To celebrate this year's Ada Lovelace day we revisit podcasts featuring just a small selection of the many women we have worked with. From early career researchers to veteran female pioneers, and from quantum information to COVID modelling, these women represent the breadth and depth of maths and mathematicians. Happy listening!

Maths on the red carpet – Fields Medallist Maryna Viazovska — Maryna Viazovska won one of this year's Fields Medals. The Fields Medal is one of the highest accolades in maths and Viazovska is only the second woman to win one. In this podcast Viazovska talks about her work on a problem that started its history with a question about stacking oranges. You can also read about her work in our short introduction or our more in-depth article.


Living Proof: Anita Layton – one of Canada's most powerful women — In this episode of the Living Proof podcast, we meet the irrepressible Anita Layton. As well as leading a busy research team, Layton also spends much of her downtime fostering diversity and mentorships throughout her networks, and is professionally engaged across disciplines as distinct as applied mathematics, computer science and the medical sciences. She was also voted one of 2021's top 100 "Canada's most powerful women". Living Proof is the podcast from the Isaac Newton Institute (INI), and this episode is part of our collaboration with the INI.


Cheryl Praeger: The maths and magic of shuffling — We all have our favoured methods of shuffling cards, but most of us don't think any more about it once we've started playing a game. But there's so much more to be discovered! In this podcast mathematician Cheryl Praeger and magician Will Houstoun reveal the maths and magic behind shuffling cards. You can find out more about the maths of shuffling in this accompanying article, which along with this podcast, is part of our collaboration with the INI.


On the mathematical frontline: Francesca Scarabel — Francesca Scarabel is an early career researcher who has made important contributions to the UK COVID-19 response with her work as a member of the JUNIPER modelling consortium. In this podcast she tells us what it's like being part of a mathematical emergency response, the importance of local knowledge, and not being afraid to share your ideas. See tells us about what it's like being part of the mathematical emergency response, the importance of local knowledge, and not being afraid to share your ideas here to find out about the work of other JUNIPER members, many of whom are women.


On the mathematical frontline: Julia Gog — The JUNIPER consortium is co-lead by Julia Gog, an old friend of Plus at the University of Cambridge and major mathematical player during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this podcast she tells us about her work and personal experience during this global crisis. To hear about Gog's experience as a woman in mathematics, as well as the research that laid the foundations for her work on COVID, you can also listen to a podcast we recorded with her in 2017 as part of our Women of mathematics series.


Women of mathematics: Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb — Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb is another of the six Cambridge mathematicians that featured in our 2017 Women of Mathematics series. Now Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Schönlieb works on the interface between machine learning and the mathematics of image analysis. The area has a range of applications from medical imaging to assessing the diversity of forests. (To find out more about the work of one of the many research teams she leads, you can also listen to the podcast New ways of seeing with the INTEGRAL project.)


Women of mathematics: Holly Krieger — Holly Krieger, who also featured in the Women of Mathematics series, works in dynamical systems theory, particularly on chaotic systems. In this interview she tells us about the joys of learning and conversations with colleagues. And you can find more about some of Krieger's recent work in our article, Dynamic numbers.


Women of mathematics: Anne-Christine Davis — Anne-Christine Davis was the first female professor in the Maths faculty at the University of Cambridge. In this podcast from the Women of Mathematics series she tells us that, while many things have changed for the better over the course of her long career, she had to put up with quite a lot at the start! And you can read more about Davis' recent research in our article, On the road to dark energy (with chameleons).


Women of mathematics: Nilanjana Datta — Nilanjana Datta is another woman who featured in our Women of Mathematics series. Now a professor in quantum information theory, she tells us why she loves maths and about some of the challenges she has faced as a female mathematician.


Women of mathematics: Natalia Berloff — Natalia Berloff is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and also features in the Women of Mathematics series. She tells us why maths is like a treasure hunt, and shares some of her adventures in the world of maths. You can find out about some of her recent research in our article, Quantum device solves very hard problem.



Some of this content was produced as part of our collaborations with JUNIPER, the Joint UNIversity Pandemic and Epidemic Response modelling consortium, and the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI).

JUNIPER comprises academics from the universities of Cambridge, Warwick, Bristol, Exeter, Oxford, Manchester, and Lancaster, who are using a range of mathematical and statistical techniques to address pressing question about the control of COVID-19. You can see more content produced with JUNIPER here.

The INI is an international research centre and our neighbour here on the University of Cambridge's maths campus. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from all over the world, and is open to all. Visit www.newton.ac.uk to find out more.

Juniper logo

INI logo

Unformatted text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.