The Oxford University Invariant Society, or 'The Invariants', is a university society open to members of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, dedicated to promotion of interest in mathematics. The society regularly hosts talks from professional mathematicians on topics both technical and more popular, from the mathematics of juggling to the

history of mathematics The history of mathematics deals with the origin of discoveries in mathematics and the mathematical methods and notation of the past. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments ...

. Many prominent British mathematicians were members of the society during their time at Oxford.

History

The Society was founded in 1936 by J. H. C. Whitehead together with two of his students at

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

Graham Higman Graham Higman FRS (19 January 1917 – 8 April 2008) was a prominent English mathematician known for his contributions to group theory. Biography Higman was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and attended Sutton High School, Plymouth, winning a ...

and Jack de Wet. The name of the society was chosen at random by Higman from the titles of the books on Whitehead's shelf; in this case,

Oswald Veblen Oswald Veblen (June 24, 1880 – August 10, 1960) was an American mathematician, geometer and topologist, whose work found application in atomic physics and the theory of relativity. He proved the Jordan curve theorem in 1905; while this was lon ...

's ''Invariants of Quadratic Differential Forms''. The opening lecture was given by

G. H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...

Hilary Term Hilary term is the second academic term of the University of OxfordDouglas Hartree Douglas Rayner Hartree (27 March 1897 – 12 February 1958) was an English mathematician and physicist most famous for the development of numerical analysis and its application to the Hartree–Fock equations of atomic physics and the ...

and

Max Newman Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, FRS, (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as Max Newman, was a British mathematician and codebreaker. His work in World War II led to the construction of Colossus, the world's first operatio ...

, as well as debates - 'Is Mathematics an end in itself?' - and mathematical films. The society has hosted hundreds of prominent mathematicians, including lectures by Benoit Mandelbrot, Sir Roger Penrose, and

Simon Singh Simon Lehna Singh, (born 19 September 1964) is a British popular science author, theoretical and particle physicist. His written works include ''Fermat's Last Theorem'' (in the United States titled ''Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve th ...

. Since 1961, the Society has published a magazine entitled ''The Invariant''.https://suncat.ac.uk/serials/SCID00024641841/UkOxU%20010812572

References

External links

Official website

Archive of old termcards and committee lists
{{Authority control 1936 establishments in England Clubs and societies of the University of Oxford Mathematics education in the United Kingdom Student organizations established in 1936