news
campusreview.com.au
Kurdish refugee wins
prestigious Fields Medal
The mathematician was recognised
for his work on polynomials.
K
urdistan is normally in the news for
negative, war-related reasons. Not
this time. A Kurdish refugee has been
awarded the ‘Nobel prize of mathematics’:
a Fields Medal.
Caucher Birkar was granted asylum in
the UK after obtaining an undergraduate
degree in Iran. Born in 1978 in Marivan,
a town of 200,000 in a mountainous
region of northwestern Iran (Eastern
Kurdistan), he called it “an unlikely
place for a kid to develop an interest in
mathematics”.
The Cambridge University
mathematician was recognised for
ACU goes hard
on soft drinks
Most of its vending machine offerings
now designated healthy.
T
he Australian Catholic University has included a ‘no added
sugar’ policy in its rule book, becoming the first Australian
university to do so.
After analysing vending machine offerings across its campuses
and discovering that over half the beverages contained extra sweet
stuff, they removed soft drinks, some flavoured waters, fruit drinks,
cordials, iced teas, energy drinks and sports drinks. Remaining are
6
categorising different kinds of polynomial
(a type of algebraic) equations.
Polynomials can be used, among other
applications, to express energy, inertia and
voltage difference. They are also used in
engineering and financial modelling, as
they can aid computers in representing
the 3D curves and surfaces of objects.
“I’m hoping that this news will put a
smile on the faces of those 40 million
[Kurdish] people,” he said.
While studying at the University of
Tehran, he stared wistfully at photographs
of Fields Medal winners on the wall,
thinking he would never be one of them.
“To go from the point that I didn’t
imagine meeting these people to the
point where someday I hold a medal
myself — I just couldn’t imagine that this
would come true,” he told Quadrant
magazine.
Fields Medals are awarded to up to
four people, every four years, to people
under 40. The other 2018 Fields Medal
winners are Peter Scholze (University
of Bonn), Akshay Venkatesh (Institute of
Advanced Studies), and Alessio Figalli
(ETH Zurich). ■
drinks like water, milk, coconut water, diet soft drinks and essence-
only flavoured waters.
Now, three-quarters of its machines’ contents – food and drink –
are designated healthy under Australian Dietary Guidelines.
The move, which accords with NSW Department of Health
guidelines, forms “part of the university’s commitment to a
sustainable and healthy environment in which to study and work”,
said Professor Anne Cummins, deputy vice-chancellor (students
learning and teaching).
Dr Jason Wu of the George Institute for Global Health, who
managed the analysis with ACU, said: “We know when people are
presented with healthier choices they choose them. When drinks
such as these were removed from sale in universities overseas,
people … simply swapped for a drink not loaded with sugar.”
Although internal reactions have ranged from bitter to
sweet, ACU hopes other institutions will follow suit. The University
of Sydney mulled over a soft drink ban in 2016, to no avail. Health
faculty academics highlighted the contradiction in advocating
sugar reduction while profiting from the sale of sugary drinks.
ACU’s initiative forms part of a local, and global, anti-sugar
movement. For example, in August, the Queensland government
announced it will ban sugary drinks and unhealthy snacks from its
public hospitals and healthcare facilities. Britain, joining scores of
other countries, implemented a sugar tax this year.
Sensing the cultural shift, companies like Coca-Cola have
invested in healthier products like water and expanded their range
of diet drinks.
Research suggests that consuming one soft drink a day leads to
an annual weight gain of 7kg. ■