Australian Fields Medallist Terry Tao on Month's Tour. (August 27, 2009)

The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at each International Congress of the International Mathematical Union, a meeting that takes place every four years. It is generally considered the top honour a mathematician can receive.

Now 34, ex-pat, Adelaide born Terry Tao was awarded a Fields Medal in 2006 "for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis and additive number theory".

Professor Tao has held the position of professor of mathematics at UCLA since the age of 24 but regularly returns to Australia.

In addition to his immediate research interests Professor Tao is proactively concerned about the decline in mathematical education and funding cuts in the Australian university sector and has gone out of his way to support young Australians in their mathematical education. Recently he attended the 2009 International Mathematical Olympiad in Bremen, Germany where young Australians won two gold medals, one silver, and two bronze.

Professor Tao will be in Australia from late August 2009 for just over a month giving public lectures in most capital cities.

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Terry Tao Public Lectures - Clay–Mahler lectures

Melbourne

Monday 31 August at 6.00pm
Melbourne University Copland Lecture Theatre
Public lecture: Mathematical research and the internet

Perth

Thursday 3 September at 6.00pm
University of Western Australia Social Sciences Lecture Theatre
Public lecture: Cosmic Distance Ladder

Brisbane

Tuesday 8 September at 6.00pm
QUT Gardens theatre
Public lecture: (title TBA)

Sydney

Wednesday16 September at 6:00pm
UNSW Leighton Hall, Scientia Building
Public lecture: (Randomness in Prime Numbers)

Canberra

Tuesday 22 September at 5.30pm
ANU Manning Clarke Centre Lecture Theatre 1
Public lecture: Structure and randomness in the prime numbers

Adelaide

Tuesday 29 September at 7.00pm
University of South Australia, City West Campus
Public lecture: Structure and randomness in the prime numbers

Friday 2 October
Adelaide Town Hall at tba
Public lecture: Structure and randomness in the prime numbers

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In a February 2008 address to the Australian Academy of Science, Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, said mathematics is not only the 'language of the sciences', "… but it is also, in important ways, the language of business, economics, social policy and the trades. A nation that cannot turn out top-notch mathematicians and statisticians is a nation in deep trouble. Unless we turn around the trends that have bedeviled this discipline over the last decade - in schools, in universities and in research - we will not be able to meet our needs for people with a sound knowledge of mathematics that they can put to use across the economy and across all fields of knowledge."

Nevertheless, although Kevin Rudd's Labor Government has provided and promised significant new funding for universities, education and training, it has not been strategically focused on mathematics and in most cases it has missed the mark. For example, increased funding for universities has not reached mathematics and statistics departments, which continue to be decimated. Reductions in HECS are of little value if universities don't offer a major in mathematics.

It's to be hoped that not only Australia's Chief Scientist, Penny Sackett, Senator Carr and the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, but also Prime Minister Rudd might set aside time to meet with Professor Tao during his visit.