Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences

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Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences Based in Cambridge, we are a national and international visitor research institute for mathematical sciences.

Summer seemed like it would last forever in Cambridge, but autumn is arriving at the Institute 🍂A new season brings an e...
08/10/2026

Summer seemed like it would last forever in Cambridge, but autumn is arriving at the Institute 🍂

A new season brings an exciting lineup of research!

Here’s a quick snapshot of what’s happening at INI this October:

Logical foundations of complexity theory (19 – 23 October 2026)
🔗 https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/lfcw02/

European tensor networks school (23 – 30 October 2026)
🔗 https://www.newton.ac.uk/event/mmbw02/

Follow along for updates, photos, and lecture highlights throughout the month!

The pace of mathematical discovery has been accelerating dramatically over the last few months. OpenAI’s recent release ...
07/10/2026

The pace of mathematical discovery has been accelerating dramatically over the last few months. OpenAI’s recent release of hundreds of mathematical manuscripts, touching an extraordinary range of fields in the mathematical sciences, has mathematicians grappling with deep questions at the heart of our discipline.

This is what Prof. Helen Wilson, the INI’s new Director, has to say:

“The release of 722 mathematical manuscripts by OpenAI highlights the recent major shift in the way mathematical results can be obtained. This is an exciting time to be a mathematical scientist, with new tools becoming available, new methods developing, and new results published every day.

In all the excitement, though, it is important to remember that mathematical truths are only a small part of the mathematical sciences. Mathematical results, however they are obtained, must be brought to life with explanations and insights into what their implications might be. The activities of meaning-making within the discipline, and translation into real-world applications, are deeply human, and they need the skills and knowledge of the whole mathematical sciences community.

It is clear that the advances in AI are changing research mathematics rapidly. As a national institute devoted to collaborative research across the full breadth of the mathematical sciences, the Isaac Newton Institute is supporting the global mathematics community to adapt to new ways of working and to drive the mathematical sciences forward.”

Read more: https://www.newton.ac.uk/news/ini-news/statement-from-ini-director-on-722-openai-results/

Celebrate Black brilliance in mathematics this Black History Month at the Black Heroes of Mathematics Conference 2026 (B...
06/10/2026

Celebrate Black brilliance in mathematics this Black History Month at the Black Heroes of Mathematics Conference 2026 (BHOM26), taking place on 7–8 October at ICMS in Edinburgh and online! 🌟

Delivered in partnership by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS), London Mathematical Society (LMS), and Big Ideas, this inspiring two-day event features both a world-class conference and a nationwide virtual Youth Festival for UK schools.

💻 Attend online: In-person registration is now closed, but online registration is completely free and open to all worldwide!

🔗 For more information and to register to attend online: https://icms.ac.uk/activities/events/bhom2026/

How can estimating the length of a proof help tackle the P≠NP problem? 🧠Professor Pavel Pudlák, from the Academy of Scie...
05/10/2026

How can estimating the length of a proof help tackle the P≠NP problem? 🧠

Professor Pavel Pudlák, from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Rothschild Distinguished Visiting Fellow for our Logical foundations of complexity theory programme, tackles this very question in his public lecture "Complexity of computations and proofs" given on 1 October 2026.

👀 Watch his lecture back on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/H8nvwv7fVMM

👉 For more details on his talk, visit our website: https://www.newton.ac.uk/seminar/50770/

02/10/2026

AI is fundamentally mathematical, and AI systems are changing what is possible in mathematics. This is a turbulent time for the field.

To understand more about this two-way relationship, we spoke with Professor Gitta Kutyniok, who visited the INI in August as part of the Operator methods for dynamical systems programme. An expert in the mathematics underpinning AI, she had a fascinating take on the impact of AI on research, education, and society more widely.

Professor Kutyniok holds the Chair for Mathematical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence at LMU Munich, where she focuses on "the intersection of mathematics and artificial intelligence, aiming for both a mathematical understanding of artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence for mathematical problems."

Listen to the full episode:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1992011/episodes/19863664

Faithful or Traitor? Catch Professor Hannah Fry—mathematician, author, broadcaster, University of Cambridge’s Professor ...
01/10/2026

Faithful or Traitor?

Catch Professor Hannah Fry—mathematician, author, broadcaster, University of Cambridge’s Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics, and frequent speaker at the INI—on The Celebrity Traitors, starting tonight on BBC One and iPlayer!

Will she use probability to hunt down Traitors as a Faithful, or game theory to execute the ultimate bluff as a Traitor?

Which role do you think suits her best? 👇

30/09/2026

What are the limits of computation? And what can mathematical proofs tell us about them?

