Corpus Fellow and Professor of Applied Mathematics David Abrahams has been awarded the prestigious Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to mathematics over a number of years by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA).

David was presented with his Medal earlier this summer by IMA President Professor Hannah Fry at the Royal Society, where he gave his Gold Medal Lecture Applied Mathematics in a Changing World. 

In her speech Hannah, who joined David’s Department at Cambridge in January as the first Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics, said: “For nearly 40 years David has been the human whirlwind at the heart of UK applied mathematics.” Describing him as “relentless, irrepressible and maddeningly effective.”

She also described him as the Sir David Attenborough of maths, but with fewer cameras and more partial differential equations.

On announcing his award, the IMA said: “Professor David Abrahams has provided three decades of enthusiastic, inclusive and energetic leadership to the UK applied mathematics community. He has made substantial and innovative contributions across an extremely wide range of problems in applied mathematics and nurtured many important collaborations between academics and UK industry. He has consistently encouraged and mentored younger mathematicians, promoted public communication of science and widening participation, and led and developed his own Waves Group and applied mathematics generally at the University of Manchester. He has also served and supported the entire UK mathematical sciences community through his outstanding Directorships of both the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) in Edinburgh and the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INI) in Cambridge."

David has been a Fellow of Corpus since 2016 when he became Director of the INI, a role he held until 2021. David has been praised for his instrumental work to make the INI programmes virtual during the COVID pandemic.

Prior to this he was Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester, where he still holds a Visiting Researcher position. From 2014 to 2016 he was also Scientific Director of the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) in Edinburgh.

Watch Professor Abrahams' Gold Medal Lecture here:

Photo credit: IMA