Left: The Great Gate, Christ's College. Above: The Fellows' Building (1640), where my College rooms are situated
Above: Part of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, housing the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. Right: the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Receiving the Webby Award for Plus from Sam Donaldson (left) in San Fransisco, July 2001	The winners of the Pilkington Teaching Prizes, 2001 (I am second left)
Leading Christ's College students to their graduation ceremony, June 2019	The amplitude (vertical logarithmic scale) of the response to periodic forcing (frequency on horizontal scale) of a marginally stable fluid-dynamical system modelled with the spatially varying Ginzburg-Landau equation. Resonant peaks can clearly be seen near the global-mode frequencies

Dr Robert Hunt
University of Cambridge

Introduction

I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student at Trinity College, Cambridge (whose alumni include Newton, Byron, Bacon, Tennyson, Thackeray, Maxwell, Babbage and A. A. Milne) then spent two years as a College Lecturer at St Catherine's College, Oxford (whose alumni include Benazir Bhutto, Peter Mandelson, Richard Herring and Emilia Fox) where I was also a member of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. But since 1998 I have been a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge (whose alumni include Milton, Darwin and Ali G) where I am the Director of Studies in Mathematics as well as a Tutor, having been the Senior Tutor from 2008 until 2023. I am also a Lecturer in applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

I am passionate about education, in all subjects but especially in mathematics. I am enthusiastic about the public understanding of mathematics, regularly giving outreach talks to schools and adults alike. My main academic interests are in the applications of mathematics to the real world. In my spare time I like to dance, play the piano, walk, and get involved with musical theatre.

Positions currently held

I am the Director of Studies in Mathematics at Christ's College in the University of Cambridge, with responsibility for the College's teaching provision in mathematics, admissions interviewing of undergraduate applicants, and selection of postgraduate applicants. I teach undergraduate mathematics students at the College personally, mostly in applied mathematical topics, and advise them on course options. More information on admission to the College to study mathematics can be found in the section below.

I am also a Tutor at the College, which means that I have responsibility for the pastoral care and welfare of a group of students who are not mathematics students.

Finally, I am a Lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), part of the Faculty of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge. My research interests are listed in the section below.

Previously, I held the following posts:

• The Senior Tutor of Christ's College, 2008-2023, meaning that I was the executive Fellow of the College with overall responsibility for its educational provision: teaching, pastoral care and preparation for examinations, for all students in every subject. During my tenure the College ranked academically among the most successful of all Colleges in the University of Cambridge. Indeed, for several years until I stepped down it was the top-ranked College in the annual Tompkins Table.
• Deputy Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences (the place where the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem was first unveiled), 1999-2008
• Adviser to the House of Commons' Treasury Select Committee, 2002-2004
• Executive Editor (and before that, Editor, 1999-2001) of Plus, the online magazine for the general public about the applications of mathematics, part of the Millennium Mathematics Project
• CATAM Director for the Faculty of Mathematics, 1997-2000 (and later as assessor and advisor). CATAM is the computational coursework component of the Mathematical Tripos
• Stipendiary Lecturer in Mathematics at St Catherine's College in the University of Oxford, 1995-97
• Member of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (OCIAM) in the Mathematical Institute at Oxford University, 1995-97
• Systems Analyst (occasional) at Data Connection Limited, now known as Metaswitch Networks, 1983-87

Lecture courses (past and present)

• Dynamics for Part IA of the Mathematical Tripos, 2002-2007
• Mathematical Methods II for Part IB of the Natural Sciences Tripos, 1997-2002
• Computational Projects (otherwise known as CATAM) for Parts IB and II of the Mathematical Tripos, 1997-present
• Acoustics and Stability, jointly with Professor Nigel Peake, for Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, 1997-2003
• Mathematics in the Real World, a special subject course for the International Science Summer School at the University of Cambridge, 2005-2007
• Complex Methods for Part IB of the Mathematical Tripos, 2015-2019

Christ's College is a particularly friendly and high-achieving College of the University of Cambridge, with outstanding strength in mathematics. Its alumni include Charles Darwin, John Milton and Ali  G. As Director of Studies in Mathematics at Christ's College I interview all candidates for undergraduate admission to the College in mathematics. Details of the application process, including information about the University course, the College Fellows, Open Days, interviews and offers can be found here. More general information about applying to Christ's as an undergraduate, including details of Open Days, can be found here.

The application process for postgraduate students (Master's and PhD) is different and is described here.

Awards

• In July 2001 I was awarded one of Cambridge University's annual Pilkington Teaching Prizes in recognition of excellence in teaching at the University. I am one of only a very few lecturers currently in the Faculty of Mathematics who have received this award.
• Plus (the online magazine for the general public about the applications of mathematics, of which I was Editor) was named in July 2001 as the best Science site on the web by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences at its annual Webby Awards ceremony. I went to San Francisco to receive the award. See also our press release: winners in other categories that year included the BBC, National Geographic, Microsoft and Google, so we were in outstanding company!
• In 2005 the Millennium Mathematics Project (of which Plus is part) received the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education from Her Majesty the Queen.

• Applications of mathematics to commercial, industrial and financial problems
• Fluid dynamics, especially the hydrodynamic stability of wakes and shear flows
• Causality in partial differential equations
• The relationship between local and global instabilities in spatially-developing media; global modes
• Asymptotic analysis
• Special functions

University and College Societies

• Senior Treasurer of Cambridge Dancers' Club (the University's Ballroom and Latin dancing society)
• Senior Treasurer of Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Club (the University's Scottish Dancing society)
• Member (and past Chairman and committee member) of Cambridge University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. I have directed The Pirates of Penzance for the Society at the Cambridge Corn Exchange and The Sorcerer at the Minack open-air theatre cut into the cliff-side in Cornwall, as well as performing in many shows
• Member (and past committee member) of the Archimedeans (the Cambridge University Mathematical Society)
• Founding (emeritus) Senior Treasurer of Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society

Public Understanding

At the turn of the millennium, I was involved in the design and production of the Newton Institute's contribution to World Mathematics Year 2000: the Posters in the London Underground project. This series of 12 posters about the relevance of mathematics to the real world was displayed month by month in trains on the Tube, but ever since then the posters have gone from strength to strength, winning awards, starring in films including Agent Cody Banks and The Perfect Man, and even appearing on TV in Dawson's Creek and Dr Who. Long after the original poster project finished, the Newton Institute continues to receive regular requests for reprints from schools and Universities world-wide, and the posters have been reprinted several times. The original posters are available from the Mathematical Association.

The Treasury Select Committee has asked me on several occasions for advice on the charges made by credit card providers and ways to improve transparency and competition in the credit card market. I have been interviewed on BBC2, Radio 4 and in many national newspapers about this topic.

Education and Qualifications

• Ph.D., Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge: thesis entitled Spatially Developing Flows with Localized Forcing (supervised by the late Professor David Crighton, FRS)
• M.A., University of Cambridge
• D.Phil. and M.A., University of Oxford (by incorporation)
• M.Math. (Distinction) and B.A. (First Class Honours) in the Mathematical Tripos, Trinity College, University of Cambridge
• City of London School