aims south africa newsletter february 2015
DESCRIPTION
Newsletter February 2015TRANSCRIPT
Inside this issue:
Canadian
delegation visit
1
Summer School in
Mathematical
Finance
1
New Senior
Researcher 2
Master’s Thesis
Defences 2
Cosmology Group
updates 2
SACEMA visits
AIMS
2
Student updates 3
Governance 3
Staff news 3
Public Lecture 3
Network news 3
Announcements 4
www.aims.ac.za [email protected]
Canadian delegation visits
AIMS-NEI and AIMS South Africa On 12 February 2015, a Canadian
delegation consisting of Canadian
High Commissioner to South
Africa H.E. Gaston Barban,
Canadian High Commissioner
to Mozambique H.E. Shawn
Barber, and Director General
Patricia Malikail (Africa Bureau
Department of Foreign Affairs
and International Trade) visited
the AIMS-NEI office and AIMS
South Africa.
At the NEI office the delegation
were given presentations by
Dr Antoine Tambue, ARETÉ
Junior Chair and AIMS South
Africa Alumnus 2005; Dr Chika
Yinka-Banjo, AIMS South Africa
Alumnus 2010; and Professor
Bruce Bassett, Head of the
Cosmology Group at AIMS South
Africa. This was followed by a
conversation on Canada’s
8th Summer School in Mathematical Finance
The 8th Summer School in
Mathematical Finance was held at
AIMS South Africa from 19-21
February 2015. This workshop
presented a unique opportunity
for local practitioners, academics
and students to interact with in-
ternational leaders in research on
topics and modelling techniques
current in the South African and
international financial markets.
Keynote speakers were:
Dr Massimo Morini, Head of
Interest Rate and Credit Models
at IMI Bank of Intesa San Paolo,
where he is also Coordinator of
Model Research; Prof Peter
Ritchkin, Department of Banking
and Finance, Weatherhead School
H.E. Gaston, Director General Malikail, H.E. Berber
and Savannah Nuwagaba, AIMS Alumnus 2011
commitment to science education
in Africa, and a panel discussion
with AIMS alumni and researchers.
Ms Malikail said, “AIMS is com-
mitted to excellence in education
and it has a great advantage in
that it is able to draw students
from across the continent.” H.E.
Barber noted, “There is a huge
educational gap in Africa and one
of the solutions is AIMS.”
Following this the delegation
visited AIMS South Africa where
they met current AIMS students.
Summer School participants
of Management Case Western
Reserve University, Ohio; and
Prof Ajay Subramanian, Finance,
Risk Management and
Insurance, Georgia State
University.
Research Centre updates Cosmology Group updates
www.aims.ac.za [email protected]
New Senior Researcher
Dr Yabebal Tadesse, a postdoc-
toral fellow in the research field
of Cosmology at the University
of Rome visited the Research
Centre from 4-28 February
2015. He also gave a seminar
on 23 February 2015 titled:
“Needlets for spherical 3D
data.”
Dr Adam Amara, Senior
Scientist at the Institute for
Astronomy, ETH, Zurich visited
the Research Centre from 9-15
February 2015. He gave a semi-
nar on 13 February titled “The
LCDM Model: Successes and
Future Challenges.”
Prof. Martin Bucher, a Director
of Research at the National
Center for Scientific Research
in France and works at the
Laboratoire Astroparticules et
Cosmologie (APC) in Paris.
visited the Research Centre 9-
13 February 2015. He gave a
seminar on 9 February titled
“Polarized dust emission and
searching for primordial B
modes from cosmic inflation.”
Prof. Martin Kunz, AIMS South
Africa SKA Visiting Professor
and affiliated to the Institute for
Theoretical Physics and the
Cosmology and Astroparticle
Physics Group at the University
of Geneva (Switzerland) is visit-
ing the Cosmology Group in
the Research Centre for three
months.
Lise du Boisson, a Master’s
student in the Cosmology
Group at AIMS submitted
her Master’s thesis titled:
“Applications of Machine
Learning in Astronomy” on
16 February 2015.
Dr Simukai
Utete has
been appointed
as a Senior
Researcher at
the AIMS South Africa Research
Centre.
