Category Archives: Mathematics

MaxMin article preprint

A preprint of my latest article is now available on arXiv: Triangular bases of integral closures The article is based on the contents of my PhD thesis (perhaps confusingly, of the same name). I’ve submitted the same article to a … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Doktorvater

In Germany they have the concept of a Doktorvater (or Doktormutter obviously). It translates to “doctor-father” or “doctor-mother” and refers to your Ph.D. thesis advisor. It is quite common for someone to mention that so-and-so was their Doktorvater. In my … Continue reading

Posted in Life, Mathematics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ph.D.

Yesterday I defended my Ph.D. It all went really well and I had lots of people come along to support me, which was fantastic. Thea, Bruce, Evan and Steph also all came from Australia (by way of various length routes) … Continue reading

Posted in Life, Mathematics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Thesis defence

Next week I’ll defend my Ph.D. thesis, titled “Triangular bases of integral closures”, and written under the direction of Jesús Montes and Enric Nart. It will be on Thursday the 11th of December, at 18:00 CET (that’s 6:30pm in Barcelona … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Down time

I had decided that when I deposited my thesis, I’d take a day or two off, not go in to uni and just relax and recover a bit. That didn’t really happen, between a course I’m taking at the UB, … Continue reading

Posted in Life, Mathematics, Research | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Acknowledgements

Last Thursday I deposited my thesis. This is one of the final steps of my Ph.D. – the last one being the defence, which will be in December. I owe that fact that I’ve made it this far to a … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Research | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Experience

Bruce once told me a story from when he was working at an agency, sometime just before I finished school I think. He was working on ideas for a client with a junior creative team. They were both young, probably … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Research | Tagged , | 2 Comments

On the brink of disaster

Yesterday I had one of those moments that’s probably the worst nightmare of any PhD student who’s writing their thesis dissertation, and doubly so in mathematics. Reading through a proof I’d first written some three years ago, I found an … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Thesis progress

While working on my thesis dissertation, I regularly commit changes to a code repository. This gives me peace of mind – I push the repository to a couple of different servers – and allows me to easily go back and … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics, Research | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Explain it simply

Given what I’m doing at the moment. Yesterday’s xkcd comic is a perfect fit. As the quote often attributed to Albert Einstein (I’m not sure whether he said it or not) goes: If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t … Continue reading

Posted in Mathematics | Tagged | Leave a comment