UBC mathematician joins UK Royal Society

UBC researcher Gordon Slade, known for his work on the mathematical study of critical phenomena and phase transitions, was elected as a fellow of the United Kingdom’s Royal Society today. He joins 11 other UBC Science fellows elected to the Society over the past decades.

Slade’s research is in the fields of probability theory and mathematical physics, especially statistical mechanics. He has been with UBC since 1999, after spending 15 years at McMaster University.

“Science is a great triumph of human achievement and has contributed hugely to the prosperity and health of our world,” said Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society.

“In the coming decades it will play an increasingly crucial role in tackling the great challenges of our time including food, energy, health and the environment. The new Fellows of the Royal Society have already contributed much to science and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them into our ranks.”

With collaborators, Slade developed the ‘lace expansion' into a powerful and flexible method for the analysis of high-dimensional critical phenomena in many mathematical models of interest in physics, including the self-avoiding walk and percolation.

This year, 50 distinguished scientists were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society--10 as new Foreign Members. The Society promotes science and its benefits, recognizing excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, fostering international and global co-operation, education and public engagement.