Job Description

Ref Number

B04-06674

Professional Expertise

Research and Research Support

Department

UCL BEAMS (B04)

Location

London

Working Pattern

Part time

Salary

See advert text

Contract Type

Fixed-term

Working Type

Hybrid

Available for Secondment

No

Closing Date

05-Nov-2025

About us

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The Department of Mathematics at UCL is an internationally renowned department within one of the world's most prestigious universities. Since its beginning, mathematics at UCL has been enhanced by its many outstanding members of staff. Indeed, two of its students (and later staff) Professor Klaus Roth (1958) and Professor Alan Baker (1970) have gone on to win the Fields Medal. Another former member of staff Professor Tim Gowers won the Fields Medal in 1998 for work he did whilst at UCL.



Since 2011, the department has grown considerably, with over 100 academic and honorary staff members, including fellows of the Royal Society. The department also has approximately 30 Postdoctoral Research Fellows, around 120 PhD students and 50 MSc students. We welcome a regular stream of distinguished visiting academics from home and abroad. The broad range of research interests is reflected in the wide choice of courses available in the third and fourth years of the degree programmes, from spectral theory, groups and geometry to fluid mechanics and from mathematical ideas in biology to cosmology. Research funding in the department from EPSRC, ERC, NERC, Leverhulme Trust and the Wellcome Trust has grown significantly in recent years, more than doubling since 2014.



The department has internationally recognised research groups in pure and applied analysis; fluid mechanics; mathematical physics; geometry and topology; algebra, number theory and combinatorics; mathematical modelling in biology, finance, industry and society. There are regular departmental seminar series in financial mathematics and applied mathematics, as well as seminar series joint with other London universities in number theory, geometry and analysis. There are regular London-Paris meetings in analysis and number theory and a London-Brussels meeting in geometry. The department hosts an annual meeting in the dynamics of rotating fluids.

About the role

------------------


Applications are invited for two part-time Innovation Associate positions to work with Richard Hill and John Talbot on the project Domain Specific Documentation for Mathlib.



The aim of this project is to produce introductory online open-source guides to Lean and Mathlib in various areas of Pure Mathematics. The areas of mathematics to be covered will be chosen based on the expertise of the candidate. Each guide should appeal to graduate level mathematicians in the given area, with the aim of encouraging mathematicians who are curious about formalization into the field.



The main duties and responsibilities of the posts will be:


Writing accessible and engaging guides to Lean and Mathlib in various areas of Mathematics using the Verso documentation tool or similar.

Creating imaginative examples of Lean code to demonstrate the current state of Mathlib while introducing the Lean programming language to a non-expert audience of mathematicians.


The posts are available from 1/12/2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.



The posts are each funded for 100 hours in the first instance.

About you

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Candidates should either have, or be working towards, a PhD in Mathematics. They will be proficient in Lean and have a good working knowledge of Mathlib.



The successful candidate is expected to be proficient in LEAN, have a good working knowledge of Mathlib in one or more areas of Mathematics and have or be working towards a PhD in Mathematics. The successful candidate should have excellent communication skills, both written and oral and have a desire to communicate about formalisation to other mathematicians.



An outstanding candidate will have made numerous contributions to Mathlib and have a PhD in Mathematics or a related field.



For a full spectrum of duties and responsibilities as well as essential, and desired criteria please refer to the Further Particulars document attached to this advert.



If you have any queries regarding the vacancy or the application process, please contact Anna Rutherford (anna.rutherford@ucl.ac.uk).



Informal enquiries may be addressed to Richard Hill (r.m.hill@ucl.ac.uk) or John Talbot (j.talbot@ucl.ac.uk).



We particularly welcome female applicants and those from an ethnic minority, as they are under-represented within UCL at this level.

What we offer

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As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days) Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan

o Immigration loan o Relocation scheme for certain posts

On-Site nursery On-site gym Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service Discounted medical insurance

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.


We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.


Our department holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/.