Two Exciting Fellow Announcements

6 December 2024

Congratulations to Hertford Fellows Dawid Kielak and Michael Wooldridge for these exciting announcements.

Hertford Mathematics Fellow Dawid Kielak selected for European Research Council Consolidator Grants.

These grants, totalling €678 million this year, aim to support outstanding scientists and scholars as they establish their independent research teams and develop their most promising scientific ideas.

Professor Kielak works in Geometric Group Theory, an area on the intersection of Algebra, Geometry, and Topology. He is particularly interested in the notion of “fibring”, the concept that a complex space may be understood as a simpler, lower dimensional structure changing over time. An example of this is space-time: a four-dimensional universe that can be viewed as a three-dimensional space evolving in time.

‘It turns out that the symmetries of the “universe” we are studying can reveal a lot about potential fibrings’ Professor Kielak said. ‘I am looking for situations where these symmetries provide a complete picture as to whether fibring is possible. Using this grant, I aim to demonstrate that “negatively curved universes” (hyperbolic manifolds) with an odd number of dimensions always admit fibring, if small adjustments are made. This property is already known to hold for three-dimensional manifolds, and I will investigate how it extends to higher dimensions.

Kielak said “Many of the ideas that went into the proposal were conceived within the walls of Hertford, and I always felt the warm support of the college community while preparing it.”

Congratulations to Dawid on this momentous achievement.

Congratulations to Hertford Fellow Michael Wooldridge on his appointment as the first Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Michael Wooldridge, from the Department of Computer Science, a leading expert in artificial intelligence (AI), has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the Ashall Professorship.

Commenting on the appointment, Professor Wooldridge said, “I could never have imagined receiving such an honour – to be the first to hold this unique academic position. I am delighted, humbled, and profoundly grateful.”

A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the UKRI Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship, the British Computer Society’s Lovelace Medal, the Patrick Henry Winston Outstanding Educator Award for AI, and the Distinguished Service Award from the European Association for AI, Professor Wooldridge brings over 30 years of expertise to the role. He has authored more than 450 scientific papers and nine books on AI.

Professor Wooldridge’s appointment will further strengthen Oxford’s position as a global leader in AI research and education. His recent delivery of the 2023 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and his popular science books, including The Road to Conscious Machines and A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going, showcase his commitment to making AI accessible to wider audiences.

We are excited to see in what directions his appointment takes him.