Invited Speakers
Professor Garth Dales,
Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom
H. G. Dales is currently a semi-retired, part-time professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Lancaster, UK.
He began his mathematical career with an Open Scholarship to Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1963, and he obtained a PhD under the supervision of Dr. G. R. Allan in 1970. After three years at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, he became a lecturer, and eventually a professor and Head of Department, at the University of Leeds, retiring in 2012. During those years he spent several periods at the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles, mainly working with Professors William Bade and Phil Curtis.
Dales is the author of about 100 research publications, including several books. The main one is ‘Banach algebras and automatic continuity’, published by OUP as a London Mathematical Society Monograph; there are also two books on mathematical logic with W. H. Woodin. He also has a joint book with Dr. Dona Strauss, who obtained a degree from the University of Cape Town in 1954. At present he is working on a final memoir, ‘Banach function algebras, Arens regularity, and BSE norms’, jointly with A. Ülger of Istanbul. He has had about 20 PhD students.
Dales has been a member of the Council of the London Mathematical Society and was Vice-Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the European Mathematical Society from 2011 to 2017.
In November 2019, Dales will will be visiting Professor Jan Harm van der Walt in Pretoria and Professor Sonja Mouton in Stellenbosch.
Read his abstract here
Professor Eunice Mphako-Banda,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Eunice Gogo Mphako-Banda was born in Blantyre, Malawi. She graduated from the University of Malawi with a B.Ed. in sciences in 1992. This was followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Mathematics from the University of Sheffield, UK, in 1994, MSc in Mathematics from the University of Manchester, UK, in 1995 and PhD in Discrete Mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2001. She was a recipient of the UNIMA Scholarship for girls in sciences from 1988 - 1991, the British Council Scholarship in 1994 and 1995 and the New Zealand Overseas Development Scholarship in 1998.
Her academic career started at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Malawi in 1993 as Associate Lecturer where she eventually rose to the rank of Senior Lecturer and in 2003 became the Head of School. She joined the University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Mathematical Sciences in 2007 as a Lecturer. In September 2008, she joined the University of the Witwatersrand, School of Mathematics as a Lecturer, became a Senior Lecturer in December 2011, Associate Professor in December 2013 and Professor in March 2019.
Her current research interests include Matroid Theory, Low- Dimension Topology-Knot Theory, Combinatorics and Graph Theory. Her research in Matroid Theory is focused on matroid construction and polynomials. In Knot Theory, her interest vary from knot invariants to knot construction. She uses Combinatorics and Graph Theory as tools to solving problems in Matroid Theory and Knot Theory.
Read her abstract here
Professor Aleš Pultr,
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Aleš Pultr (1938), married, 2 children.
Professor of Charles University in Prague, fellow of the Czech Learned Society.
(Co)author of 6 books and 3 chapters in books.
Main interests: (Point-free) topology, category theory and structure theory, also combinatorics.
Frequent visits in South Africa, collaboration with South African mathematicians.
Professor Daya Reddy,
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Daya Reddy completed a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Cape Town, a Ph.D. degree at Cambridge University in the UK, and a post-doctoral year at University College London. He currently holds the South African Research Chair in Computational Mechanics, in the department of mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town. He served as dean of the faculty of science at UCT between 1999 and 2005.
His teaching and research activities reflect his multidisciplinary perspectives, which he pursues largely through the Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics, a centre comprising academic staff and postgraduate students in five different departments. Much of his work is concerned with mathematical and numerical analysis of problems arising in solid and fluid mechanics. His many publications include two graduate-level texts, and a research monograph, now in its second edition, on plasticity theory.
Daya Reddy is actively involved in bodies that work towards strengthening the scientific enterprise and providing science advice to policymakers. He served a term as president of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and is currently president of the International Science Council, the largest representative non-governmental scientific organization globally.
He is a recipient of the Award for Distinguished Service from the South African Association for Computational and Applied Mechanics,the SAMS Award for Research Distinction, and the Order of Mapungubwe from the President of South Africa. He has held numerous visiting positions, including those of Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and the Timoshenko Lecturer at Stanford University. He is a recipient of the Georg Forster Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany.
Professor Hamsa Venkatakrishnan,
University of Witwatersrand, Jonannesburg, South Africa
Professor Hamsa Venkat holds the SARCHi SA Numeracy Chair at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg – now in its second 5-year phase of research and development in primary mathematics. She leads a team of academics, postdoctoral and postgraduate students, all involved in studying and improving primary mathematics teaching and learning in government primary schools serving disadvantaged students. Prior to this, Hamsa was based in England, working initially as a high school mathematics teacher in London comprehensive schools, before moving into teacher education at the Institute of Education and research in mathematics education at King’s College London. She obtained her PhD at Kings College London and is the winner of the 2005 British Educational Research Association dissertation award for making the most significant doctoral contribution to research in education in 2004.
She has published widely, across articles and books, guest edited a range of Special Issues, and her research work continues to feed into provincial and national policy initiatives.