Contact details
Prof. Shahn Majid
School of Mathematical Sciences
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Rd, London
E1 4NS, UK

+44 207 882 5450 Telephone
+44 208 981 9587 Fax
s.majid@qmul.ac.uk Email

Personal
Citizenship: British
Born: 1st November, 1960, Patna, India
Marital status: married, 2 children

Education
1972-79 William Ellis School, North West London
1982 B.A., 1st Class, Mathematics Tripos, Emmanuel College, Univ. Cambridge
1983 Part III, Distinction, Mathematics Tripos, Emmanuel College, Univ. Cambridge
1988 Ph.D., Physics, Harvard Univ., Thesis supervisor: C.H. Taubes (Math Dept.)
2020 Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Positions held
1983-85 Herchel Smith Emmanuel Scholar at Harvard University
1988-89 SERC Research Assistant at Dept. Maths, Swansea
1989-92 Drapers Fellow at Pembroke College, Univ. Cambridge
1989-91 SERC Research Fellow at Univ. Cambridge
1991-93 SERC Advanced Fellow at Univ. Cambridge
1992-99 Fellow at Pembroke College, Univ. Cambridge
1993-99 Royal Society Univ. Research Fellow at Univ. Cambridge
1995-96 Visiting Scholar at Dept. Mathematics, Harvard Univ.
1999-2001 Senior Research Fellow at Univ. Cambridge
1999-2003 Royal Society Univ. Research Fellow at Queen Mary, Univ. London
2001-03 Research Professor, Queen Mary, Univ. London
2003-present Professor of Mathematics, Queen Mary, Univ. London
1991-2004 Associate Editor, J. Knot Theory and Ramif.
1997-2002 Editorial Board, J. Math.Phys.
2003-2022 Editorial Board, Int. J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phys.
2003-07 Member of College of Reviewers for Canada Research Chairs program.
2003-07 Member of College of Reviewers for New Zealand Marsden Fund.
2003-04 Special Issue Editor for J. Math. Phys. volume `Quantum groups and noncommmutative geometry'
2002-05 Editorial Advisory Board, Elsevier Ency. Math. Phys., Academic Press.
2005 Visiting Professor, Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada. Six months.
2003-06 Principal Organiser 6-month Programme at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge 2006. Six months secondment
2006 Organiser of 3 workshops at Newton Institute as part of ibid
2006 Visitor, Mathematical Institute, Oxford. Six months sabbatical
2007 Visitor, DAMTP, Cambridge. Six months sabbatical
2008-12, 2016-present Member of Pool of Expert Reviewers European Science Foundation
2008-11 External Examiner for Pure Mathematics, University of Southampton

2009-12, 2017-present Member of Pool of Reviewers French National Research Agency
2009-10 Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow, Queen Mary University of London

2010-13 Director of Pure Mathematics, Queen Mary, Univ. London

2014 Visitor, Mathematical Institute, Oxford. 12 months sabbatical

2014 Panel member institutional grants 5 year review, for FCT, Portugal

2014-present London Taught Course Centre (LTCC) Director for Pure Mathematics

2017-present Member of Pool of Reviewers for French, Dutch, Polish national research councils

2017-present Member of EPSRC Electoral College

2019, 2020 Member of grants review panel Research Council of Norway

2021 Member of ESF grants review panel for Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation

2022, 2023 Member of grants review panel for Academy of Finland (2nd time as panel Chair)

