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CATZ FELLOWSOckendonof Mathematicsexpertise in mathematical modelling andscientific computation will be available toKAUST as its own level of knowledge andresearch activity grows. In particular, OCCAMwill collaborate with KAUST on an increasingnumber of projects ranging from energy to theenvironment and from multi-scale modellingto computer visualisation. OCCAM has recentlyappointed an Algerian technology translator,who will travel extensively between Oxfordand KAUST, helping to ensure that OCCAM- andKAUST-based researchers have the best possiblelines of communication.In order to secure such an extraordinary grantfrom KAUST, OCCAM had to come with a verystrong case for support. Only last October,KAUST invited applications for funding fromsome sixty universities round the world. Onesuch letter landed on the desk of the researchfacilitator for the Oxford Centre for Industrialand Applied Mathematics (OCIAM), who passedit on to John. He and his colleagues developed aresearch vision for OCCAM based on four pillars:OCIAM, the Centre for Mathematical Biologyand, in the computing laboratory, the NumericalAnalysis Group and the Computational BiologyGroup. In a hectic five-month period, the draftproposal, the pre-proposal and the full proposalwere written. OCCAM went on to receive itsrecord-breaking grant on 1 April 2008. It is theonly centre outside the United States to receiveone of four $25 million awards from KAUST.OCCAM opened its doors on 1 October 2008.The new centre, which marks a major expansionfor Oxford’s Mathematics Department, occupiesthe top floor of the Gibson Building, on thesite of the old Radcliffe Infirmary. When fullyoperational, approximately sixty people willbe employed there, including (in addition toa director and deputy director), four peopleholding tenured faculty posts, four seniorresearch Fellows and – at any one time –approximately eight DPhil students, fifteen postdoctoralresearchers and a number of studentsreading for Master’s degrees. One of the newposts, that of a Chair in Mathematical Modelling,will be based at St Catherine’s from Michaelmas2009, further enhancing the College’s reputationfor research excellence in the field of applied andcomputational mathematics. Catz will be the onlycollege in Oxford to be home to two professors ofApplied Mathematics in addition to a readershipin the subject.After studying for his DPhil at St John’sCollege, John Ockendon was made a Fellowof St Catherine’s College in 1965, and aUniversity Lecturer in Applicable Mathematicsat Oxford in 1976. Since 1989, he has beenthe Research Director of the Oxford Centrefor Industrial and Applied Mathematics.He was made an Advisory Professor at FudanUniversity in Shanghai in 2001. ProfessorOckendon also chairs the Scientific ResearchCommittee of the Smith Institute for AppliedMathematics and System Engineering, anorganisation that exists to foster and coordinatemathematics-in-industry in theUK and, more recently, in Europe.ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/53