TAUNTON SCHOOL

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

Year 12 student Simon 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 were 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 included ‘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, acted as the conference host and spoke 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 was 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.”