The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is pleased to announce Ulrike Tillmann FRS, Professor of Mathematics, University of Oxford as President Designate. Professor Tillmann would take over from the current President, Professor Jon Keating FRS, in November 2021. Professor Tillmann is known for her leading contributions to algebraic topology and for her many contributions to the LMS and the broader mathematical community.
Professor Tillmann received a BA from Brandeis University in 1985 and was awarded her PhD from Stanford University in 1990 under the supervision of Ralph Cohen. Following her PhD, Professor Tillmann held several positions, first as a Junior Research Fellow at Clare Hall and SERC post-doc of Graeme Segal FRS in Cambridge. She then took up a Tutorial Fellowship at Merton College and a lectureship at the University of Oxford. This was followed by an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship. She has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford since 2000 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008.
Her research interests include Riemann surfaces and the homology of their moduli spaces. Her work on the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces and manifolds of higher dimensions has been inspired by problems in quantum physics and string theory. More recently her work has broadened into areas of data science.
Throughout her career, Professor Tillmann has contributed extensively to the work of the LMS: as a Council Member at Large (2010-2014), a member of Prizes Committee (2007-2009 and 2015-2018), Nominating Committee (2016-2019) and Publications Committee (2008-2012). She has contributed to the continued success of LMS publications by giving leadership and valuable input as Managing Editor of the Journal of Topology (2007-2017). She has also been involved in organising the successful Clay Mathematics Institute-LMS Research Schools as Chair of the Research Meetings Committee (2011-2014).
Professor Tillmann has supported the wider mathematical community both nationally and internationally. She is a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute and serves on the scientific boards of several international institutions, including the Oberwolfach Mathematical Research Institute (MFO). She is a member of Council of the Royal Society and served as an interim Vice-President in 2018. Professor Tillmann has also received several prestigious honours including the LMS Whitehead Prize in 2004. She was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2012 and a Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2017.
Note
As previously announced, the Society is in the process of seeking approval from the Privy Council to amend its Standing Orders. The Society is uncertain, in the current circumstances, when the Privy Council will be able to consider this request. If the existing Standing Orders remain in place for the immediate future, there will be a President Designate, for whom LMS members will have the opportunity to vote in November 2021. However, if the new Standing Orders are approved soon, members will have the opportunity to vote in November 2020 for a President Elect.