Research in Mathematical Sciences

Mathematical research at the University of Essex is undertaken in the context of a transdisciplinary structure that recognises that mathematics, including what can be very abstract mathematics, is an essential part of research in many other disciplines. Members of the Department of Mathematical Sciences are linked with other departments and contribute to their research agendas. Thus there are staff linked with:

School of Biological Sciences (SBS) in the area of bioinformatics, biostatistics and mathematical ecology.

School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (CSEE) in the areas of operational research, constrained optimisation, combinatorial algebra, cryptography and network security.

School of Health & Human Sciences (SHHS) and the NIHR Research Design Service (NIHR-RDS) for the East of England in the area of medical statistics.

It is characteristic of the uses of mathematics that there is often a central core of ideas which has applications in a number of disciplines. The department encourages this view, and the cross-fertilisation that goes with it.

Scope of the Department

Members of staff in the Department of Mathematical Sciences are research active in Pure Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research. The research of the department is structured in two groups. Staff members participate in several groups within DMS or between linked and other departments. The two groups of DMS reflect the major fields of mathematical sciences research of the group members:

Algebra and Discrete Mathematics (ADM)

Peter Higgins; David Penman; Chris Saker; Alexei Vernitski; Gerald Williams

The Algebra and Discrete Mathematics Group, which were entered under Computer Science at the last RAE, publish papers in discrete mathematics (in particular, such areas as graph theory and group theory), including combinatorial and computational aspects of discrete mathematics. We conduct abstract study of languages (including some inspired by programming languages), networks (including some inspired by biological networks), semigroups (including some inspired by finite automata) and equations (including some inspired by arithmetical laws). Our results include both mathematical statements and algorithms for solving problems, and we also study computational complexity of the problems and efficiency of the algorithms.

ADM publishs in algebraic and computational journals that include Theoretical Computer Science and the International Journal of Algebra and Computation.

Mathematical Modelling and Data Analysis (MMDA)

Edward Codling; Hongsheng Dai; John Ford; Andrew Harrison; Berthold Lausen; Aris Perperoglou; Abdel Salhi; Qingfu Zhang

All members of the group are active researchers in various types of mathematical modelling and data analysis. Ford, Salhi and Zhang are interested in optimisation techniques, including numerical and evolutionary approaches. Ford and Zhang are members of the CSEE-based Intelligent Systems group; their work was submitted with that group in the last RAE. Qingfu Zhang has a joint appointment (70% CSEE, 30 % DMS).

The research of the statisticians in the Department, Hongsheng Dai, Berthold Lausen and Aris Perperoglou, are in the fields of biostatistics, clinical and health trials, computational and mathematical statistics, probability and survival analysis.

Codling’s research is based on mathematical modelling (‘bottom-up’ modelling and analysis), and there is widespread need for such research across the Biological and Ecological Sciences.

The research of Harrison is based on the analysis of large omic datasets (‘top-down’ modelling and analysis), a central subject in modern biological and ecological research. Much of this data is freely available from the public domain or data of collaborative clinical trials and dwarfs anything that can be produced locally at Essex.

For further information, please see the individual research profiles on the 'People' section of our website.