Vicky Neale 1984 - 2023 1 January 2024

Many of you will know that Vicky Neale was due to become the president of the MA in April 2024. Unfortunately, we learnt of the passing of Vicky in May 2023. Many friends and members attended the memorial service for Vicky, held on the 11^th November 2023 in the Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford.

Bill Richardson, long standing member, and past president of the MA attended the memorial service and has shared an account of the afternoon.

“There were more than 100 people in the Lecture Theatre. Ages ranged from 0, a baby strapped to its mother, to at least 78. The object was to celebrate the life which was so tragically cut short.

The list of speakers covers a range of activities. These include her recent time at Oxford, earlier years at Cambridge, her work in conjunction with the UKMT, NRICH and, in its smaller way, the Mathematical Association. In many ways, I feel the outstanding contributions were those of her parents. Her father, Brian, spoke quite early and her mother, Barbara, towards the end.

My own contact with Vicky was via the UKMT, quite a few years ago, when I was involved with the Challenges. At that time, Vicky was taking part in things like the UKMT Summer Schools. More recently, I dealt with Vicky's joining the MA Council by submitting her details to Companies' House.

There were one or two MA people present that I recognised. Most significantly, one of the speakers was Julia Gog who is an MA Honorary Member. I was able to speak to her for a while. Also present was Sylvia Neumann, widow of Peter who was the 2015-2016 MA President”.

Bill Richardson

13/11/23

The Programme for Vickys' Memorial can be found HERE  | Memorial Video

We are very sad to learn of the passing of a friend and colleague Vicky Neale. 

Vicky was born in Worcester in 1984. She was a talented mathematician from an early age and, whilst at secondary school, became very involved with the UKMT Challenges and follow-on rounds.

After A-levels she went to Trinity College, Cambridge. Having gained her PhD, she moved to Balliol College, Oxford. Her talents were many but she inspired students and others to love mathematics!

She joined the MA Council at Easter this year having agreed to be President Designate. Had the normal course of events been followed she would have been MA President for the year April 2024 to March 2025. Sadly that will not happen.

We pass our condolences to her family, friends and colleagues.

You can listen to Vicky's Maths Cancer podcasts here:  maths.ox.ac.uk/node/61685