Imperial academics announced as National Academy for Mathematical Sciences Fellows

Seven academics from Imperial College London have been appointed Fellows by the National Academy for Mathematical Sciences, as part of an initiative to put mathematics at the heart of national life and policy making.

The academics, six from the Department of Mathematics and one from the Department of Physics at Imperial, were announced today at an event held at the Royal Society. They form part of the Academy’s inaugural cohort of Fellows, following its inception in 2023. 

The seven Fellows from Imperial are: 

• Professor Kevin Buzzard, Professor of Pure Mathematics, Department of Mathematics 
• Professor Ana Caraiani, Royal Society University Research Fellow (Professor), Department of Mathematics 
• Professor Dan Crisan, Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics 
• Professor Claudia de Rham, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics 
• Sir Simon Donaldson, Chair in Pure Mathematics, Department of Mathematics 
• Professor Darryl Holm, Chair in Applied Mathematics, Department of Mathematics 
• Professor Guy Nason, Chair in Statistics, Department of Mathematics 

The Fellows of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences have been recognised for being leaders in their fields, through fundamental discoveries, exceptional work in education, or driving the application of mathematics across society as part of our critical national infrastructure. 

"The Academy for the Mathematical Sciences’ inaugural Fellows represent the very best of this national capability. Lord Vallance

They will collaborate on tackling challenges including pandemic preparedness, economic transformation, national security, and safe AI.  

Lord Vallance, Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear, in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), said: “Mathematics sits at the heart of the UK’s scientific and technological strength and is essential to the development of the industries of the future, in exciting fields like AI and quantum. 

"The Academy for the Mathematical Sciences’ inaugural Fellows represent the very best of this national capability, and I commend the Academy for bringing them together. Their expertise strengthens our security, boosts productivity and supports high‑quality jobs across the country, so it is only right that they are celebrated." 

Dame Alison Etheridge, founding President of the Academy, said: "I’m delighted to welcome our inaugural Fellows - individuals of exceptional distinction who collectively advance the mathematical sciences through discovery, leadership, education’ and real-world application.’

"As Fellows of the Academy, they will come together in service of the wider public good: bringing independent expertise to bear on national priorities, championing excellence in mathematics education, strengthening the UK’s research and innovation base, and helping to ensure that mathematics continues to deliver opportunity, resilience, and prosperity across our four nations."

Imperial’s Fellows 

Professor Kevin Buzzard

Having achieved full marks on the 1987 IMO and been the Senior Wrangler in the University of Cambridge's mathematics tripos, Kevin Buzzard did a PhD under Richard Taylor in algebraic number theory. After post-docs at the IAS and in Berkeley, and a Trinity College Cambridge research fellowship, he got a tenure position at Imperial College London, where he has been ever since.

He won a Whitehead prize in 2002 and the Senior Berwick Prize in 2008 for his work in number theory, and several awards for excellence in teaching, including Imperial's President's Medal for Teaching Innovation in 2020. He gave a plenary lecture at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians. More recently, he has been focusing on the computer formalisation of mathematics, and currently has an EPSRC Fellowship to work on the formalisation of a modern proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in the Lean theorem prover.

Professor Kevin Buzzard said: "It is very exciting that the work of myself and my colleagues has been recognised in this way, and we are looking forward to closer integration with government and decision makers. In particular, we welcome the chance to promote the role of the mathematical sciences in addressing essential national priorities in education, industry and business."

Professor Ana Caraiani

Ana Caraiani is a Royal Society University Research Fellow (Professor) at Imperial College London. Her area of research is algebraic number theory, particularly the Langlands program and arithmetic geometry. She is known for her work on the geometry and cohomology of Shimura varieties and on modularity over CM fields.

She obtained her PhD in mathematics from Harvard in 2012. Prior to coming to Imperial in 2017, she held temporary positions at the University of Chicago, at Princeton and the Institute for Advanced Study, and at the University of Bonn. She has won numerous prizes, including a Whitehead Prize in 2018, a Prize of the European Mathematical Society and a Leverhulme Prize in 2020, a New Horizons Prize in Mathematics in 2023, and the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in 2025. She was an invited speaker at the 2022 ICM in the number theory and algebraic geometry sections.

Professor Ana Caraiani said: "I'm really honoured to have been selected a Fellow of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences! I hope to use this opportunity to promote the importance of mathematics research and, equally, the importance of diversity and inclusivity within mathematics research. Both are topics about which I am passionate!"

Professor Dan Crisan

Dan Crisan is a Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College London, internationally recognised for his leadership in stochastic analysis, nonlinear filtering, and stochastic partial differential equations. His work has played a central role in connecting rigorous mathematical theory with applications in data assimilation, geophysical fluid dynamics, and climate science.

Crisan obtained his PhD in Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh in 1996, with a thesis on nonlinear filtering, following a first-class degree from the University of Bucharest. After postdoctoral research at Imperial College London and an assistant lectureship at the Statistical Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, where he was also a Fellow of Queens's College, he returned to Imperial in 2000 and was promoted to full professor in 2011.

Beyond research, Crisan is a prominent academic leader and community builder. He founded Imperial's Stochastic Analysis Group and directed the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in the Mathematics of Planet Earth, and is currently leading the Mathematics for Our Future Climate Centre for Doctoral Training. He has supervised more than 25 PhD students, received the Imperial President's Award for Excellence in Research Supervision, and served multiple times as Senior Coordinator of the International Mathematical Olympiad, reflecting his sustained commitment to research excellence and education.

Professor Dan Crisan said: “I am delighted to be elected a Fellow of the Academy for Mathematical Sciences. Much of my work has focused on using Mathematics to address challenges in climate and environmental prediction, alongside building communities and training the next generation. I see this Fellowship as an opportunity to continue strengthening the role of mathematics in tackling urgent societal problems.”