Dr Utete's undergraduate
degree was in electrical engi-
neering from the University of
Zimbabwe. She completed her
MSc and DPhil studies at the
University of Oxford and went
on to do a Junior Research
Fellowship and further research
there as a Research Assistant.
She moved to South Africa in
2008 to join the CSIR's Mobile
Intelligent Autonomous Systems
(MIAS) field robotics group, and
in 2009 was appointed Research
Leader of MIAS. She led MIAS
for over 4 years.
AIMS is pleased to welcome
her to the Research Centre,
Simukai's area of research
is robotics, with a focus on
intelligent sensor networks
for robotics applications.
Master’s Thesis Defences
Journal Club
On 11 February, Mr. Jeffrey Ted
Johnattan Mbongo Nkounga
delivered the defence of his
thesis titled: “Building Interest
Rate Curves and SABR Model
Calibratation.” On 13 February,
Ms Raabia Walljee delivered the
defence of her thesis titled:
“The Levy-LIBOR model with
default risk.” Both students
were supervised by Prof.
Ronnie Becker.
On 16 February, Mr Nakedi
Wilson Leboho delivered the
defence of his thesis titled:
“Quantitative Risk Management
and Pricing for Equity-Based
Insurance Guarantees.” He
was supervised by Dr Raouf
Ghomrasni.
On 10 and 24 February 2015,
Eddy Kimba Phongi gave talks
titled: “The Application of the
Centre Manifold Theory to a
Singular Perturbation Problem”
and “Singularly Perturbed Prob-
lems and Delayed Exchange of
Stabilities.”
On Tuesday 17 February 2015,
Tesfahun Berhane gave a talk
titled: “Inverse Problems: An
Introduction.”
Eddy Kimba Phongi
Jeffrey Raabia Nakedi
Dr Tadesse
Dr Amara
Tesfahun Berhane SACEMA visits AIMS The Director of the South
African Centre for Epidemio-
logical Modelling and Analysis
(SACEMA), Dr Alex Welte,
visited AIMS South Africa
on 18 February 2015 to tell
students about the opportunities
available at the centre.
Research at SACEMA focuses
on modelling the development
of diseases affecting South
Africa like HIV, malaria
and TB.
www.aims.ac.za [email protected]
Public Lectures
Governance Student updates The January intake of students
completed the following courses:
Programming with Python (Jeff
Sanders, and AIMS tutor) and
Statistics with R (Theis Lange,
Copenhagen).
The August intake completed
the following courses: Industrial
Mathematics (Neville Fowkes,
Western Australia); Introduc-
tion to Random Systems, Infor-
mation Theory, and related
topics (Stéphane Ouvry, Paris
Sud XI) and Analytical Tech-
niques in Mathematical Biology
(Wilson Lamb, Strathclyde).
The Biomaths students also did
the Programming with Python
course and the Analytical Tech-
niques in Mathematical Biology.
On Monday 16 February, Prof.
Balazs Szendroi, from Oxford,
gave a seminar to students on
Reflection Patterns.
Students also had an informal
talk with Prof. Neil Turok on
16 February 2015.
Prof. Cheryl de la Rey, Prof. Grae Worster, Prof. Stephane Ouvry,
Prof. Aggrey Ambali, Director, African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII), NEPAD, Prof. Daya Reddy, Prof. Frederik Scholtz (representing Prof. Hendrik Geyer),
Prof. Neil Turok (Chair), Prof. Balazs Szendroi, Dr Dorothy Nyambi – AIMS-NEI Executive Vice President and Prof. Barry Green (ex-officio). Prof. Graham Richards joined the meeting via Skype.
Prof Kailash Patidar from the
University of the Western Cape
has been appointed to the AIMS
Executive Team.
The AIMS South Africa Council
meeting took place on Tuesday
17 February 2015.
Staff News AIMS South Africa welcomed
the following new staff
members from February 2015:
Ms Ntombomzi
Magqazolo (Finance Department)
Ms Caroline Chiwah
(Finance Department)
Ms Joan Africa-Brown
(Research and Admin Department)
On Tuesday 24 February, the
AIMS Public Lecture series
presented a talk titled:
“Causality in the real world” by
Professor George Ellis, Mathe-
matics Department, UCT.
