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Launch of the National Academy for Mathematical Sciences

The Council for the Mathematical Sciences (CMS) is delighted to announce an important step towards the creation of a National Academy for the Mathematical Sciences (NAMS) with the appointment of the Executive Committee and Executive Director to carry out the feasibility and set-up phase. The proposed academy will represent and advocate for the mathematical sciences and people who work in them including educators, practitioners and academics. It will operate across the whole of the mathematical sciences, including mathematics, statistics and operational research.

The Executive Committee will lead a focussed programme of work, to put in place the structures required for a National Academy to be set up and able to begin its work by the first half of 2025. There will be consultation and discussion in the mathematical community at stages before then.

Further information can be found below and at:

  • or 
     

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  • . This page incorporates some key extracts from the consultation on the Academy.

Executive Committee

The response to the advertisement for nominations for the Executive Committee for the "proto-Academy" demonstrated the cross-community appetite for the Academy. We are delighted at the extent of interest, and the range and quality of the (about 80) nominations. As a result, the CMS have made the following appointments as members of the Executive Committee: 

  • Nigel Campbell (Chair)
  • Sophie Carr
  • Nira Chamberlain
  • Tom Coates
  • Christine Currie
  • Ineke de Moortel
  • Cathy Hobbs
  • Ruth Kaufman
  • Sara Lombardo
  • Terry Lyons
  • Jil Matheson
  • Lynne McClure
  • Bernard Silverman
  • Simon Yun-Farmbrough  

In addition, the Executive Committee will also comprise:

  • ex-officio, a representative (name to be confirmed) of the Knowledge Exchange Hub (which is the new name of the Connected Centres Network),
  • as an observer, a representative of the CMS Board 鈥 the CMS Board proposed that Alison Etheridge, Chair of the CMS, do this, and
  • Christie Marr, the new Executive Director.

As with the Executive Committee, the Executive Director role was advertised. After a competition, we are delighted as a result to announce that Dr Christie Marr has been appointed as Executive Director for the 鈥減roto-Academy鈥. Christie will be seconded from her current position as Deputy Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. She starts in mid-November 2022.

Biographies of each person on the Executive Committee are .

Workstreams and Sub-committees

Activity of this scale needs to be broken down into workstreams. The initially proposed outline structure of workstreams, which will probably also be reflected in sub-committees, is also released today. The Executive Committee will decide whether to agree or amend this structure.

The workstreams are expected to include (in no particular order):

  1. Academic affairs (in particular, the relationship with existing learned societies and academies);
  2. Practitioner affairs (including articulating the complementary role that the academy should play in the context of existing organisations) and Knowledge Exchange (ensuring symbiosis with the developing Knowledge Exchange Hub, formerly Connected Centres Network);
  3. Education (and how to dovetail with existing activities);
  4. EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion);
  5. Development and finance (including fundraising);
  6. Early career mathematicians;
  7. Governance (including charitable status and proposing a fellowship model);
  8. Comms and advocacy (for mathematical sciences, for the academy itself, and for the set-up phase);
  9. Policy.   

In addition, there are two overarching workstreams. These will both draw on and influence the work of the sub-committees:

A. Strategy, including Vision and Purpose; and what the Academy should do and focus on and what it should not, and how that varies with the scale of funds raised.

B. Planning, including developing 鈥 and then seeing through 鈥 an actionable plan with measurable milestones.

Advisory Board and Communities of Interest

The proto-Academy鈥檚 work will be supported and enhanced by an Advisory Board and Communities of Interest, who will contribute to this work. The Executive Committee and Executive Director will be working with the Advisory Board and Communities of Interest to carry out the feasibility and set-up phase. 

How can I contribute / feed in?

We will be consulting widely with the mathematical sciences community once we have propositions to test. If you wish to make views known in the meantime and/or offer help, please email national.academy@newton.ac.uk.

Alison Etheridge 
Council for Mathematical Sciences

and

Nigel Campbell 
Chair, Executive Committee, for set-up phase of National Academy for Mathematical Sciences

Last updated 6 October 2022