Recent rises in cases of several mosquito-borne diseases--such as dengue, Chikungunya, and West Nile virus--in both endemic and non-endemic areas, have increased the interest in the use of mathematical models to understand the spread of vector-borne infections, and the potential effects of control strategies. The classical Ross-–Macdonald framework provides the foundation for much of the mathematical modelling of such diseases. In this talk, I will present a model for a mosquito-borne epidemic outbreak in which human hosts may adopt protective behaviours against mosquito bites. First, I will introduce the basics of the Ross–Macdonald framework. Then, I will extend the model by allowing individuals within the host population to adopt protective behaviours (e.g., using repellents) according to information they receive about disease prevalence. I will show that, in the early phase of an epidemic, behaviour-driven protection may either decrease or increase the reproduction number of the epidemic, depending on several factors. In addition, I will show that, in the long run, behavioural responses may facilitate epidemic control, but may also prolong disease persistence, potentially generating recurrent epidemic waves.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the project "One Health Basic and Translational Actions Addressing Unmet Needs on Emerging Infectious Diseases" (INF-ACT), BaC "Behaviour and sentiment monitoring and modelling for outbreak control/BEHAVE-MOD" (No. PE00000007, CUP I83C22001810007) funded by the NextGenerationEU. The author is member of the UMI research group MSE, and of the INdAM research group GNCS.
In a broad range of industrial equipment and machinery, the presence of damage like holes, cracks or inclusions in the metallic parts can compromise their structural integrity, and even cause catastrophic failure. Among the wide variety of inspection methods available, we will focus on ultrasonic inspection, which consist of exciting the metallic pieces with elastic waves and measure their response. To process the acquired data we use the topological derivative, which is a scalar function that measures the sensitivity of a functional to infinitesimal domain perturbations. In this work we will address two industrial cases of interest: the inspection of welding joints using elastic waves, and the inspection of thin metallic plates using Lamb waves.
In this talk, I will describe a strategy to obtain longtime existence results for a special type of the Lagrangian mean curvature flows (LMCF) in the Kummer K3 surface. The argument relies on the fact that certain regions of the Kummer K3 surface are modelled on the Eguchi-Hanson space. This allows us to use a fixed point argument to deform known solutions in the Eguchi-Hanson space into new solutions in the Kummer K3 surface.
Abstract - An associahedron is a polytope arising from combinatorics of Catalan-type objects (for example, from a collection of all triangulations of a given polygon). Fomin and Zelevinsky found a way to construct the same combinatorial structure from considering the Coxeter group of type A_n. This allowed them to define a generalized associahedron for every finite reflection group. For generalized associahedra arising from crystallographic reflection groups, it was also shown that they can be realized as polytopes. We use the folding technique to construct polytopal realisations of generalized associahedra for all non-simply-laced root systems, including non-crystallographic ones. This is a joint work with Pavel Tumarkin and Emine Yildirim.
NOTES: unusual time, online.
Abstract: Efficiently solving nonlinear stochastic optimal control problems remains a challenge with many applications. Existing optimality conditions typically rely on forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs), which can be difficult to use in algorithms. In this talk, I will present new optimality conditions for stochastic optimal control, derived using rough path theory. This Pontryagin Maximum Principle uses the same Hamiltonian as in the deterministic setting, while avoiding FBSDEs. It unlocks the first indirect shooting method for stochastic optimal control, which only searches over the initial adjoint state and converges significantly faster than a direct method in numerical experiments. I will present applications to driving at the limits of handling and future directions towards robust and efficient uncertainty-aware control.
In classical set theory, Gödel's constructible universe 𝐿 enjoys strong absoluteness properties and remains unchanged in forcing extensions. However, Heyting-valued forcings portray a very different picture by introducing new non-classical ordinals (i.e. ordinals not linearly ordered by the membership relation), and thus new elements in 𝐿, in intuitionistic extensions that violate the law of excluded middle.
The method of incomparable codings is a family of approaches I developed in my PhD to use such ordinals to control (especially, enlarge) 𝐿. In arXiv:2601.23070 [math.LO], I proved the following theorem: for any set z in a ZFC universe, there is a Heyting-valued extension where its powerset 𝒫(ž) ∈ 𝐿. In this talk, we will provide a sneak peek of this mechanism by building the forcing extension needed for 𝒫(ω) ∈ 𝐿; if time allows, we will briefly talk about technicalities and new developments on how this extends to sets larger than ω.
