Student research bursaries in mathematics and statistics 2023

The School of Mathematics and Statistics supports an annual Student research bursaries programme. 

One of this year's students was Abigal Bourne who shared her experiences and results through a blog published on the The British Society for the History of Mathematics.

Abigail writes:

This is the first experience I’ve had of doing some independent research. I was really grateful to be chosen for the bursary. I really enjoyed it and it has further cemented my desire to pursue postgraduate education, hopefully a PhD.

I was transcribing letters from 1848–1850 written to Thomas Turner Wilkinson from Thomas Stephens Davies. They were mathematicians who were regular contributors to several periodicals of the day, which printed questions and answer sections for different mathematical problems.

I found it interesting that the mathematicians of their time didn’t limit themselves to one particular area of study; they were scientists, historians, poets, musicians and more. I have been inspired by them to broaden my interests and potentially my study path to include more than just maths.

One of Abigail's supervisors Brigitte Stenhouse writes:

Supervising Abi was an absolute delight; she worked incredibly hard to transcribe hundreds of letters, which illuminate the hurdles and joys experienced by working-class mathematicians in 19th-century Britain. These transcriptions will be immensely valuable for future research.

As an early career researcher, the summer research project was an excellent opportunity for me to gain experience as a supervisor and mentor. I really enjoyed getting to work directly with an OU undergraduate student, and it was useful to reflect on the numerous comparisons Abi thoughtfully drew between her own experiences as a mathematician and those of the mathematicians’ whose letters she transcribed.