Dr Rachael Ka’ai-Mahuta is Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu), Hawaiian, Cook Island Māori, and Sāmoan. She is an Associate Professor in Te Ipukarea Research Institute. Rachael has a background in te reo Māori, Māori culture and traditions, and Indigenous politics. Rachael holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (First Class) and a Master of Arts (with Distinction) from the University of Otago, and a Doctorate from AUT. She is a graduate of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo (Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language) and holds the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori Certificate of Competency in Interpreting and Translating the Māori Language.

Michael is currently pursuing his PhD at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. He gained his Master of Science in Physics at Victoria University of Wellington, with a thesis that focussed on mathematically modelling gravitational microlensing events. After completing his Master of Science, he worked for several years as an educator, teaching mathematics and physics at secondary school and polytechnic levels. Michael has genealogical affiliations to Ngāti Tūwharetoa.

Persi Diaconis is Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Stanford University. He specializes in the study of randomness; are tosses of a coin really random? How many times should a deck of cards be mixed to really mix it up? How about picks from the lottery? This study involves areas like probability, combinatorics, and group theory along with practical statistical study of the real world. He is well known for his ability to explain abstract ideas ‘in English’. This perhaps aided by his ten years on the road as a professional magician. An early Macarthur winner, he is a member of the US National Academy of Science.

Richard Kenyon received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1990 under the direction of William Thurston. After a postdoc at IHES, he held positions at CNRS in Grenoble, Lyon, and Orsay and then became professor at UBC, Brown University and then Yale where he is currently Erastus L. Deforest Professor of Mathematics.

He was awarded the CNRS bronze medal, the Rollo Davidson prize, the Loève prize. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Simons Investigator. 

Inspired by watching Star Trek, Priya Subramanian completed her PhD in Aerospace Engineering in 2012 at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. She later moved to research fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation (2012-2015), University of Leeds (2015-2019) and University of Oxford (2019-2021) before moving to Auckland as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics in 2021.

Her research interest is to identify minimal mechanisms that enable the emergence of multi-dimensional patterns with desired properties. In the past she has looked at temporal patterns arising in thermoacoustics, spatio-temporal patterns arising in transitional flows, spatio-temporal patterns arising when organelle filaments move on motility assays and complex spatial patterns that arise during crystallisation of soft matter.

Geordie Williamson is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Sydney and inaugural Director of the Sydney Mathematical Research Institute (SMRI). His major research interests are in algebra, geometry, representation theory and machine learning, and he has collaborated with artificial intelligence lab DeepMind on the growing potential of AI to enhance mathematical creativity.

Geordie studied mathematics at the University of Sydney and completed his PhD at the University of Freiburg, Germany. After several years spent working as a mathematician overseas, Geordie returned to the University of Sydney in 2017. In 2018 he co-founded SMRI, the first mathematical research centre in NSW.

In 2018, Geordie was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society of the United Kingdom. He has been awarded with four major international mathematics prizes and the 2022 NSW Premier’s Prize for Excellence in Mathematics.