AIMSSEC The AIMSSEC February 2014
newsletter can be viewed at
http://aimssec.aims.ac.za/assets/
files/Newsletters/February-2015
-AIMSSEC.pdf
Network News Various meetings organised by
the AIMS-NEI Global Secretariat
took place from 6-13 February
2015.
The meetings included a new
staff orientation, a gender
training workshop, a
programme implementation
planning workshop and a
meeting on the AIMS Industry
Initiative.
Attendees included staff from
the secretariat and the AIMS
centres in Senegal, Cameroon,
Ghana, Tanzania and South
Africa.
Continued on page 4.
Call for course proposals The AIMS structured Master's in Mathematical Sciences programme
commences in August each year at all centres. AIMS South Africa has a
second intake for South African students commencing in January. August
2015 at all centres and January 2016 at AIMS South Africa. For more
information and to apply:
http://www.aims.ac.za/en/apply/structured-masters-course-proposals
www.aims.ac.za [email protected]
Announcements 2015-16 AIMS Scholarship for Masters' in Mathematical
Sciences are Now Open
Student applications have opened for the August 2015 intake. For more
information and how to apply, visit www.nexteinstein.org/study. You will
notice that the application system provides for both French and English
versions.For any queries please send an e-mail to applica-
The closing date for applications is 23 March 2015.
Postdoctoral Fellowships
AIMS South Africa is seeking applicants for Postdoctoral Fellowships in
the area of mathematical finance and computational algebra. Fellowships
are tenable for two years, contingent on satisfactory progess, and could
be extended for a third year. Fellowships are immediately available and
the value of the award ranges between R200 – R240k per annum,
taxfree, subject to qualification and experience. Preference will be given
to African applicants and those from SADC member states are particu-
larly encouraged. Please click on the links below for project descriptions
for the two positions: Financial Mathematics; Computational Algebra;
Mathematical Biology
For more information please visit http://www.aims.ac.za/en/
opportunities/vacancies/postdoctoral-fellowships
Send completed applications to [email protected]
Send subject related questions to [email protected]
Call for Applications for the second AIMS ARETE Junior
Research Chair
Are you an excellent young researcher from Africa, an AIMS alumni or
graduate from another institution in or outside of Africa with a mathe-
matical science background? Do you intend to get established in an aca-
demic institution in an African country? This might be your opportunity
to get your scientific career in Africa started!
Please click here for more information.
3rd International Workshop on Nonlinear and Modern Mathe-
matical Physics 9-11 April 2015, Cape Town, South Africa
This workshop is being held in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa
from 9 to 11 April 2015, and co-organized by AIMS South Africa, the
University of South Florida and North West University. The workshop
aims to survey recent advances on a wide range of topics of current
interest in nonlinear and modern mathematical physics including: integrable
and near-integrable equations, physical and engineering applications such
as nonlinear optics, Bose-Einstein condensates and fluid dynamics, and
numerical aspects of nonlinear phenomena. The workshop will provide a
forum for scientists and researchers worldwide to present their latest
results and a means to discuss their recent research with each other.
Please click here for the workshop website.
Workshops
African Workshop and Symposium on Genome-Wide
Association Studies (ASGWS) for complex disease
Workshop information
Date: 19-22 April 2015
Venue: African Institute for Mathematical Sciences South Africa,
Muizenburg, South Africa.
http://www.h3abionet.org/medical-population-genetics-and-gwas-
for-complex-diseases-2015
Symposium information
The symposium will include a variety of keynotes, paper presen-
tations, and posters describing dynamic research in complex dis-
eases to identify the most promising avenues of future research
to effectively associate phenotypes and phenotypes for African
diseases.
Date: 23-24 April 2015
Venue: Muizenburg, South Africa.
http://h3abionet.org/gwas-conference-2015
Please click here to view the conference flyer.
For information on exhibiting at the symposium please click here.
CIMPA-SOUTH AFRICA RESEARCH SCHOOL:
Algebraic Representation Theory and Applications
This research school will be hosted at AIMS South Africa and the aim
of the school is to give a broad perspective of areas of modern
representation theory and to highlight some recent advances.
Date: July 19 - 31, 2015
Venue: AIMS, Muizenberg, Cape Town
For more information please visit
http://cimpa2015algebraicreptheory.weebly.com/
Participants at the progamme implementation planning workshop