‘OCCAM’s razor’ to transform real-world mathematics
30 April 2008
The new Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM) will apply mathematics to gain quantitative insights into some of the 21st Century’s most pressing problems.
OCCAM, a $25m collaboration between Oxford University and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), will give mathematical scientists from around the world an unprecedented opportunity to address challenges across the physical and biological sciences.
OCCAM’s initial research programme will investigate problems such as optimising the collection of solar energy in deserts, plant growth in hostile environments and engineering replacement tissues for our bodies.
‘Our research philosophy is in the spirit of Occam’s Razor,’ said Dr John Ockendon, who will be the inaugural Director of OCCAM, and who, together with six colleagues from Oxford’s Mathematical Institute and Computing Laboratory, will lead the new Centre. ‘We aim to extract the essence of a scientific problem and then use mathematical and computational analysis to extend our intuition and gain deeper insight. It is the unexpected insights that are revealed when practical processes are subject to realistic mathematical modelling and associated scientific computation that can lead to new science and new technologies.’
Many of the problems OCCAM’s mathematical scientists will study, such as modelling desert landforms and simulations of petroleum reservoirs, have particular relevance to the Gulf Region. Others, such as the effect of electric fields on wound healing and understanding tumour growth at the molecular level, are of fundamental interest.
OCCAM will build on Oxford’s existing strengths in applied mathematics and draw on a burgeoning international network of some of the world’s best mathematicians. Desktop video conferencing and other interactive technologies will help researchers at OCCAM work with colleagues at KAUST and around the globe.
Dr Ockendon said: ‘We are very grateful to KAUST for creating this once in a lifetime opportunity to harness mathematical and computational skills. OCCAM emerged as the winner of a competition involving many of the world’s finest universities. Mathematical research has revolutionised areas ranging from Internet search engines to oil recovery, yet problem-solving talent around the world is under-used. Through this new collaboration OCCAM will look to identify this talent and apply it to some of the 21st Century’s greatest quantitative challenges.’
KAUST are supporting the work through The Global Research Partnership (GRP), their extramural research programme. OCCAM has been funded through a GRP Center award, a multi-investigator award which provides up to $25m funding over five years. The University of Oxford is the only university outside the US to have been selected for a GRP Center award.
For more information contact the University of Oxford Press Office on +44 (0)1865 283877 or email press.office@admin.ox.ac.uk