Following the recent call for proposals under PRTLI cycle 4, it was announced on friday that the Hamilton Institute has been successful in all three bids in which it was involved with total grant funding of €3.1M awarded to the Hamilton Institute. The three projects are:

• Network Mathematics (led by HI in partnership with CTVR(TCD), Berlin Maths School, Technion, Yale Center for Systems Science)
• Serving Society: Management of Future Communications Networks and Services (partnership of WIT, NUIM, UL led by WIT)
• National Biophotonics & Imaging Platform (national collaboration led by RCSI)

These projects will address infrastructure needs and strategic development at the Hamilton Institute, including the creation of a new graduate school in applied mathematics.

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral position in the Systems Biology Group of the Hamilton Institute at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. The vacancy is in the area of modelling and analysis of metabolic and cell signalling systems, with particular emphasis on developing mathematical models of the brain energy metabolism.
A key theme of the Systems Biology activity at the Hamilton Institute is ‘A Systems Understanding of Neurodegeneration’, and gaining insights into the mechanisms of brain energy metabolism is essential to advancing our knowledge in this area. The advertised position fits naturally into this programme through its focus on the development of mathematical models of metabolic trafficking between neurons and astrocytes, based on real-time in-vivo concentration measurements. Working in close collaboration with experimentalists in Maynooth and Oxford, the overall aim of the project is to develop quantitative models that can help test biological hypotheses concerning the mechanisms by which the brain acquires and uses energy.

The candidate should hold a PhD in Engineering/Applied Mathematics or a related field, and have a sound scientific record in the area of mathematical modelling. Some degree of familiarity with modelling biological or medical processes would be an advantage. Good communication, interpersonal and presentation skills are required. In addition, the candidate should be a team player who is capable of working with a minimum of supervision.

A contract of up to 2 years duration will be offered to the successful candidate with salary in the band 40,000 to 48,000 Euros per annum.

The Hamilton Institute is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer offering attractive conditions and a stimulating research environment.

For further information on the Hamilton Institute, please also refer to the following website: http://www.hamilton.ie. Further information can be obtained from Peter Wellstead (peter.wellstead@nuim.ie).

To apply for this post, candidates should submit a detailed CV, including a list of publications, motivation letter, a summary of recent projects, scientific interests and expertise, as well as the names and addresses of two referees for letters of recommendation to: hamilton@nuim.ie. The closing date for applications is 28th August 2007.

The Hamilton Institute will host the 2nd International Workshop on Systems Biology in August 2008.  For more details go to http://www.hamilton.ie/systemsbiology/Workshop2008/index.html

Dr. Phil Hodgkin – E.T.S. Walton Lecture Flyer

Dr. Phil Hodgkin of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia, will present an E.T.S. Walton Lecture entitled “Divide and Conquer: The remarkable story of our immune defense system” on July 25th at 7pm in the Royal Irish Academy. The Australian Embassy will host a reception before the lecture at 6.30pm.

The aim of the workshop is to provide an Irish forum that brings together world experts that are advancing applications of probability theory to areas including biology, computer science, communication networks and information theory. The range of topics covered will be broad and the workshop should be of interest to anyone working on either the theory or applications of probability.

For details, see workshop web site.

The competition is now closed. The prizes for the 2007 Challenge were awarded the 23rd of March at NUI Maynooth. Congratulations to all the winners and we hope that everyone had some fun with the puzzles. The competition for 2007-2008 will begin in the autumn.

For further details, visit the maths challenge web site. If you took part, get your final score.

Applications are invited for a number of summer intern positions at the Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland Maynooth. These positions are suited to third or fourth year students and are a minimum of three months duration. Projects include

1. High-Speed TCP.
TCP is the main transport protocol in the internet, carrying around 95% of traffic (including email, www, media downloads etc). It is currently undergoing a period of rapid change and our interest is both in algorithm development and in the development of test and evaluation frameworks for the Linux operating system. This will be supported by OSDL (Open Source Development Lab) in Seattle and will require good C/C++ programming skills (although experience of kernel programming is not needed) and some knowledge of computer networks would be helpful. If time permits, the project will also include involvement in larger-scale evaluation tests in a wide-area testbed including sites in Europe and the US.

2. Wireless LAN channel selection.
The trend is towards increasingly dense 802.11 wireless LAN deployments. A key challenge, however, in dense deployments is inteference management. The aim of this project is to implement a prototype dynamic channel allocation algorithm on 802.11 wireless hardware. This will require device driver software development together with some firmware software development to access to radio channel quality measurements. This project is supported by Intel and will require good C/C++ programming skills.

3. QoS and link provisioning.

4. Systems Biology

Contact Prof. Douglas Leith for further details.

The aim of the workshop is to give an overview of the recent advances in the theory and applications of nonnegative matrices and operators, including but not limited to the areas of biology, computer science, communication networks, and stability theory. The range of topics covered will be broad, and the workshop should be of interest to anyone working on either the theory or the applications of nonnegative matrices.

For details, see workshop web site.

For details see workshop website.