Making the Transition: Supporting Mathematicians Moving into Education Research and Pedagogical Scholarship
Time (UK time)
Activity
09:30-10:00
Refreshments (Tea & Coffee)
10:00-10:15
Welcome and Housekeeping
10:15-11:00
Keynote: Mathematical Research to Education Research: Building Credible Scholarship
(Michael Grove, University of Birmingham)
11:00-11:15
Break
11:15-12:00
Panel discussion: Career Pathways and Trajectories
(Alison Voice, University of Leeds & other workshop speakers)
12:00-13:00
Lunch break - Catered
13:00-13:45
Talk 1: Funding and working with PhD students
(Samantha Pugh, University of Leeds)
13:45-13:50
Break
13:50–14:35
Talk 2: Data Collection and Analysis
(Cosette Crisan, UCL)
14:35-15:00
Break (Tea & Coffee)
15:00-15:45
Talk 3: Publishing in Mathematics Education Journals
(Chris Sangwin, University of Edinburgh)
15:45-16:00
Closing Remarks and Networking
Part of the IMA/RSS/LMS Higher Education Teaching and Learning Workshop Series 2025/26.
Are you a mathematician with an interest in education research, but unsure how to get started? Join us on 29 April 2026 at the University of Leeds (and online) for a one-day workshop designed specifically for mathematicians making the move into pedagogical scholarship. Hear from leading colleagues (including Prof Michael Grove, Prof Chris Sangwin, Prof Cosette Crisan, Prof Samantha Pugh, and Prof Alison Voice) on how to translate your mathematical research skills into rigorous education research, navigate funding, and publish in mathematics education journals. You will also have the opportunity to connect with peers navigating the same transition, and to build collaborative research partnerships that extend beyond the day.
📅 Date: Wednesday 29 April 2026
✴️ Hybrid: in-person at the University of Leeds and online
🌐 Workshop website
🔗 Registration form (no registration fee)
In-person registration deadline: Friday 17 April 2026
Online registration deadline: Wednesday 22 April 2026
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us:
Dr Costas Loizou c.loizou@leeds.ac.uk & Prof Kevin Houston K.Houston@leeds.ac.uk
We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting event.
Sub-Riemannian structures of high codimension (greater than one) are rare on 7-manifolds. Until recently, only three such examples were known on any of the homotopy 7-spheres: two on the standard 7-sphere and one on the Gromoll–Meyer exotic sphere. In this talk I will describe new examples of 2-step, codimension-3 sub-Riemannian structures on every homotopy (exotic) 7-sphere.
Abstract - The Graph Reconstruction Conjecture is a long-standing problem in Graph Theory formulated by Kelly (1957) and Ulam (1960). The conjecture states that every graph with at least three vertices can be uniquely reconstructed (up to isomorphism) from their deck one-vertex deleted subgraphs. It is well known that the graph isomorphism problem can be worded using Invariant Theory, although this is not particularly interesting in practice as the computations get quickly out of hand. In this talk, we explore how invariant theory can be used to approach the Graph Reconstruction conjecture. This naturally brings the focus to K-weighted graphs. We focus on the attempt by Thiéry (2000), which led to a disproof of a stronger statement using a computational argument. This also turns out not to be particularly practical, but we'll see how it still brings valuable insight. This talk is based on a survey paper joint with Gabriela Jerónimo, Jenny Kenkel, Haydee Lindo and Nelly Villamizar.
Gravitational instantons are Riemannian solutions to Einstein equations in four dimensions which yield complete metrics on non-compact four-manifolds, and which asymptotically `look like' flat space. Their study has been initiated by Stephen Hawking in his quest for Euclidean quantum gravity, and since then lot of effort has been put to make the term ‘look– like’ into a precise mathematical statement. While Euclidean quantum gravity does not any-more aspire to a status of a fundamental theory, the study of gravitational instantons has influenced both theoretical physics and pure mathematics. I will give an elementary introduction to the subject, and focus on the recent retirement of the Riemannian black-hole uniqueness conjecture: It is now known that there exist asymptotically flat gravitational instantons which can not be obtained as analytic continuations of black hole solutions to imaginary time.
