Western University and Fields Institute Join Forces to Launch New Mathematics Centre

Mathematicians like to put their heads together to solve tricky problems. 

It’s exactly what Western’s dean of science Matt Davison hopes will happen at the Fields-Western Collaboration Centre, a new satellite campus created with the one of the country’s most prestigious mathematics organizations.

Western and the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences signed a new agreement to create the space for workshops, conferences, international researchers, summer schools and a new research hub called the Centre for Network Science.

“The excitement of doing mathematics in person with researchers around the world who are interested in the same thing is really valuable. We’re so excited to be able to bring that to Western’s campus,” Davison said. 

“Mathematicians love to get together to stand around a blackboard and talk about math, generate ideas and brainstorm. People don’t always know that mathematics is an intensely creative activity. It’s not just adding or multiplying. Mathematicians are often more interested in asking good questions that bring lots of insight.” 

The new Fields-Western Collaboration Centre will be housed in the Western Science Centre, under the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences. 

“This is an important step that strengthens our longstanding relationship with the world-renowned Fields Institute,” said Penny Pexman, Western’s vice-president (research). 

“Deepening our partnership provides new opportunities to support mobility, training and efforts to apply mathematics research in innovative ways that improve society. Relationships like these facilitate impact for mutual, and collective, benefit.” 

Opening opportunities 

The new centre will give rise to mathematical discoveries, leaders hope. 

It will include the Centre for Network Science to bring together Western’s strengths in mathematical neuroscience, machine learning and quantitative finance or financial wellness. 

Deirdre Haskell, interim director of the Field Institute, described the new satellite campus as an opportunity to develop new ideas. 

“There’s a synergy that happens when people are in the same place, thinking about the same things,” she said.

“When we speak to the outside world, we have a tendency to say, ‘here’s the proof’ instead of ‘let me tell you the idea.’ When we’re in a room together, we can communicate about the idea and work together to build the idea and the intuition and then go to the process of creating the proof. It’s the coming together that allows us to transcend the problem.” 

The Fields Institute, located on the University of Toronto campus, is an incubator for mathematical research, innovation and discovery. The new centre on Western’s campus will drive greater involvement from researchers in Southwestern Ontario across events, conferences and summer schools, Haskell said. 

She hopes it will also allow graduate and even undergraduate students to engage more fully with researchers and programming at Fields. 

“That’s what it’s all about in the end – people interacting,” she said. 

“By having a Fields Institute at Western, we are really making it possible to bring Western more into the fold, so people at Western feel they’re more connected to us.” 

‘Intrinsically international’ 

It’s also expected to bring mathematicians from around the world to London, Ont., including research visits where a Western faculty member sponsors a collaborator in another country to come puzzle through a mathematical issue. 

Davison calls mathematics “intrinsically international” and apolitical. The top mathematicians are all over the world. The new centre gives them greater reason to come to Western, even if they’re not already connected with a faculty member here. 

“International experts will apply to run meetings at Fields, and some will now be located here,” Davison said.  

“We’re excited about how this will put Western on the world map, to allow our students to rub shoulders with these people and to allow people on campus who aren’t mathematicians to apply some of the powerful tools that mathematics offers in their research.” 

That’s a key point for Davison. The new centre isn’t just about mathematics, narrowly defined. It will be a hub for researchers in computer science, statistical and actuarial science and theoretical physics or biology. 

“The power of mathematics is in understanding the world and how things work,” he said.