Hamilton Public Lecture

'How to Use Maths to Clean the Ocean'

Where does river water go when it enters the ocean? And what does this have to do with plastic pollution? Dr Tom Crawford explains how mathematical models are an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to understanding and saving our planet. Plus, hear the story of how Tom ended up sailing around Antarctica for 6 weeks in the name of maths.

This Hamilton Public Lecture will be held at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, starting at 5.30pm, 5th June. Opus Bar will open at 5pm.

Free parking is available on campus via Gate 2B, Knighton Road, Hillcrest from 4.30pm.

Seats are limited, so registering is essential. Please register your attendance by clicking on the 'Select tickets' button above and bring your eticket, with you to be scanned.

Dr Tom Crawford is a Mathematician at the University of Oxford where he holds the position of Early Career Teaching and Outreach Fellow at St Edmund Hall and Public Engagement Lead at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. He also runs an award-winning website and associated social media profiles.

Tom regularly appears on the BBC, Oxplore – Oxford University’s digital outreach portal, and Numberphile – the largest maths education channel on YouTube with over 3 million subscribers.

Tom previously worked for the Naked Scientists – an audio production company that specialises in broadcasting science news internationally via the radio and podcasts – where he could be frequently heard talking all things science and maths on BBC Radio 5 Live. Tom decided that being ‘naked’ on the radio wasn’t enough and so created his persona the ‘Naked Mathematician’ via the ‘Equations Stripped’ series where Tom strips back some of the most important equations in maths layer-by-layer so that everyone can understand.

Tom completed his PhD in applied maths at the University of Cambridge in 2016, where he conducted experiments looking at where river water goes when it enters the ocean. Before that, Tom spent four years studying maths at the University of Oxford. Tom has in fact been featured in several publications, links to all of which can be found on the profiles page.

When not misbehaving with numbers Tom can be found playing football, snowboarding and pretending he’s a rockstar. He currently has 8 maths-themed tattoos including the Navier-Stokes equations, the platonic solids and the first 120 digits of the number e…!

This year the University of Waikato is celebrating 60 years of teaching and ground-breaking research. Our anniversary in 2024 provides a unique opportunity to reflect on our rich history and exciting future.