Imperial and France’s CNRS launch joint PhD programme in mathematics and data

Imperial and France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) have launched a PhD joint programme in mathematics and data.

The two institutions run a joint mathematics lab – the UMI Abraham de Moivre – at South Kensington.

The PhD joint programme is focused on the theme: Mathematics, Data and their applications in all areas of science.

There is funding for five projects and each project will have a pair of PhD students, one based in London and one based at a CNRS laboratory in France. There will be opportunities for the PhDs to collaborate and spend time in each other's labs. 

The programme, which begins in October 2020, is open to students from across the College and the call is open to projects which deploy mathematics, data, modern statistics, or AI and machine learning to scientific challenges across all disciplines .

The closing date for applications is January 15, 2020.

To formally launch the programme, Professor Alain Schuhl, CNRS’s Chief Research Officer Director General for Science and Research, the Science and Technology Counsellor to the French Embassy Science Counsellor for the French Embassy in London, Dr Jean Arlat, and CNRS’s Director of the CNRS’s National Institute for Mathematical Sciences and their Interactions, UMI lead Professor Pascal Auscher visited the UMI.

The delegation met with President Alice Gast and heard from some of the academics based at the UMI. 

The Director of the UMI, Professor Richard Craster, said: “Data and technology are transforming the global economy, our societies, science and discovery.

“There is a depth of UK knowledge in data science, statistics and mathematical modelling that complements the strengths of French science and mathematics.

“While mathematics and statistics are at the heart of this programme we are also interested in its applications in others areas of science so are hoping for interesting applications from other parts of the College such as life sciences, public health, infectious diseases and materials.

The UMI was created in January 2018 and has equal status to a CNRS laboratory in France.

Professor Craster hopes that the UMI will lead to decades of fruitful partnerships between Imperial and French mathematicians and eventually have “ties with every maths department in France.”

The UMI has already hosted mathematicians from Paris, Toulouse, Marseille and Lyon for up to three months at a time.

The visiting French mathematicians have worked with Imperial colleagues on areas such as swarming behaviour, optimal transport and simulations of rare events, and have already published papers together.

This article was first published 18 December 2019 by Imperial College London.