Two senior research fellows appointed to new maths academy

Professor Déirdre Hollingsworth and Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg have been appointed to the inaugural cohort of Fellows of the newly established Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. The Academy brings together the UK’s leading mathematicians from across academia, education, business, industry, and government to help address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges.

Like Fellows of the other National Academies—the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Academy, and the Academy of Medical Sciences—Fellows of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences are recognised as leaders in their fields. Their election reflects achievements such as fundamental discoveries, exceptional contributions to education, or driving the application of mathematics across society as part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.

Professor Déirdre Hollingsworth is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) Centre for Global Health Research and the Big Data Institute, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at St Edmund Hall. She has made significant contributions to the study of neglected tropical diseases, COVID-19, malaria, and HIV/AIDS, developing models to predict disease spread, evaluate control strategies, and improve the use of diagnostic tests.

Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a Senior Research Fellow at St Edmund Hall. She has served as Head of Computer Science at Oxford since 2021 (with a sabbatical in 2025–26). Her research focuses on foundational questions in algorithms and complexity theory, with particular emphasis on the mathematical analysis of randomised algorithms, including convergence rates of Markov chains, the analysis of stochastic processes, algorithms for sampling from spin systems, and algorithms for approximate counting.

Twelve of the inaugural cohort are from Oxford, spread across four departments, reflecting the reach and importance of mathematics. St Edmund Hall is proud of the appointment of its Senior Research Fellows to this new academy, which stands as a testament to their world-leading leadership and research.