Mathematics, Sports, Statistics, and other things
This is part III in a series of posts documenting the posters I’ve made for the SMP Maths Graduate Seminar Series. Check out part I and part II.
It is surprisingly hard to make a poster for your own talk. Familiarity breeds contempt?
As ever, I’m indebted to those who make their work freely available for use and modification on the Wikimedia Commons.
This is part II in a series of posts documenting the posters I’ve made for the SMP Maths Graduate Seminar Series. Check out part I here.
You may be able to tell that an increased degree of skill has to be taken together with an increase degree of ambition.
As ever, I’m indebted to those who make their work freely available for use and modification on the Wikimedia Commons.
Why somebody uploaded a green turtle in tergiant posture with red claws to the Wikimedia Commons is beyond me, but I’m glad they did!
I recently learned that my parents have been carrying around an A4 printout of this poster in an attempt to help explain to curious acquaintances what it is I actually do as a research mathematician. This is quite a nice thing to do, but the reader may immediately recognise this as a gross mismatch of intended and actual audience.
The challenge this presents is clear — to create an audience-appropriate, pamphlet-sized, self-contained explanation of my work. This of course shares a lot with the more familiar elevator pitch, with a couple of key differences. The main additional challenge is that, unlike over a pint at the pub, the narrator is unable to adapt to their audience. One must anticipate and address as many questions as possible in a fixed amount of space, and cannot lean on the specific expertise of the reader. On the other hand, a print-out can immediately call upon a carefully constructed and tailor-made diagram, whereas at least one of these criteria must usually be abandoned in impromptu settings. I encourage you to attempt your own version of this exercise, it’s rather entertaining and informative.
Here is my present attempt. I’m sure it will remain in a state of perpetual beta testing, so don’t hesitate to provide feedback if you so desire.
This post is a farewell to the charming pair of butcher birds who visited us frequently at the apartment we’ve just moved out of. They are a free-spirited pair who will survive just fine without us, but we are going to miss them dearly. Enjoy a curation of some of the nice moments we’ve shared.
The female is sometimes brave enough to eat straight out of the hand.
The male prefers to catch his food.
The male likes to dry off on the clothes line.
He also likes to talk to himself.
Jack Neubecker 
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