Laureation address: Professor Dame Frances Kirwan DBE MA DPhil FRS

Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science
Laureation by Professor Kenneth Falconer FRSE, Regius Chair of Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics

Wednesday 15 June 2022

Vice-Chancellor, it is my privilege to present for the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, Professor Dame Frances Kirwan.

A pure mathematician, Frances took her doctorate at Oxford University, working on algebraic and symplectic geometry at a time of spectacular advances, in a research group that included many world leaders. After short periods of research at Harvard and in Paris, she returned to Oxford where she has remained ever since. She became a professor in 1996, and in 2017 was elected Savilian Professor of Geometry, following in the steps of Edmond Halley and James Sylvester, and was the first woman to hold this position.

Algebraic geometry is a central area of mathematics concerning geometric objects that can be specified in terms of quadratic, cubic or other polynomial equations; these vary from circles and ellipses to far more complicated curves or surfaces that live in higher dimensional spaces. Curves of particular types may be classified by what are known as moduli spaces. For example, to describe a circle drawn on a piece of paper or a computer screen, if you care only about its size and not its position, then it is specified by a single positive number, its radius. Similarly, an ellipse may be represented by a point in a segment of the plane, its coordinates corresponding to the lengths of its long and short axes. Moving a point around this moduli space corresponds to continuously deforming the ellipses.

For more complicated geometric objects, the moduli spaces become highly convoluted, twisting and doubling back on themselves in a complex manner. Frances' research provides descriptions of, and insights into, the moduli spaces for many classes of curves and surfaces, in a way that reflects both their complexity and their mathematical elegance.

Frances’ research has been recognised by numerous awards, including last year by the Royal Society Sylvester Medal. But she has also given varied and outstanding service to the mathematical and scientific communities. She was only the second female President of the London Mathematical Society in its 150-year history; as a Council member at the time, I recall her unstinting efforts to raise the profile of mathematics in government and the research councils. She is energetic in communicating mathematics at all levels: she has written several influential graduate texts, but she was also Chair of the UK Mathematics Trust which works to inspire a love of mathematics in school students. She has been particularly active in addressing the gender imbalance in mathematics and supporting women in combining mathematical careers with bringing up families, including as Convenor of European Women in Mathematics.

Vice-Chancellor, in recognition of her outstanding mathematical research and her service to mathematics, I invite you to confer the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, on Professor Dame Frances Kirwan.