The Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at the University of Cambridge is seeking to recruit two new Faculty members who can contribute to research and teaching in Pure Mathematics from September 2026 (or by agreement).

https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/53388/

Oct22

The Managers of the Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Research Fellowships Fund invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to pursue research within the general field of Pure Mathematics. Fellows are required to pursue their research on a full-time basis in Cambridge.

We encourage eligible applicants to also consider applying for the Post Doctoral Research Associate: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/53133.

An exciting opportunity is available for up to two Post Doctoral Research Associates in Pure Mathematics, working in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

We encourage eligible applicants to also consider applying for the Herchel Smith Fellowship: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52701.

More than a thousand mathematicians worldwide have signed a text to denounce the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and to call for the scientific community to suspend collaborations with Israeli institutions that do not explicitly condemn this genocide and the increasing colonisation of Palestine, in violation of international law. See the text and its published version.

See also:

• the latest report of Amnesty International “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,
• the latest report of Human Right Watch Israel’s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza,
• an article of The Lancet published last summer (July 5, 2024): Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential, that provides an estimate of the total number of deaths based on the data available up to June 19, 2024, and concludes with “In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.” Based on the 45,200 deaths reported as of early December 2024, this estimate should certainly be increased by at least 20% today.
• in fact a more recent article The Lancet published 9 January 2025: Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis, is an independent study by researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which suggests the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza underreported the death toll due to violence by approximately 41%. This LSHTM study estimated 64,260 direct deaths (traumatic injury deaths) in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 compared to the 37,877 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Using the figure of the LSHTM for the number of direct deaths until 30 June 2024, adding 20% to respect the proportional increase of the number of direct deaths reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza between June and December 2024, and using the conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death would result in an estimate of almost 300,000 deaths as of January 2025 (c. 15% of the Gaza population).
• a recent (December 2024) report from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) Gaza and the matter of genocide: Q&A on the law and recent developments which concludes “that there is a legally sound argument that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.”
• the latest report of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) Gaza: Life in a Death Trap, concluding with “Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable. Attacks on civilians, the dismantling of the healthcare system, the deprivation of food, water and supplies are a form of collective punishment inflicted by the Israeli authorities on the people of Gaza. This must stop now.“
• the call by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) for Israel to cease fire and prevent a genocide,
• the arrest warrants by the UN-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, together with a former Hamas commander, citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity,
• the report by Airwars, an organisation that monitors civilian casualties, concluding that “[b]y almost every metric, the harm to civilians from the first month of the Israeli campaign in Gaza is incomparable with any 21st-century air campaign“, and continues with “Airwars’ research finds that the year since has followed a worryingly similar pattern“,
• the report of torture of health workers by Human Right Watch, which is part of a broader campaign targetting health workers: as of June 2024, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Israel has attacked 464 health care facilities, killed 727 health care workers, injured 933 health care workers, and damaged or destroyed 113 ambulances in the Gaza strip,
• the detailed visual investigation of settlers violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in the Financial Times (FT),
• the report of abuses of Palestinians in the Hebron, West Bank, as well as a database of facts and testimonies on tortures of Palestinians in the Israeli Prison System, by the Israeli NGO B’Tselem,
• the speech of Palestinian writer Susan Abulhawa at the Oxford Union debate on November 28, which resulted in 278 votes for and 59 against a successful motion that “This House Believes Israel is an apartheid state responsible for genocide.” 

[French: Plus de mille mathématiciens et mathématiciennes du monde entier ont signé une tribune dénonçant le génocide en cours à Gaza. Ils appellent la communauté scientifique à suspendre toute collaboration avec les institutions israéliennes qui ne condamnent pas explicitement ce génocide ainsi que la colonisation croissante de la Palestine, en violation du droit international. Lire sur le blog des invités de Mediapart.]

A Professorship position of Applied Mathematics at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in the University of Cambridge has been advertised with a closing date 15 July 2024. The advert can be found on the University website:

https://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/46834/

Les Conseils d’Administration de la SFM et de la SMAI expriment leur profonde inquiétude face à l’arrivée de l’extrême droite aux portes du pouvoir en France. Les déclarations récentes du président du Rassemblement National (RN) indiquent la volonté de mettre en œuvre une politique dite de « préférence nationale », qui aurait des effets dramatiques pour toutes les personnes actuellement présentes sur notre territoire sans être titulaires de la nationalité française (voire d’« origine étrangère » et binationales), dont beaucoup sont étudiantes, enseignantes, chercheuses ou membres du personnel administratif de nos établissements. En particulier, les effets sur la qualité de la recherche et de la formation à tous les niveaux seraient catastrophiques et immédiats.

Au vu des votes RN lors de la précédente mandature, sous un gouvernement d’extrême droite, des atteintes aux droits des femmes et des personnes LGBTQIA+, à la liberté syndicale, à la protection sociale seraient à prévoir. La défense de l’environnement serait abandonnée. Lieux de la pensée libre et critique, les universités, déjà affaiblies par un sous-financement chronique, seraient assurément parmi les premières cibles.

Les Conseils d’Administration de la SFM et de la SMAI appellent chacun et chacune à prendre la mesure de la menace qui pèse aujourd’hui sur notre pays, bien au-delà des frontières de la communauté universitaire. Ils encouragent leurs membres à voter et à faire voter contre l’extrême droite lors des élections des 30 juin et 7 juillet prochains.

The Azat Miftakhov Committee renews its appeal to the international mathematical and scientific community for the support of Azat Miftakhov. This call is made more urgent by the recently confirmed information that the FSB is currently in the process of fabricating a new criminal case against Azat, which may result in an additional lengthy prison sentence for him.

Azat Miftakhov, an opposition pro-democracy activist in Russia, was originally arrested by the FSB on February 1, 2019 in Moscow. Except for a brief few hours release on February 7, 2019, he has remained imprisoned since then. At the time of his arrest Azat Miftakhov was a mathematics graduate student in the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Moscow State University. Azat was charged in relation to the January 2018 political protest at an office of the United Russia party in Moscow that came to be known as the “broken window” case. While in pretrial detention, Azat was extensively tortured by the guards in the attempt to extract a false confession. The premier Russian human rights organization “Memorial” recognized Azat as a political prisoner, and his case attracted widespread attention, both in Russia and internationally. Azat has always maintained his innocence of the false charges against him.

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