We will soon be closing applications for STEM Youth Camp 2022, so it is time to introduce this year's lecturers:
Professor Mahir Hadžić sends us his career story from London and invites you to apply for SYC 2022 (at the link) and have the chance to attend his lecture.
"I am a full professor of mathematics at University College London, and the main components of my job are research, teaching, and mentoring doctoral students and postdocs. My interests lie at the intersection of mathematics and physics, and can most easily be described as the use of rigorous mathematical methods to better describe physical phenomena. Some of the most exciting and beautiful mathematical questions are motivated by processes in nature. For example, the rigorous analysis of the mathematics of fluids leads to one of the most important problems in modern science – how to describe turbulence and various singular phenomena such as implosion or the formation of shocks? For the last few years I have been working intensively on describing the collapse of stars, which mathematically leads to the study of so-called nonlinear partial differential equations. This is a set of problems in which the theory of gravity (Newton's or Einstein's) meets the theory of fluids, which has its beginnings as far back as the 18th century and the famous works of Leonhard Euler.
What interests me most in all my work are the connections and interactions between different areas of mathematics and beyond. Formally, I work in so-called mathematical analysis, but the problems I work on require intuition and knowledge of geometry (such as, say, Einstein's theory of relativity), mathematical physics, astrophysics, etc. This clash and combination of ideas is a very exciting aspect of my scientific work and often provides the foundation for a mathematical description of the natural phenomena around us. The methods I use are also useful for a whole range of other applications – for example in biology (cell motion, collective motion) or materials science (metamaterials, etc.).
Research requires dedication and good work habits. It can be highly specialised or multidisciplinary, depending on the field and your interests. The undergraduate mathematics programme is one of the most popular at our university because it is very flexible. A typical student can choose between a career in the financial sector, IT, the civil
service, or education. As for an academic career - as with any vocation, I would recommend that you think carefully before deciding on a career at a university. I love my vocation and enjoy thinking for a long time (sometimes for years) about a challenging problem – usually because the questions I deal with are of a fundamental nature – but for some people such a dynamic simply does not suit them, and they may prefer research that is paired with industrial applications (for example, the connection between Machine Learning and the IT sector).
Regardless of the type of research, researchers are part of a larger scientific community, which is always very diverse and international. For this reason I travel often, give seminars or talks at conferences and, most importantly, work with colleagues with similar interests at an international level. This is an important and very dynamic aspect of my everyday working life – science has no barriers in that sense. In addition to research, I regularly give lectures and mentor students, which is of course an important and fulfilling part of my professional life.
I finished Gimnazija Meša Selimović in Tuzla and then enrolled in mathematics in Vienna. The choice of university was very natural, because I had known since primary school that I wanted to be a mathematician. My interests were largely shaped by my participation in mathematics competitions, which made the decision about university education easier. Going to Vienna was in a certain sense a good compromise between studying at a good university and geographical proximity to Bosnia. Of course, my understanding of a “good” education at that time was limited, but there is no doubt that this decision had
far-reaching consequences for the rest of my career. While I was still in secondary school, I thought about going directly to the USA for undergraduate studies, but the application process seemed too complicated to me – today, fortunately, pupils have many more resources at their disposal and it is easier to get competent advice on the process of applying to foreign universities.
As I was finishing my master's studies in Austria, I decided that I would like to continue my postgraduate studies in the USA at Brown University. The main reason was the prestige and quality of that university in my scientific field, and all of this was based on advice I received from my master's thesis supervisor. At that point I was much better prepared for the application process compared with secondary school. The decisive factors for admission to prestigious universities were certainly letters of recommendation from my undergraduate professors and good grades. I would advise anyone interested in doctoral studies to start thinking early in their undergraduate studies about potential referees and possible topics for an undergraduate (or master's) thesis, because this will play a major role in further applications.
The doctoral programme in mathematics at Brown itself does not differ from a typical such programme in the USA: if you are admitted, you can expect a full scholarship lasting five years – which is also the typical length of doctoral studies in the USA.
If you are studying in BiH and would like to go on to prestigious doctoral studies abroad, then alongside hard work and study it is a good idea to get in touch with professors abroad with whom you can, for example, do a summer project. Such programmes exist, and what is important is that this can add an extra dimension to your CV, as well as the possibility of getting another letter of recommendation for further applications."
