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Two PhD students were awarded by the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) at its 68th Annual Meeting on 12 December, held at the University of Auckland. 

Second year PhD candidate Noah Vinod was co-winner of the top student prize, the 2024 AustMS B. H. Neumann Prize for Most Outstanding Student Talk, while Madeleine Kyng received an Honourable Mention for the award. 

Noah, whose winning talk was titled "Well-posedness for a Magnetohydrodynamical Model with Intrinsic Magnetisation", is supervised by Professor Thanh Tran.

"After completing his undergraduate study at UNSW with a University Medal, Noah started his PhD program under my supervision", said Professor Tran. "The medal gave him inspiration at commencement but was also sort of an onus probandi on him. He appeared to be shaky initially when trying to find ways to prove himself, especially when he compared himself with other PhD students.

"I convinced him that he should just be himself, forget about the medal, and enjoy mathematical research as much as he can. Gradually, Noah has adapted to research study and progressed brilliantly. Well done, Noah, and congratulations again!"

This isn't the first time that Noah has been recognised for excellence: As an undergraduate he was awarded a 2022 University Medal, the most distinguished academic award to be bestowed upon an undergraduate, and he won the 2021 Buchwald Award for the best performance in mathematics leading to Honours in Applied Mathematics. 

Fourth year PhD candidate Madeleine Kyng, who received an Honourable Mention for the 2024 AustMS B. H. Neumann Prize,Ìýis supervised by Professor David Harvey. Her talk at the conference was titled "Computing zeta functions of algebraic curves using Harvey's trace formula".

Throughout her undergraduate and postgraduate studies, Madeleine has garnered various awards including the Best Talk for Pure Mathematics at the 2021 School of Mathematics and Statistics Postgraduate Conference. She also received the School's Women in Mathematics and Statistics Prize in both 2014 and 2015.

Since its inception in 1985, several UNSW students have received the B. H. Neumann Prize. Most recently, Associate Lecturer Dr Yudhi Bunjamin was a co-winner of the prize during his PhD studies in 2019. Associate Lecturer Dr Alan Stoneham received an Honourable Mention in 2021 while he was a PhD student, and current PhD candidate Christian Bagshaw received one in 2022.

Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Professor Andrew Francis, congratulated Noah and Madeleine. 

"Please join me in congratulating our research students Noah Vinod and Maddie Kyng for their successes in the B. H. Neumann Prize awarded at the Australian Mathematical Society meetings", he said. 

"These prizes are significant achievements, as there are always very many excellent student talks. There are always excellent talks that miss out, so getting through to receive an Honourable Mention or the Prize itself is something to be very proud of. Well done Maddie and Noah!"