Recent appointments and awards



  • 2025 Wallenberg guest professor at Mittag-Leffler Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

  • 2022 Professional Achievement Award (Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.) The Professional Achievement Award recognizes outstanding achievement in any professional field. This award honours alumni whose achievements in their fields have brought distinction to themselves as well as credit to Illinois Institute of Technology. The Professional Achievement Award is one of the highest distinctions the university can bestow upon a graduate.

  • 2021 George Szekeres medal, Australian Mathematical Society.
    Publicity for the medal

  • Hannan medal award ceremony at government house October 20, 2021: governor's welcome speech.

  • 2021, Hannan medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science
    Publicity for the medal
  • Laureate cocktail celebration (4th August 2017) at the Augustus Short room, Mitchel building

  • 2017, Australian Laureate Fellowship,
    Congratulatory letter from the federal minister for education,
    Laureate celebrations with Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (SCGP) director,

    Great to catch up with @UniofAdelaide mathematician Prof Mathai Varghese, recently awarded @arc_gov_au Australian Laureate Fellowship pic.twitter.com/hNHId8uwAL

    — Mike Brooks (@ProfMikeBrooks) June 16, 2017

  • Annually an ARC Grant Assessor Acting DVCR's letter

  • 2018-2019, Managing Guest Editor, JGP special issue on Connes' 70th birthday conference, Shanghai.

  • 2017-2022, appointed Honorary Professor at MSI, Australian National University, Canberra.

  • 2016 - current, Editor, Letters of Journal of Geometry and Physics.
    The Journal of Geometry and Physics now also accepts Letters, allowing for rapid dissemination of outstanding results in the field of geometry and physics. Letters should not exceed a maximum of 5 printed journal pages (or contain a maximum of 5000 words) and should contain novel, cutting edge results that are of broad interest to the mathematical physics community. Only Letters which are expected to make a significant addition to the literature in the field will be considered. submit online.

  • 2017-2018, Managing Guest Editor, JGP special issue on String Geometries, Dualities and Topological Matter

  • 2016, Herbert Howe Lecture series, Department of Mathematics, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado (May 17-20).
    See this link for a report on the public lecture, or the AAS newsletter item.

  • 2016-2018, Member, Sectional Committee 1: Mathematical Sciences, Australian Academy of Science.
    Further information on election of candidates to the Australian Academy of Science can be found here.

  • 2015-2017, Member, Elizabeth and Frederick White Research Awards Committee,
    Australian Academy of Science. Further information on the award can be found here.

  • 2014, Silver Jubilee staff memento and certificate, recognising 25 years of outstanding service to the University of Adelaide.

  • 2014 - current, Editor, Journal of Geometry and Physics, Elsevier, Netherlands.
    (ERA Journal Ranking = A)

    The Journal of Geometry and Physics (JGP), founded in 1984 and published by Elsevier, is a well established international journal in Mathematical Physics with an excellent reputation of stimulating the interaction between Geometry and Physics by publishing primary research, feature and review articles which are of common interest to practitioners in both fields. We welcome the submission of well written papers containing new and significant results in this interface, submit online

  • 2014, String theory and contemporary culture: Vibrating strings, similar to the vibrations of violin strings, give rise to fundamental particles such as quarks and gluons, which in turn are the constituents of protons, neutrons, and electrons etc., establishing a close connection between music and string theory. Since science drives our economy, changing our culture by creating a popular awareness and understanding of science is an important goal of ours. An example is the recent consultancy role of Bouwknegt and myself on a production of the Australian Dance Theatre entitled Multiverse, where the main choreographer, Garry Stewart, has used duality in string theory to generate ideas for a wonderful dance piece on both artistic and intellectual levels. Multiverse premiered at the Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre on 10 July 2014 and we were honoured guests.

  • 2013, elected Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia.

  • July 2013, appointed Elder Professor of Mathematics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide.

