B^4 – STEM-ing the Gap
(Building Bridges and Breaking Barriers)
13:30–16:30 – 26 June 2025
University of Exeter, The Forum, Seminar Room 1
Organisers: Layal Hakim (she/her) and Tony Samuel (he/him)
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B^4 – STEM-ing the Gap
Funded by the London Mathematical Society and the Department of Mathematics at University of Exeter, and following the UK’s flagship mathematics meeting the joint BMC-BAMC, we will be hosting an EDI career’s insight event B^4 – STEM-ing the gap in the afternoon (13:30–16:30) of June 26, 2025. The shape of this afternoon event is to highlight diversity in STEM careers and how one can transition from academia to industry and vice versa. We will have a series of short talks by guest speakers from industry and academia, followed by a panel discussion. Our guest speakers include: Howard Haughton (he/him), Philip Hölzenspies (he/him), Tyler Kelly (they/he), Natalia Konstantinova (she/her) and Sara Lombardo (she/her).
Register now at https://sites.google.com/view/b4-stem-ing-the-gap/registration.
Please note, there is no registration fee for attending the event, and one does not need to be a participant of the BMC-BAMC. We also have some funds for partial support towards travel to attend the event. Please email requests for funding with an estimate of expenses to the organisers: Layal Hakim and Tony Samuel.
A poster advertising B^4 – STEM-ing the gap can be downloaded here.
Confirmed Guest Speakers
Confirmed Guest Speakers
Howard Haughton (he/him)
Howard is a distinguished scholar and professional with expertise in finance, technology, mathematics, and equity, diversity, and inclusion. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Computer Science from Wolverhampton University and advanced finance qualifications from the Universities of York and Oxford. Howard has held key positions at Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, and JP Morgan, as well as major financial institutions in the Caribbean.
Howard Haughton (he/him)
Howard is a distinguished scholar and professional with expertise in finance, technology, mathematics, and equity, diversity, and inclusion. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Computer Science from Wolverhampton University and advanced finance qualifications from the Universities of York and Oxford. Howard has held key positions at Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, and JP Morgan, as well as major financial institutions in the Caribbean.
As a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, his research focuses on computational finance, AI-driven financial modelling, and risk analysis. He has developed an AI/ML policy framework promoting ethical and inclusive practices across various UK sectors. Howard has advises governments and financial institutions on corporate governance, ethics, treasury management, risk management, capital markets solutions, and sustainable economic development.
As a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London, his research focuses on computational finance, AI-driven financial modelling, and risk analysis. He has developed an AI/ML policy framework promoting ethical and inclusive practices across various UK sectors. Howard has advises governments and financial institutions on corporate governance, ethics, treasury management, risk management, capital markets solutions, and sustainable economic development.
An advocate for diversity in mathematics, Howard has been a keynote speaker at the Black Heroes of Mathematics events. He chairs the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee at the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and serves as the Inclusive Leadership Lead Consultant at The Diversity Trust. His book, Woken Leader, shares insights on achieving inclusive leadership and enhancing workplace well-being.
An advocate for diversity in mathematics, Howard has been a keynote speaker at the Black Heroes of Mathematics events. He chairs the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee at the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and serves as the Inclusive Leadership Lead Consultant at The Diversity Trust. His book, Woken Leader, shares insights on achieving inclusive leadership and enhancing workplace well-being.
Philip Hölzenspies (he/him)
Philip first pursued an academic career, studying scheduling for real-time embedded systems at both the University of Twente and the University of St Andrews. His focus was on making models, used to guarantee timeliness, composible in both computational and cognitive definitions. The move into industry was into the field of cloud-scale services. This started on the application layer, where he worked on Child Safety (detection and moderation systems) at Facebook. Later, Philip moved to the infrastructure layer, working on Hack, which progressively added types to PHP, in a very large, very active repository, which enabled him to be able to work on languages to help manage cognitive complexity. Five years ago, he started working at Apple on configuration language Pkl, which was open sourced last year. It is designed to manage very large and complex cloud-scale services, and the underlying infra-structure. Philip has since left Apple to relocate back to the Netherlands, and, at the time of writing this, is taking a sabbatical.
