I just got this email regarding the spring 2026 Midwest Several Complex Variables conference:

"Unfortunately we did not get the NSF grant so the conference will not run this year."

I was not planning to attend this time (Florida Polytechnic being, for me, in an inconvenient corner of the "midwest") but I do co-organize a smaller annual workshop with a similar type of NSF conference grant.  We got some funding in 2025 (>insert Theoden meme<), but I am not sure we will try for 2026. This #NSFfunded SCV event getting canceled is not good for anybody.
#NSF #ComplexAnalysis

Curious how a simple mapping can transform circles into vertical lines or pencils of parallel lines into circles through the origin? Discover the elegant interplay between formulas and geometric intuition—and see why Möbius transformations are central to modern mathematics.

#ComplexAnalysis #Math #Geometry #MöbiusTransformation #RiemannHypothesis

https://cortexdrifter.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-small-taste-from-my-new-book-episode-9.html

A month to go

I’ve been a bit preoccupied these recent weeks so it was with a shock that I realised that we’re into Week 9, which means just four weeks (including this one) until the end of term and just a month before Christmas. Teaching finishes here in Maynooth on Friday 19th December, but I don’t have any lectures on Fridays so in my case it will finish the day before (with a tutorial). I don’t know how many students will be there, but the module concerned is my 4th year Mathematical Physics module and the students are very hard-working, so I think most will attend. After such a busy term I’m sure that they will need a break as much as I will.

I had to rejig the schedule for both modules I am teaching this semester to accommodate the introduction of in-class tests to replace take-home assignments (for reasons I outlined here). I’ve also been handing out voluntary exercises for practice, not counting towards the module mark but for formative reasons. Both modules are mathematical in nature, and I think the best way to learn mathematics is by doing it…

Despite the changes with respect to last year, I am still roughly on track. In my Engineering Mathematics module I’ve just finished Laplace transforms, and will start Fourier methods tomorrow. With the mathematical physicists, I am in the middle of complex analysis, having done complex differentiation and conformal mappings and starting complex integration next week.

I still have a couple more class tests to get through. On the positive side, the students are turning up for them and have expressed approval for the fact that they don’t have compulsory homework to do off-campus. This form of assessment is undoubtedly harder work for the students, it’s also better preparation for the examination that take-home assignments.

We’ve just received the draft examination timetable for January, and I’m pleased that both of the examinations for which I am responsible will take place quite early in the examination period (on 12th and 15th January, respectively) so I should be able to get them corrected in time to have a break for some research before teaching resumes at the start of February.

#complexAnalysis #engineeringMathematics #genai #generativeAi #mathematics #maynoothUniversity