PiWORKS will be taking a break until January 2026. Watch this space!
Our monthly hybrid seminar series features women and underrepresented gender researchers from UK universities working in diverse research areas in mathematics and related disciplines. Seminars usually take place from 1-2pm on the last Tuesday of each month. The target audience for the talks are final year undergraduate and MSc students, but PhD students or academic staff are very welcome to attend.
The aim of PiWORKS is threefold:
1
Showcase the work of women and underrepresented gender researchers.
2
Provide a taste of different areas of mathematics research to undergraduate and MSc students.
3
Build an UK-wide community of women and underrepresented gender researchers and students.
Interested in giving a talk at a future PiWORKS Seminar? We’d love to hear from you! Please contact piscopiainitiative@gmail.com.
Past Speakers
Dr Tacey O’Neil – November 2025
Our third speaker for 2025/26 was Dr Tacey O’Neil from The Open University. She gave a wonderful online talk blending her research as an ℝeal analyst with the story of her transition. She showed us several problems she has worked on throughout her career, along with some open questions.
Professor Louise Walker – October 2025
Our second speaker for 2025/6 academic year was Professor Louise Walker from the University of Manchester. She gave a lovely hybrid talk on developing teaching and learning with students as partners
Dr Kat Phillips – September 2025
Our first speaker for 2025/6 academic year was Dr Kat Phillips (Innovation Research Associate at the University of Warwick). They gave a wonderful hybrid talk on their career as a maths communicator and shared lots of advice for delivering presentations!
Dr Cordelia Webb – May 2025
Our final speaker for 2024/5 academic year was Dr Cordelia Webb (University of Edinburgh), who gave a fascinating online talk on ‘Hyperbolic Explorations’.
Dr Giulia Celora – April 2025
Our speaker for April PiWORKS was Dr Giulia Celora (University of Oxford), who gave a fantastic online talk on ‘The mathematics of biological self-organisation: a journey across disciplines, spatial scales and countries’.
Professor Apala Majumdar – March 2025
In March, Professor Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde) gave a brilliant hybrid talk on ‘The Mathematics of Liquid Crystals – Analysis, Modelling and Applications’. The in-person side was organised by the Strathclyde local Piscopia committee.
Dr Emilie Dufresne – February 2025
Our February PiWORKS speaker was Dr Emilie Dufresne (University of York), who gave an excellent hybrid talk on ‘Separating invariants: a journey’.
Dr Gemma Crowe – January 2025
The first PiWORKS seminar of 2025 was given by Dr Gemma Crowe (University of Manchester), who gave a superb hybrid talk on ‘Infinite groups: algebra, combinatorics and drawing pictures!’. The in-person side was hosted by the Manchester local committee.
Dr Laura Johnson – November 2024
Our November PiWORKS speaker was Dr Laura Johnson (University of Bristol), who gave a fantastic online talk on ‘Creative ways of applying combinatorics to cryptography’.
Dr Kitty Meeks – October 2024
In October, Dr Kitty Meeks (University of Glasgow) gave a fascinating talk on ‘Understanding what computers do badly’.
Dr Daphné Lemasquerier – September 2024
The first seminar of the academic year was given by Dr Daphné Lemasquerier (University of St Andrews), who gave a wonderful talk on `My academic journey and the challenge of interdisciplinarity: from mathematics to planetary science’. The in-person side was organised by the St Andrews local Piscopia committee.
Dr Madeleine Hall – June 2024
In June, our speaker was Dr Madeleine Hall, mathematical consultant at the Smith Institute and maths communicator. Her talk was on `Mathematical storytelling: Using narrative to build trust in technology’.
Dr Layal Hakim – May 2024
Our May speaker was Dr Layal Hakim (University of Exeter), who gave an excellent talk on `My journey in academia: a focus on teaching and scholarship in higher education mathematics’.
Dr Anke Wiese – April 2024
In April, Dr Anke Wiese (Heriot-Watt University) gave a fascinating hybrid talk on `Stochastic Differential Equations in Financial and Other Applications’. The in-person side was hosted by the Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt local Piscopia committee.
Dr Katherine Staden – March 2024
In March, Dr Katherine Staden (Open University) gave a wonderful seminar on `Mathematical jigsaws: experiences of a combinatorialist’. She also shared some of her academic experiences and what she learnt from them, eg how being scooped led to new research directions.
Dr Liana Heuberger – February 2024
Our February seminar was given by Dr Liana Heuberger, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Bath. She gave a fascinating talk on `Groups, graphs and shapes’.
Ms Maria Tsalakou – January 2024
Maria Tsalakou has recently completed her PhD at the university of St Andrews. She gave a fantastic hybrid seminar on `Computing with semigroups defined by presentations’ and shared some of her experiences doing a PhD and advice for anyone considering doing a PhD.
Dr Zoe Wyatt – November 2023
Zoe Wyatt, Assistant Professor at DPMMS and College Lecturer at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, gave an online seminar on `PDE questions from our physical world’.
Dr Natalie Evans – October 2023
Natalie Evans, AEP Lecturer in Mathematics (Education) at KCL, gave a wonderful talk on `Correlations of almost primes’ and shared some of her mathematical journey with the audience.
Dr Lyndsay Kerr – September/October 2023
Lyndsay Kerr is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Strathclyde. To kick off PiWORKS for the 2023/24 academic year, she gave a talk entitled: “Understanding DNA methylation using Mathematical Models”.
Dr Kat Rock – May 2023
Our speaker for May 2023 was Dr. Kat Rock, Associate Professor Reader at the University of Warwick, who gave a talk entitled `My journey as a mathematician into public health’.
