Maths Circle 2026

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We are delighted to confirm three distinguished speakers - all Old Wilsonians - for our annual Wilson's School Maths Circle lecture series.

The first talk will take place on 9 March, with Oliver Preest (OW 2021 - now studying at the London School of Economics) delivering a talk titled 'Modelling Uncertainty: Mathematics and Randomness in Markets'. Preest will ask whether mathematics can yield insights into an unpredictable future, aiming to provide an introduction to dynamical models of chance and show how they may be used in areas such as financial markets and insurance.

On 16 March, Ramon Nartallo-Kaluarachchi (OW 2018 - now of the Mathematical Insitute, University of Oxford) is scheduled to speak about 'Time’s Arrow: Life out of equilibrium', exploring how we can model the randomness and complexity found in living systems.

The final lecture in this year's series on 23 March will see Shavindra Jayasekera (OW 2018 - now at Imperial College, London) deliver a talk on 'Stochastic Parrots and Bitter Lessons: A Tale of Machines and Language'. Shavindra's talk will centre on the fact machines can finally understand language (after 70 years of trying), exploring how this was cracked and - perhaps most importantly - what comes next.

All talks will be hosted in the JJ Hall from 4pm - 5pm, and are open to all mathematicians at Wilson's!