Brendan Owens awarded EPSRC grant

Dr Brendan Owens in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, has been awarded an EPSRC grant of £80k to support his research on "Alternating links and cobordism".

Dr Owens' research programme will use 21st century mathematics to solve problems in knot theory that have defied solution for over a hundred years. He will combine gauge theory results of Donaldson with the new theory of Ozsváth and Szabó to attack the unknotting number and slice problems for a major class of knots known as alternating knots (these include well-known knots such as the granny knot and reef or square knot). This class of knots is known to be prevalent in knotted DNA. Further crossing change information of interest to biologists will also be discovered as well as new insights into the mysterious mathematical nature of this very familiar class of knots.

This grant will support Dr Owens' research for 2 years, starting in July 2011, more information can be found about his interesting work can be found on his website.