  • July 2013 - June 2016, ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award (level E), University of Adelaide, Adelaide.

  • October 2013 - October 2016, appointed Adjunct Professor, Australian National University, Canberra.

  • 2012, Outgoing Chair, Selection Committee for the AustMS Gavin Brown Prize.

  • 2012 - 2016, Editor in charge of the new section,
    Global Analysis, Noncommutative Geometry, and the Mathematics of String Theory,
    Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
    (ERA Journal Ranking = A)

    We welcome the submission of well written papers (of length not exceeding 15 pages)
    containing new and significant results in either Global Analysis, Noncommutative Geometry,
    or the Mathematics of String Theory, to be considered for publication in PAMS.

  • Finalist, 2011 South Australian Scientist of the Year.

    Presentation photograph with higher education minister Hon TOM KENYON MP

  • 2011, elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS).

    Presentation photograph with AAS President Suzanne Cory
    To watch the short video of my presentation at the AAS, click here.

  • 2011, Chair, Selection Committee for the AustMS Gavin Brown Prize. This is the inaugural year for the prize, meant for an outstanding single article, monograph or book consisting of original research in Pure Mathematics, authored by a society member and published within the past 6 calender years. Here are the rules.
    (N. Trudinger and X-J. Wang awarded the prize in 2011)

  • October 2010 - October 2013, Adjunct Professor, Australian National University, Canberra.

  • 2010, Guest Editor for two special issues,
    Journal of the Australian Mathematical Society, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
    (ERA Journal Ranking = B)
    The special issues are the proceedings of the MPIM conference, Geometry and Quantum Field Theory,
    June 20-26, 2010, to mark the occasion of Alan Carey's 60th birthday.

  • 2010- Member, Advisory Board of the Gazette of the AustMS

  • 2009- Director, Institute for Geometry and its Applications (IGA), University of Adelaide.

  • 2009, Chair, Selection Committee for the AustMS Mahler Lecturer. The Mahler Lectureship is awarded every two years to a distinguished mathematician who preferably works in an area of mathematics associated with the work of Professor Kurt Mahler, who is usually expected to speak at annual meeting of the AustMS and visit as many universities as can be reasonably managed.
    (Terrence Tao selected)

  • 2008 - 2012, Editor in charge of the new section,
    Global Analysis, Noncommutative Geometry, and the Mathematics of String Theory,
    Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
    (ERA Journal Ranking = A)

  • October 2007 - October 2010, Adjunct Professor, Australian National University, Canberra.

  • January 2007 - December 2011, ARC Australian Professorial Fellow (level E), University of Adelaide, Adelaide.

  • 2006 - 2009, Vice-President (portfolio: Annual Conferences), Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS).
    2006 - 2009, Member of the Steering Committee, AustMS.
    2006 - 2009, Member of the Council of the AustMS.
    2007, Member of the program committee for the AustMS annual conference, Latrobe University, Melbourne.
    2008, Convenor of the Oz program committee for the 7th Australia - New Zealand Mathematics Convention, Christchurch, NZ.
    2009, Member of the program committee for the AustMS annual conference, UniSA, Adelaide.
    2010, Member of the program committee for the AustMS annual conference, University of Quuenland, Brisbane.

  • March - June 2006, Senior Research Fellow, Erwin Schrödinger Institute, Vienna.

  • January 2006 - , Personal Chair, full Professor (level E), University of Adelaide, Adelaide.
    January-February, July-November 2006, ARC Senior Research Fellow (level E) University of Adelaide, Adelaide.

  • August 2001 - December 2005, ARC Senior Research Fellow (level D) University of Adelaide, Adelaide.

  • August 2000 - August 2001, Clay Mathematics Institute Research Fellow and
    Visiting Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

  • July 2000, Australian Mathematical Society Medal.

  • July 2000, Fellow of the Australian Mathematical Society.

  • Return to Mathai's Webpage.