2024 Teaching Staff
Tutors
Eve Vidalis (Director & Tutor)
Originally from Sheffield, Eve studied mathematics as an undergraduate and Part III student at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, before moving home to the University of Sheffield for PhD studies in combinatorics and algebraic geometry.
She is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at Pennsylvania State University.
She has been a maths admissions interviewer for Cambridge since 2018, an undergraduate supervisor since 2019, a STEP marker since 2020 and a senior examiner since 2021. She has given some talks accessible to school students for the UKMT.
Eve led the first summer school in her third year at Murray Edwards and has directed it since. As well as planning the school and working as a tutor, Eve leads the mathematical writing seminars and combinatorics sessions.
Arij Asad (Deputy Director & Tutor)
Originally from Sheffield, Arij studied mathematics as an undergraduate at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge before moving to the University of Bristol for PhD studies in fluid dynamics and mechanical engineering.
Arij was a student at the summer school when it first ran in 2018, was a TA in 2019 and 2021, and has been a full member of the teaching staff since 2022.
She is passionate about and involved in lots of outreach and widening participation, and teaches undergraduate mathematics to mathematicians and engineers at Bristol. She will mark STEP for the first time this year.
In her spare time, she enjoys football and playing guitar.
Hannah Barnicoat-Hill (Tutor)
Originally from Hastings, Hannah is a second-year undergraduate student studying mathematics at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. Hannah was a student at the summer school in 2021, and first worked as a tutor on the 2023 summer school.
On her year between completing sixth form and beginning her degree, to all intents and purposes she worked as an A Level maths teacher at her old school.
Hannah is pictured here with her cat Gizmo.
James Munro (Tutor)
James did his undergraduate through PhD studies at Trinity College, Cambridge. He has been involved in outreach since he was a student, including working on the STEP study school in Cambridge before it became the STEP Support Programme.
He is now the Admissions and Outreach Coordinator for maths at Oxford and runs the Oxford Online Maths Club. He is broadly responsible for making sure that the Mathematics Admissions Test (MAT) gets set and marked each year. He also runs tutorials (small group teaching) for a variety of courses with a slant towards applied maths at New College, Oxford. He is interested in ways in which Oxford can do more to represent the wider UK population.
James gave one of the lectures at the 2023 school, and is returning this year as a tutor.
Will Oxley (Tutor & Mechanics Lead)
Originally from Rotherham, Will studied maths at undergraduate and masters level at the University of Sheffield before moving to the University of Cambridge for PhD studies in fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics and applications in solar / astrophysics.
He has marked STEP since 2021, and became a senior examiner for STEP in 2023. He has been a supervisor for first-year undergraduate courses since the start of his PhD studies.
This will be his first year teaching on the summer school.
As well as teaching workshops and supervisions, Will will lead the mechanics sessions.
Supervisors
Joanna Tsang (Supervisor)
Originally from Colchester, Joanna studied maths as an undergraduate at Queens' College, Cambridge, where she developed an interest in fluid mechanics and went into PhD studies on the physics of granular flows and avalanches. Combining a mathematical background with a longstanding interest in music and acoustics, Joanna now works as a software engineer, developing audio technology for augmented reality applications.
Joanna has supervised undergraduate students in applied maths and theoretical physics since 2015, as well as STEP and MAT. Joanna is passionate about outreach in science and technology, and is organizer for the Cambridge chapter of codebar, a charity that runs free programming workshops. She maintains a set of notes and demos on mechanics, scientific computing, random processes, and other topics.
In her spare time she sings and studies early English music, and is learning Italian.
Speakers
Beth Romano (Speaker)
Originally from New York, Beth completed her undergraduate degree at Wellesley College, majoring in English and mathematics. She moved to Boston College for PhD studies in representation theory and number theory. Then, she moved to Cambridge, to work as a teaching associate at Gonville and Caius College and later as a postdoctoral researcher, fellow and tutor at Murray Edwards College. She then took up a junior research fellowship at Somerville College Oxford before finally accepting a lectureship at King's College London.
Beth is passionate about teaching and outreach, and has experience of both the Oxford and Cambridge admissions processes as an interviewer. She has also taught undergraduate maths at Cambridge, Oxford, and King's as a supervisor and lecturer for courses for first years through master's students.
