IMA@50 Celebration at the Royal Society


To celebrate the birthday of the IMA we had a major event at the Royal Society on the afternoon and evening of 14 May 2014. All members of the IMA, together with many others, were invited to attend this meeting at a moderate cost. This was an opportunity to participate in a historic event and to celebrate the work and achievements of the IMA over the past fifty years.

We are delighted to report that Our Patron for the Anniversary Year, Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, attended part of the programme including the lecture by Professor Ian Stewart and the evening reception.  IMA members and guests were delighted to hear The Princess Royal speak in support of mathematics.  Furthermore Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal received her certificate of IMA Honorary Fellowship at the event and kindly presented a prize certificate to the winner of the recent Maths Careers competition.

In addition, the IMA President, Professor Dame Celia Hoyles and Vice-President, Communications, Professor Chris Budd introduced the following  programme of lectures and talks:

  • A Toy Model for a Magnetic Toy: from atomistic to continuum
Alain Goriely, University of Oxford
  • 50 Years of Maths in Education
Celia Hoyles DBE, London Knowledge Lab
Institute of Education, University of London
  • 50 Years of Maths in Industry
Iain Gray CBE, FREng, Technology Strategy Board
  • 50 Years of the IMA
John McWhirter FREng FRS, Cardiff University
  • IMA Gold Medal Lecture
Clifford Cocks CB, formerly Chief Mathematician of GCHQ
  • Mathematics for the Billion
Ian Stewart FRS, University of Warwick
  • Evening speaker
Matt Parker, Queen Mary, University of London

Certificates of fifty years of membership of the IMA were presented to fifteen attendees who had joined the IMA in its inaugural year by the President.

50 Visions of Mathematics, the book which has been published to commemorate the anniversary year, was launched by Dr Ahmer Wadee.

Event Photographs

For photographs from the event please visit the IMA’s Flickr page.   Further details on this event will be included in the August 2014 issue of Mathematics Today.

Published