2021, 2023 Visitor (2 x six months sabbatical) at Quantinuum

2023-present Book series SUMS editor for Springer-Verlag

2023-24 Chair of Foundation Exam Board (18 months), Queen Mary, Univ. London

2025 Member of FWO-ESF grants panel review panel, Brussels

Teaching
1985-88 Resident Tutor in Math/Physics at Eliot House, Harvard Univ.
1985-88 Teaching Fellow in Physics at Harvard Univ; awarded Harvard GSAS Certificate of Distinction in Teaching
1988-89 Supervision Teaching (Pure Maths) at Univ. College Swansea
1991-95 Supervision Teaching (Pure and Applied Maths) at Univ. Cambridge
1991 Lecture Course (Graduate Lectures `Quantum groups') at Univ. Cambridge
1993 Acting Director of Studies (Applied Maths) at Pembroke, Univ. Cambridge
1996 Lecture Course (20 hours `Quantum groups and noncommutative geometry') at Dept. Maths, Harvard Univ.
1998 Part III Lecture Course (24 hours `Quantum groups') at Univ. Cambridge
1998 NIA Lecture Course (16 hours `Mathematical Methods for the Natural Sciences') at Univ. Cambridge
2002 Lecture Course 2nd year Pure Maths (36hrs `Differential and Integral Analysis') at Queen Mary, Univ. London
2002-8 MSc Lecture Course (24 hours, `Topics in noncommutative geometry') at Queen Mary (x4).
2003-5, 2010-13 Lecture Course 2nd year Pure Maths (36hrs `Geometry II: Knots and Surfaces') at Queen Mary (x6)
2007-9, 2016-19 Lecture Course 2nd year Pure Maths (36hrs `Algebraic Structures I') Queen Mary (x5)
2007-9, 2014-15 Reading Course 3rd year Pure Maths (`Math Problem Solving') at Queen Mary (x3)
2008-9, 2010-11 Graduate Course (10hrs `Noncommutative geometry'), at the LTCC, London (x2)
2016-19 Foundation year (12 hrs `Essential foundation maths') at Queen Mary (x3)
2019 Lecture Course 3rd year Applied Maths (36hrs`Relativity') at Queen Mary
2020-24 Lecture Course 3rd year Pure Maths (36hrs`Linear Algebra II') at Queen Mary (x4)
2022, 2023 Graduate Course (10hrs `Mathematical aspects of quantum computing'), at LTCC (x2)

Grants held or supervised
1991 SERC Visitor (Ya.S Soibelman)
1991 Royal Society Visitor (D. Gurevich)
1994-96 EU Human Capital Mobility Student (U. Meyer)
1994-97 EPSRC Research Assistant (M. Chu, T. Brzezinski)
1997-98 Royal Society/NATO Postdoc (P. Hajac)
1997-99 EU Marie Curie Postdoc (B. Drabant)
2000-02 EU Marie Curie Postdoc (X. Gomez)
2003-06 EPSRC Research Assistant (Yu. Bazlov)
2004-05 EU Marie Curie Postdoc (M. Zabzine)
2006 Royal Society Visitor (T. Ivanova)
2008-10 EU Marie Curie Postdoc (J. Lopez)

2016-17 EU Marie Curie Postdoc (A. Pachol)

2021-23 EU Marie Curie Postdoc (X. Han)

2024-27 Leverhulme Project Grant Postdoc (X. Han)

Completed PhD students

1996 U. Meyer
2000 R. Oeckl

2004 E. Raineri

2006 J. Grabowski

2012 J. Klim

2013 R. O’ Buachalla

2015 W. Tao

2019 L. Williams

2019 R. Aziz

2022 A. Ghobadi

2023 J. Argota-Quiroz

2024 E. Lira-Torres

(Current: C. Liu, F. Simao, L. McCormack)

Research Interests
Mathematics and Theoretical Physics: Non-commutative Geometry, Quantum Groups,
Algebra, Category Theory, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Computing

Publications
1988- Approx 245 research papers e.g. J. Algebra (x16), Commun. Math. Phys. (x10), Lett. Math. Phys. (x14), Class. Quant. Grav. (x8), JHEP (x 3), J. Math. Phys. (x35)
1988 PhD Thesis, Noncommutative Geometric Groups by a Bicrossproduct Construction: Hopf Algebras for Physics at the Planck Scale, Harvard Archives
1995 Foundations of Quantum Group Theory, Cambridge University Press
2002 A Quantum Groups Primer, L.M.S. Lecture Notes Series #292, Cambridge Univ. Press
2008 On Space and Time ed. and coauthor, Cambridge Univ. Press
2020 Quantum Riemannian Geometry (with E.J. Beggs), Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften Vol 355, Springer

Honours
1993 Bleuler Medal

1998 Faces of Maths

Public
2006 Panelist on `An evening of speculation’ (on space and time), Cambridge Univ.

2007 Plus Magazine interview and podcast

2008 12-week Blog on space and time at Cambridge Univ. Press blogsite

2008 Inaugural Lecture at Queen Mary University of London

2009 Talk at the Cambridge Science Festival

2009 Video interview intended for the New York World Science Fair

2010 Appearance on national TV `BBC Watchdog’ (doing a little algebra...)

2013 Keynote at Techfest 2013, Mumbai

2013 Appearance on national TV `BBC4 Some boffins telling jokes’

2014 Video about my work on Faculti Media

Other
1980-83 Micro-electronics design engineer (part time) at Notting Dale ITC, London
1988- Approx 390 talks given at conferences & seminars

1989- Refereeing for leading journals and international research councils
1992- Organisation of regular weekly seminar series on quantum algebra
2001- Numerous scientific conference advisory boards

Google h-index 60 from approx 15,000 citations