The second annual meeting of the UK and Republic of Ireland SIAM section took
place at UMIST on January 5th, 1998. Despite the poor weather conditions across
the country, which led to some last-minute programme rescheduling, an audience of
around 50 people heard talks from five invited speakers in various areas of
applied mathematics.

The day began with John Hinch (Cambridge University) discussing "A Load of Balls
in Newton's Cradle", followed by Rupert Klein (Free University of Berlin) talking
on "Generalized Adaptivity of Numerical Discretizations Based on Asymptotic
Analysis". After a short business meeting and lunch, Bill Morton (Oxford/Bath
Universities and Section President) gave a talk on "The Use of Evolution Operators
in Numerical Modelling of PDEs". Mark Chaplain (University of Dundee) then
described "Mathematical Modelling of Tumour Growth and Development", with an
impromptu presentation by Nick Trefethen (Oxford University) on random Fibonacci
series bringing the meeting to a close. In true SIAM tradition, these interesting
talks highlighted the diversity of work in industrial and applied mathematics
being carried out by SIAM members in Europe.

At the business meeting, the elected office bearers (Bill Morton, Bill Dold
(Vice-President, UMIST) and Andy Wathen (Secretary, Oxford University)) informed
members that most of the work involved in the first year has been in establishing
a framework for the new section. Currently, the primary project is organising the
7th International Conference on Numerical Combustion which will take place in York
in March-April 1998. In addition, SIAM-sponsored minisymposia are planned for
other UK/Ireland based meetings. These initiatives reflect one of the main aims of
the section; that is, making SIAM meetings more accessible to UK and Irish
participants. There was also a brief discussion of possible ways of increasing
student participation in SIAM activities. Members were told that details of
student travel awards and other relevant SIAM information can be found on the new
section webpage.

Finally, Andy Wathen announced his intention to step down as secretary with a view
to staggering future elections for office bearers. He was thanked for all of his
hard work in getting the new section established, and elections for his successor
are now under way.

The aim for 1998 is for the section to build on its initial success and to
continue to help UK and Irish mathematicians get more benefits from their SIAM
membership. Watch this space!


Alison Ramage
Lecturer
Department of Mathematics
University of Strathclyde