Cosmos Editorial
Associate Professor David Harvey from the University of New South Wales has been awarded the 2019 AustMS Medal by the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS).
Presented during the society’s 63rd annual meeting in Melbourne, the award recognises Harvey’s work in the fields of algorithmic number theory and computer algebra.
His achievements include the development of highly efficient algorithms that play a central role in number theory and cryptography and, with Dutch mathematician Joris van de Hoeven, the discovery of the fastest known method for multiplying large numbers together.
His work on integer multiplication settled a notorious conjecture that had remained unsolved for nearly 50 years.
Harvey says he is humbled to receive the honour. “Many of the past recipients of this medal are giants of Australian mathematics who I admire greatly.”
The 2019 Award for Teaching Excellence (Early Career) was presented to Belinda Spratt, a Mathematical Science Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, for her commitment to transforming student engagement and perception of mathematics.
“This award sends a very important signal about the value and impact of teaching and its role in developing and inspiring new talent,” she says.
The 2019 Gavin Brown Prize for outstanding article, monograph or book was presented to University of Queensland researchers Dr Zdravko Botev and Professors Joseph Grotowski and Dirk Kroese for their paper “Kernel Density Estimation Via Diffusion”, published in the journal Annals of Statistics.