Dr. Antonia Wilmot-Smith – April 2023
Our speaker for April 2023 was Dr. Antonia Wilmot-Smith, Deputy Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews, who gave a wonderful talk entitled `Untangling the mysteries of our Sun: Exploring the role of braided magnetic fields in coronal heating’.
Amarja Katharpurkar – March 2022
In March 2023, Miss Amarja Kathapurkar, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, gave a brilliant hybrid talk on `Extremal graph theory: using local properties to find global patterns in networks’. This event was hosted by our Birmingham Piscopia Committee.
Dr Magda Carr – February 2023
The second talk was on 28th February, when Dr. Magda Carr (Newcastle University) gave a fascinating seminar on “Experimental and Numerical Modelling of Internal Solitary Waves” as well as discussing her career path and giving advice for anyone considering a PhD or academic career.
Professor Victoria Gould – January 2023
Our first seminar of 2023 was on 1st February, when Professor Victoria Gould (University of York) gave an excellent hybrid seminar on “The joys of associativity: research and researching Semigroup Theory”. She also shared some of her experiences of being a woman algebraist and gave advice and encouragement to the audience.
Dr Michela Ottobre – November 2022
In November 2022 Dr Michela Ottobre, Associate Professor at Heriot-Watt University, gave a hybrid seminar on “Mathematics of the natural and social world: Interacting particle systems, partial differential equations and stochastic partial differential equations“. This was followed by a lengthy and encouraging Q&A on PhDs, applications and careers, with questions submitted by attendees prior to the event.
Dr Ana Lecuona – October 2022
Our speaker for October 2022 was Dr Ana Lecuona, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, who gave a fascinating talk on “The day-to-day life of a low dimensional topologist“.
Dr Veronica Kelsey – September 2022
Our first speaker of the 2022-23 academic year was Dr Veronica Kelsey, Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Veronica gave a wonderful talk entitled “Generating graphs and feeling good enough“.
Dr Aretha Teckentrup – June 2022
In June, Dr Aretha Teckentrup, Lecturer in Mathematics of Data Science, University of Edinburgh, gave an excellent talk on “Blending mathematical models with observational data“.
Dr Maria Bruna – April 2022
In April Dr Maria Bruna, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, gave a wonderful talk on “Continuum models of stochastic systems of interacting particles“.
Professor Apala Majumdar – February 2022
In February 2022, Professor Apala Majumdar, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Strathclyde gave a talk on “The Mathematics of Liquid Crystals – Multi-Faceted Approaches, Challenges and Applications for Future Technologies”.
Professor Mihaela van der Schaar – January 2022
For our first PiWORKS talk of 2022, Professor Mihaela van der Schaar, Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute, and a Chancellor’s Professor at UCLA, gave a talk on “Machine learning in healthcare: from interpretability to a new human-machine partnership”.
Dr Claudia Neves – November 2021
In November 2021, Dr Claudia Neves, Lecturer in Statistics in the Department of Mathematics at King’s College London gave a talk on “Extreme value statistics born out of domains of attraction“.
Dr Lisa Maria Kreusser – October 2021
In October 2021 Dr Lisa Maria Kreusser, Lecturer at the Department of Mathematical Sciences and a fellow at the Institute for Mathematical Innovation at the University of Bath gave a talk on “Mathematical modelling in biology and data science“.
Dr Sophie Huczynska – September 2021
We started off the new academic year with a wonderful talk by Dr Sophie Huczynska, a senior Lecturer in Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews, on “Combinatorics in Information Security“.
Dr Olga Maleva – June 2021
In our last talk of the academic year 2020-2021 Dr Olga Maleva, Reader in Pure Mathematics at the University of Birmingham, gave a talk on “Lipschitz functions: from Newton’s apple to fractals“.
Dr Heather Battey – May 2021
Dr Heather Battey, lecturer in Statistics at Imperial College London, spoke in May 2021 about statistical theory and its role in scientific inference.
Dr Angela Tabiri – April 2021
Our PiWORKS speaker for April 2021 was Dr Angela Tabiri, who obtained her PhD at the University of Glasgow and is currently an AIMS-Google AI postdoctoral fellow at AIMS Ghana. She is also lead of Femafricmaths, which is a wonderful initiative about which you can find out more here: https://femafricmaths.github.io or by following their Twitter account: https://twitter.com/femafricmaths
Dr Tabiri spoke about her journey from Accra, to Glasgow and back to Accra and how the skills she acquired during her PhD studies in Glasgow became useful in her current role as a postdoc at AIMS Ghana.
Dr Laura Ciobanu – March 2021
In March 2021 Dr Laura Ciobanu from Heriot-Watt University spoke about her research in algebra and combinatorics and her academic journey.
Dr Martine Barons – February 2021
In February 2021 Dr Martine Barons, director of the Applied Statistics and Risk Unit in the Statistics department of the University of Warwick, gave a talk on “Probability models for food security”.
Professor Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb – January 2021
Our PiWORKS speaker for January 2021 was Professor Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb, head of the Cambridge Image Analysis group at the University of Cambridge on “From differential equations to deep learning for image processing”.
Professor Karen Page – November 2020
In November 2020 we enjoyed a wonderful talk by Professor Karen Page, a Professor of Mathematical Biology at UCL, on “Mathematics applied to Embryo Development”.
Professor Maggie Chen – October 2020
Our PiWORKS speaker for October, was Professor Maggie Chen from Cardiff University on Financial Mathematics and the journey that led her to where she is today. This event was jointly hosted with Cardiff’s Women In Math Society (find them on twitter @WiMCardiff) and was chaired by their lead, PhD student Tasarla Deadman, who has also founded the Cardiff node of the Piscopia Society.
Page last updated: 26/11/2025
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