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The 2012 Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Lecture

17 Sep 2012

Professor Sir Martin Taylor, Merton College, Oxford, will talk about the pervasive role of parity throughout mathematics on 18 October in Lecture Theatre A, University Place.

The lecture starts at 5pm with coffee and registration from 4.30pm on the first floor of University Place.

The lecture is free of charge but you should register online at:

The Ollerenshaw Lecture is a prestigious annual lecture hosted by the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester, named in honour and recognition of Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw.

The oddity of parity - Professor Sir Martin Taylor (Merton College, Oxford)

This lecture will be given in honour of Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw on the occasion of her 100th birthday. The theme of the talk will be the pervasive role of parity throughout mathematics – ranging from magic squares to some of the most important and topical questions in number theory.

Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw

Born in Manchester, Dame Kathleen took her degree in Oxford and has since combined mathematics research with politics, in which sphere she has been Mayor of Manchester and an advisor on education to Margaret Thatcher's government. She is probably best known in mathematics for her work on magic squares, but also has a formidable reputation as an astronomer and the observatory at the University of Lancaster bears her name. She is passionately committed to encouraging interest in mathematics amongst young people. She has been deaf since the age of eight, and is an inspiring role model to many.

Dame Kathleen, who holds honorary degrees from both the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST, has been a long-standing friend and supporter of mathematics at Manchester, with an especially strong association with UMIST, and has continued to show strong interest and support for the new University of Manchester and the vision behind the '2015 Agenda'.