In our latest interview, Pavel Pudlák, Rothschild Distinguished Visiting Fellow for the INI's Logical foundations of complexity theory programme, shares insights from a lifetime of research into some of the deepest questions in mathematics and theoretical computer science.

Tomorrow at 4pm, Pavel will give his public lecture, Complexity of computations and proofs, exploring how the complexity of proofs connects to major open problems including P vs NP.

Watch the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAZYM9idROM

Find out more about the lecture: https://www.newton.ac.uk/seminar/50770/

You're not going to want to miss this one.https://mailchi.mp/newton/newsletter-sign-up Our monthly newsletter is always ...
29/09/2026

You're not going to want to miss this one.

https://mailchi.mp/newton/newsletter-sign-up

Our monthly newsletter is always packed with news, opportunities, and upcoming lectures and events. But this month is a bumper edition. We say goodbye to our director, track the latest developments in the AI and maths story, and try to decide which picture to use for our annual report cover.

The September edition comes out tomorrow, make sure you're signed up so it lands directly in your inbox.

Historians of mathematics might look back at the past month as a critical moment in our field. In the whirlwind of news ...
24/09/2026

Historians of mathematics might look back at the past month as a critical moment in our field. In the whirlwind of news and opinions, we've gathered some of the key moments, resources, and reactions to the developments in AI and mathematics.

- In the first few weeks of September, there was the controversy surrounding OpenAI’s claim (https://openai.com/index/navier-stokes-solution/) that their internal models had solved the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem. Here is our statement: https://www.newton.ac.uk/news/ini-news/ai-in-mathematics-and-the-navier-stokes-problem/.

- In the days that followed, 27 Fields Medallists signed an open letter (https://mathandai.org/) articulating “A severe misalignment of AI in mathematics.” This has since been endorsed by 8,000 mathematical scientists. One notable name missing from the list is Timothy Gowers, who published a thoughtful essay on why he didn’t sign (https://gowers.wordpress.com/2026/09/17/why-i-didnt-sign-the-fields-medallists-letter/).

- At the Heidelberg Laureate forum, a panel discussion with Michael Harris, Peter Scholze, Jacob Tsimerman, and Geordie Williamson articulated some of the diverse viewpoints in the maths community (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7_d_sgui6o).

-42 Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society (including our Director, Ulrike Tillmann) wrote to its president to express their “extreme concern about the pace of development of AI.” (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-xOkPeHmDEdRigT2YcP2nLfTB56yOn4FFbBfVUIXCUE/edit?tab=t.0)

- Grant Sanderson wrote an influential guest post on Terrence Tao’s blog about how we need to better celebrate “motivated explanations” rather than just proofs (https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/18/if-math-is-more-than-proof-we-need-to-better-celebrate-the-rest-of-it/).

- Last week the Fields Institute in Toronto held the first of five sessions (https://www.fields.utoronto.ca/activities/26-27/Leiden) for the community to engage with the Leiden Declaration (https://leidendeclaration.ai/) .

- An advisory group on maths and AI (https://agmai.org/) was formed with the support of the Institute for Advanced Study to help AI labs communicate new results with the mathematical community. The group includes our director, Ulrike Tillmann. Martin Hairer wrote a blog post about why he joined the group (https://proofsandprompts.com/2026/09/22/why-i-agreed-to-join-agmai/).

-A range of websites and initiatives have formed to help mathematical scientists make sense of the changes AI will bring to the field:

Proof and prompts (https://proofsandprompts.com/) - “A blog written by mathematicians, for mathematicians, where people can think aloud about how these tools are changing mathematical practice.”

AI.MATH (https://ai.math.ms/en/) - An initiative which presents “draft positions on the future of mathematical research and mathematics degree programmes in the age of AI, alongside questions and possible answers.”

This is a quickly-evolving story and will surely develop further over the coming weeks and months.

What did we miss?

Proud to see that the University of Cambridge’s School of Physical Sciences (of which we are a part!) renewed its Athena...
23/09/2026

Proud to see that the University of Cambridge’s School of Physical Sciences (of which we are a part!) renewed its Athena Swan Silver award this month.

We believe diversity in all its forms is beneficial for the mathematical sciences and have a range of programmes and initiatives to promote inclusivity in our programmes.

This includes support for caring responsibilities, accessibility needs, and participants from the Global South.

We’re particularly happy to see the progress on our EDI action plan has helped the case for the School’s Athena Swan Silver award. Despite this achievement, there remains much to do!

https://www.newton.ac.uk/outreach/diversity-in-mathematics/



Cc

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20 Clarkson Road
Cambridge
CB30

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

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+441223335999

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