Beth will be delivering one of the enrichment talks.
Kasia Rejzner (Speaker)
Kasia did her undergraduate degree in physics, at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow (Poland). Despite the strong inclination towards mathematics, she was initially also interested in experimental high energy physics and did an internship at CERN in 2008 and in Paris 6, a year after. In 2009 she finished her undergraduate education and started a Ph.D. in Hamburg (Germany), in mathematical physics. Kasia graduated two years after and started a post-doc position at the Mathematics Department in Hamburg. The next step was an INdAM (Marie Curie actions) Fellowship in Rome Tor Vergata. In 2013 she joined the Department of Mathematics at the University of York, where she is currently a professor. She is passionate about teaching mathematical physics and talking about her research which concerns problems at the intersection of the quantum world and gravitational physics.
Kasia will be delivering one of the enrichment talks.
Kasia Warburton (Speaker)
Kasia did her undergraduate through PhD studies in mathematics, specialising fluid dynamics and the modelling of glaciers, at Trinity College, Cambridge before moving to Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA for postdoctoral studies. She is now back in Cambridge as a Junior Research Fellow.
Throughout her PhD studies, she supervised a variety of undergraduate courses.
Kasia is heavily involved in Olympiads in the UK, including having served as the Team Leader for the European Girl's Maths Olympiad.
In her spare time she enjoys playing ultimate frisbee.
Kasia was a tutor on the 2021 school, and will return this year to give one of the enrichment talks.
Luciano Rila (Speaker)
Originally from Brazil, Luciano completed his undergraduate degree and masters at the Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) in Electrical Engineering. He moved to London in 1993 for his PhD studies in image processing at Imperial College.
He has been in the Department of Mathematics at UCL since 2008 where he is currently the Admissions Tutor. He is passionate about promoting mathematics to young people and making mathematics a more inclusive space. In 2020 he co-founded the LGBTQ+STEM @UCL Network.
Luciano will speak and be able to answer student questions during the admissions session.
Prasun Ray (Speaker)
Prasun is originally from the U.S., and he completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell before moving on to do a PhD in fluid dynamics at Stanford.
Currently a Senior Teaching Fellow in Applied Mathematics and the admissions tutor for maths at Imperial College, Prasun will speak about how Imperial uses STEP in admissions and answer student questions in the admissions session.
Orsola Rath Spivack (Speaker)
Orsola's first degree at the Università degli Studi of Milan was in Physics. After a stint teaching Mathematics and Physics in secondary schools in Milan, and then Applied Mathematics at Tel-Aviv University, she moved to the UK in 1984 to study for a PhD in Applied Mathematics with Professor Derek Richards at the Open University. In 1988, she took up a post-doctoral research position at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Following a 5 year career break in 1991 to look after her two young children, she joined Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge in 1995 with a Daphne Jackson Research Fellowship, and started working in the Faculty of Mathematics. She was subsequently Lu Gwei Djen Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish, before becoming Graduate Tutor from 1999 until 2015, and Director of Studies in Mathematics from 2007 until 2021. Since 1995, she has worked on various research projects. She has also contributed to a variety of outreach activities over the years, becoming Faculty Admissions Officer in 2015. In October 2021, Orsola joined Newnham College as a Fellow, College Lecturer, and Director of Studies in Mathematics.
Orsola will speak about admissions to Cambridge, and answer any questions on interviews, student life, and anything else prospective students want to know about.
Gavin Brown (Speaker)
Gavin is a Professor of Mathematics at Warwick and is the Admissions Officer for the mathematics degrees. He took STEP a long time ago, and was a student at Warwick and then took Part III Mathematics at Cambridge. He has been involved a little in admissions at Oxford and Loughborough, as well as now at Warwick.
Gavin will speak about how Warwick use STEP, and be around to answer any questions students have about applying for maths at Warwick or studying maths at Warwick.
Evening Staff
Sian Dullay
Sian and is a medical student at Murray Edwards going into her fourth year. Aside from loving her subject, she enjoys learning languages, movies, quizzing and travelling!
Sian will be around in an evening and organising some games and other activities.