Taunton School Sixth Former organises national online conference with top UK academics to unlock the ‘beauty’ of maths

Year 12 Taunton School student Simon Ivanov has independently signed up senior university lecturers to take part in his own ‘Simply, Infinities’ conference on May 24th.

Oxford University Professors Dominic Joyce and John Ockendon will be joined by Dr Davoud Cheraghi from Imperial College London and Prof Mary Rees from Liverpool University to speak about a host of mathematically challenging topics.

Simon, who is studying A level Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Computer Science, said: “We want to show the beauty and depth of maths topics that are not in the school curriculum. Our goal is to encourage students to start thinking of maths not as just a school subject but as a new potential hobby.”

Topics covered will include ‘Limits, Continuity and Differentiability’, ‘Uncountability, Continuum hypothesis’ and ‘Viscosity’. Seventeen-year-old Simon, who hopes to attend a top UK university after completing his A levels and to become a software engineer, will act as the conference host and is set to speak on the subject of cardinal maths.

Maths teacher/Head of department David Baker: said: “Simon has set up this conference entirely on his own. It’s down to his initiative that he contacted the academics himself – and they agreed to take part.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for anyone who wants to open their mind to all the beautiful possibilities of a more advanced approach to mathematics beyond the school classroom and the textbook.”

Anyone wanting to attend the online conference on May 24th between 4 and 5.30pm should register their place via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/simply-infinities-tic...