Professor Claudia de Rham

Claudia de Rham is a Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London, where she is also the Director of the Abdus Salam Centre of Theoretical Physics and Head of the Universe Research Community (Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics). She previously acted as deputy head of the Physics department at Imperial and held research positions in the US, Canada and Switzerland.

Claudia’s research challenges gravity, particle physics and cosmology in pursuit of a more fundamental description of the nature of our Universe and the laws that govern it. Her work has provided new perspectives to understand the origin of the Universe, its fundamental constituents and the fundamental laws of Nature that govern it.

An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is ranked among the most impactful researchers in applied mathematics and fundamental science of the past decade and her contributions have been recognised by numerous grants and awards, including ERCs, Simons Investigator Awards, the Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award, the Adams Prize for contributions to Mathematics, the Blavatnik Award, the Senior Beate Naroska Guest Professorship, the Swiss public Talent Award and the Perimeter Institute Inaugural Academic Leadership Excellence Award.

Claudia chairs the STFC particle physics theory consolidated grants panels since 2023 and the Swiss National Foundation Starting Grant MINT-B panels since 2022. She is the deputy chair of the Royal Society URF Appointment Panel in theoretical physics and serves on the Excellence Advisory Board of Hamburg University.

She is also the author of a popular science book, "The Beauty of Falling – A Life in Pursuit of Gravity”.

Professor Claudia de Rham said: "It is a great honour to be named an inaugural Fellow of the Academy of Mathematical Sciences. Beyond recognising our research field, this represents a shared opportunity to build an enduring community in which mathematics and theoretical physics bridge together across fields and departments to illuminate together the deepest structures of the universe."

Sir Simon Donaldson

Sir Simon Donaldson was born in Cambridge, England. He graduated in Mathematics from Cambridge University in 1980 and then moved to Oxford for graduate work, supervised by Sir Michael Atiyah and Nigel Hitchin. He gained his doctorate in 1983 and was appointed Professor of Mathematics in Oxford in 1985, at the age of 28. The following year he was awarded a Fields medal and was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society.

In 1998 he moved to a chair in Imperial College, London, which he has held since. In the period 2014-2023, he was also a Permanent Member of the Simons Centre for Geometry and Physics in Stony Brook, New York. He was knighted in 2012. His scientific awards include a Breakthrough Prize in 2014) and a Wolf Prize (2020. Donaldson has supervised around 50 doctoral students, from many different countries, over his career.

The centre of Donaldson’s mathematical research is in the field of differential geometry: his work emphasises the interaction between differential geometry, algebraic geometry, low-dimensional topology and theoretical physics.

Professor Simon Donaldson said: "The creation of the Academy of Mathematical Sciences  is an exciting, timely, initative and it is an honour to be part of it."

Professor Darryl Holm

Darryl D. Holm (b. 1947) is an American applied mathematician at Imperial College London whose work in mathematics has been dedicated to advancing knowledge, addressing real-world problems and inspiring future generations to influence research, policy, and practice across multiple scientific and engineering domains. As a recent example, the work of Holm and his collaborators in the European Research Council’s Synergy grant, entitled `Stochastic Transport in Upper Ocean Dynamics’ (STUOD), follows Hasselmann’s 2021 Nobel Prize paradigm by incorporating randomness into the ocean boundary layer, at which weather and climate meet oceanography. In combination with the new advances in data calibration, data analysis, data assimilation and machine learning being used in the STUOD project, one might hope that some timely progress on the urgent scientific problem of the prediction of climate change could be made. However, real progress in predicting the effects of climate change will take generations. This perspective must be built into the applied mathematics educational system.

Holm and his collaborators have supported two EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT). These multi-university CDTs are entitled `Mathematics of the Planet Earth’ (MPE CDT, 2014-2022) and `Mathematics for our Future Planet’ (MFC CDT, 2024-2032). These joint initiatives by Imperial, the University of Reading and Southampton University, along with the UK National Ocean Centre, have trained five cohorts of PhD students (MPE) and will train five more cohorts (MFC) working together to understand mathematical and computational techniques meant to predict climate change and its impact on extreme weather.

Professor Darryl Holm said: "I believe this role may help me have more influence in promoting project-based cohort learning for applied mathematics,  particularly focusing on education in Mathematical Sciences, including Environinmental Sustainability and Prediction of Changes in Our Future Climate."

Professor Guy Nason

Guy Nason is Chair in Statistics at Imperial College London, and Honorary Professor at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, and the University of Bristol.

His research interests include time series, network time series, multiscale methods, and official statistics. He was awarded the Guy Medal in Bronze by the Royal Statistical Society in 2001 and has held two research fellowships from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is currently Director of the NeST EPSRC Programme Grant and Deputy Chair of the Mathematical Sciences sub-panel for REF 2029. He is the President-elect of the Royal Statistical Society for 2026.

He has previously served as co-Chair of the Home Office Science Advisory Council; a member of the UK Statistics Authority’s National Statistician’s Expert User Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee on Consumer Prices (Technical); a Board Member of the International Centre for the Mathematical Sciences; Subject Matter Expert for the UK Cabinet Office Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority; Chair of the International Prize in Statistics Foundation; and Frank-Hansford Miller Fellow of the Statistical Society of Australia.

Professor Guy Nason said: "I am deeply honoured and delighted to be appointed as one of the inaugural Fellows of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. It is wonderful to see the mathematical sciences community coming together to speak with strength and unity. I look forward to supporting the Academy’s work in advancing the mathematical sciences and their vital role across science, technology, society and many aspects of everyday life."