AMSI grant recipient profile: James Warman

 

Give me a quick overview of the type of mathematics you are studying, and/or the aims of your research and its potential applications/outcomes (how you would explain your work and studies to friends who don’t study maths?)

My research sits in geometric analysis and variational calculus, broadly, the mathematics of curved shapes and how they behave. I study geometric energy functionals, a way of measuring how much a curve bends, rotates, etc. and how “costly” that bending is. My focus is to look at what shapes these curves can settle into to minimise this “cost”. You can think of a bent thin piece of metal, slowly relaxing into its natural shape, or a stretched elastic band relaxing back into a circle after it is let go.

I approach it from a very theoretical perspective, but its applications in the real world show up everywhere, such as train track design, computer graphics, modelling human arm motion, and any kind of shape optimisation problem.

How did you get into the mathematical sciences? Was there someone or something that inspired you to this field?

I followed a standard path out of high school, I went straight into a double degree in civil engineering and physics, throughout my first year my love for the understanding of the maths we were glossing over grew. So, I changed my degree to physics and maths, I loved this combination for the physical applications plus the more rigorous math learning, so I took this into an honours year in mathematical physics. This year was fantastic having a math focus for approaching a problem in tokamak research. After this I took some time off to travel rural Western Australia and work in towns I stopped in, but I eventually got the itch to come back and tackle some more math problems and discovered the area I now work in and found it fascinating.

Winter School is designed to give students a deeper understanding of their area of research and expose them to others working in different fields/industries. Tell me about your Winter School experience. What was the most valuable part of the program for you?

As will become apparent throughout the rest of my answers, I think the interaction with peers was by far the most valuable part to me. No one in my personal life studies mathematics or is doing a PhD, so the ability to just spend time just hanging out with the other participants and make those friends that I’m now still in contact with was amazing.

What was your main take away/s from AMSI Winter School? Something you learnt? A connection you made? Do you have new ideas for your work/research or see it in a new light?

I thought that some of the talks wouldn’t be as relevant to my research as the others. After seeing them all it became clear that there was much more overlap than I expected there would be with these talks I thought wouldn’t apply, even techniques that I learnt from them that are applicable to my current research.

What surprised you most about Winter School?

I was surprised by the intensity and format of the program. Before signing up for it, I was expecting more of a series of one off talks, more like a standard conference with a bit more of a learning focus. I was happily surprised when I realised it was a series of 4 full courses, meaning that I came away having properly learnt what was being taught in depth compared to just a series of disconnected talks.

What is the importance of in-person communication at an event like Winter School?

I think it is such a fundamental part of the Winter School. My experience so far is that this type of work can be quite isolating, so the opportunity to have two weeks of in person communication with peers and people you can relate to is fantastic.

You received a grant to attend AMSI Winter School. How important was this in terms of your ability to attend, fully participate in the program and meet others studying in similar fields?

For me the grant was the deciding factor of my attendance. The best part of the Winter School was the relationships you build with not only the peers you are with, but also the lecturers who are specialists in the fields I work in, which relied upon attending in person.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering applying for Winter School? How would you describe the conference to them?

I would say to absolutely go. I would describe it as a great way to learn about just how broad the field you work in is. You get to meet many peers from around the country and internationally and spend two weeks socialising and learning with them, in what can be quite an isolating field.

Tell us about a moment that changed a preconceived idea about your field?

Before going, my idea of being a mathematician day to day was more just sitting in an office working on a problem in solitude. The first day changed that though, just being surrounded by people talking about their research, bouncing ideas of each other, working together and even talking about collaborating and staying in contact, really broadened my idea of what it means to be a mathematician and how social it can be.

Where do you want the mathematical sciences to take you? Where do you see yourself in five, ten years time?

At the moment, I’m not thinking too much about the future. I still have 3 years left of my PhD and am using this time to explore all of the options of where this passion and qualification can take me.

Any other feedback/comments you would like to provide on the travel grant or AMSI Winter School?

The AMSI Winter School overall was fantastic and I would recommend to anyone considering going.