Philip Hölzenspies (he/him)
Philip first pursued an academic career, studying scheduling for real-time embedded systems at both the University of Twente and the University of St Andrews. His focus was on making models, used to guarantee timeliness, composible in both computational and cognitive definitions. The move into industry was into the field of cloud-scale services. This started on the application layer, where he worked on Child Safety (detection and moderation systems) at Facebook. Later, Philip moved to the infrastructure layer, working on Hack, which progressively added types to PHP, in a very large, very active repository, which enabled him to be able to work on languages to help manage cognitive complexity. Five years ago, he started working at Apple on configuration language Pkl, which was open sourced last year. It is designed to manage very large and complex cloud-scale services, and the underlying infra-structure. Philip has since left Apple to relocate back to the Netherlands, and, at the time of writing this, is taking a sabbatical.
Tyler Kelly (they/he)
Tyler Kelly is a Professor of Pure Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Their research is in algebraic geometry and mirror symmetry. They have served on the London Mathematical Society’s Committee for Women and Diversity in Mathematics, been co-chair of the LGBTQ+ STEM Project, and is on the REF 2029 People and Diversity Advisory Panel.
Tyler Kelly (they/he)
Tyler Kelly is a Professor of Pure Mathematics at Queen Mary University of London and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Their research is in algebraic geometry and mirror symmetry. They have served on the London Mathematical Society’s Committee for Women and Diversity in Mathematics, been co-chair of the LGBTQ+ STEM Project, and is on the REF 2029 People and Diversity Advisory Panel.
Natalia Konstantinova (she/her)
Natalia is a staff data scientist at BP and serves on the Advisory Board of the UK's Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. She is an AI enthusiast with almost 15 years’ experience in the application of Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, tech and machine learning to real world problems.
Natalia Konstantinova (she/her)
Natalia is a staff data scientist at BP and serves on the Advisory Board of the UK's Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. She is an AI enthusiast with almost 15 years’ experience in the application of Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, tech and machine learning to real world problems.
Her role at BP is to develop standards and best practices to accelerate the adoption and implementation of Machine Leaning enabled solutions, to help various parts of the business to come up with data strategy to drive data and analytics adoption.
Her role at BP is to develop standards and best practices to accelerate the adoption and implementation of Machine Leaning enabled solutions, to help various parts of the business to come up with data strategy to drive data and analytics adoption.
She obtained her PhD from the University of Wolverhampton and has worked in various fields such as machine translation, ontologies, information extraction, dialogue systems, chat bots and general machine learning. Natalia is a strong believer that mathematics and modern technology can transform businesses and our everyday life.
She obtained her PhD from the University of Wolverhampton and has worked in various fields such as machine translation, ontologies, information extraction, dialogue systems, chat bots and general machine learning. Natalia is a strong believer that mathematics and modern technology can transform businesses and our everyday life.
Sara Lombardo (she/her)
Sara Lombardo (she/her)
Sara believes that embracing diversity – in all its aspects – is key to successfully tackle research challenges and ultimately to do excellent science. She is a keen advocate of the role of mathematics in society, and of the unique contribution that mathematical sciences bring to other STEM disciplines and to the economy. She also believes that it is important to promote interdisciplinary research as well as to emphasise the importance of fundamental research.
Sara believes that embracing diversity – in all its aspects – is key to successfully tackle research challenges and ultimately to do excellent science. She is a keen advocate of the role of mathematics in society, and of the unique contribution that mathematical sciences bring to other STEM disciplines and to the economy. She also believes that it is important to promote interdisciplinary research as well as to emphasise the importance of fundamental research.
Sara is a specialist in the area of integrable systems, a lively area of mathematics bringing together algebra, analysis and geometry to tackle fundamental problems often motivated by mathematical physics. Her research has been supported by a wide range of funding bodies, both in pure and applied mathematics, including EPSRC and The Royal Society. She was awarded, among others, three fellowships – from EPSRC, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET).
Sara is a specialist in the area of integrable systems, a lively area of mathematics bringing together algebra, analysis and geometry to tackle fundamental problems often motivated by mathematical physics. Her research has been supported by a wide range of funding bodies, both in pure and applied mathematics, including EPSRC and The Royal Society. She was awarded, among others, three fellowships – from EPSRC, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET).
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