Horsham college host talks with specialists

Dr Nicos Georgiou, from the University of Sussex, visited Collyer’s on Friday (March 11) to present an enrichment talk entitled The Mathematics of Magic to a group of mathematics students.

At the end of the session, Dr Georgiou and deputy principal Steve Martell awarded prizes to Evan Fung, Ben Toth and Daniel Wright, who were the winning students of the mathematics challenge.

Head of maths Joel Hoffman, who organised the event, said: “Dr Georgiou entranced a group of over 30 students with a range of mathematical magic tricks, involving audience participation, such as reading their minds.

“After amazing our students, Nicos explained the mathematics behind the tricks in an engaging manner.”

Maths teacher Peter Mattock said: “I am incredibly proud of how the group actively engaged with Dr Georgiou’s fascinating, interactive and inspiring session. They thought it was marvelous.”

Mr Hoffman added: “Dr Georgiou set our students a series of interesting, but challenging mathematics problems. Our mathematicians were encouraged to submit their solutions to these online and after reviewing the entries, Dr Georgiou recommended Evan, Ben, and Daniel be awarded prizes for their excellent solutions.”

In other news, geology students did not allow Storm Eunice to ruin their talk with expert Dr Jodie Fisher on Friday, February 18.

The storm may have closed schools and colleges across Sussex but that didn’t stop Collyer’s geology students from learning as the session was delivered online by Dr Fisher, from Plymouth University, covering the use of binocular microscopes to study microfossils.

Dr Ian Carr, head of geology and environmental science, said: “Dr Fisher had travelled up from Plymouth and was staying in a hotel in the centre of Horsham.

“When Storm Eunice struck the in-person lecture had to be cancelled, but Dr Fisher still delivered the session, from the lounge via Zoom to 15 students.”

Dr Fisher is the founder of the Girls into Geoscience group, which has given four talks as part of the Kirsty Brown events.

The Kirsty Brown events are a series of talks at Collyer’s in memory of geologist and marine biologist Kirsty Brown, who studied geology at the college.

The Kirsty Brown Fund has covered the costs of the talks and activities in the area.

Mr Carr added: “The events have been enormously successful and attracted speakers from Portsmouth, Plymouth, Royal Holloway, Southampton, Birmingham Universities, and Imperial College London, and speakers from industry, on topics as diverse as microfossils to dinosaurs, plate tectonics and missions to Venus, and included three online talks on polar geology from Leicester University.”