Toby Christopher O'Neil

Curriculum Vitae (OU
Format), January 2009
1. HIGHER EDUCATION
Degrees
- 1988 – 1991 B.Sc (Hons) (Mathematics), class 1,
University of Bristol.
- 1991 – 1995 Ph.D. (Mathematics): ‘A local version of the projection theorem and
other results in geometric measure theory‘, University of
London.
Awards
- 1991 Hasse Prize for best final year mathematics
undergraduate.
- 1992 Valerie Myerscough Travel Prize,
funding attendance at international conference.
2. APPOINTMENTS AND EXPERIENCE
- 2007 - present Senior Lecturer, Open University.
- 1999 – 2007 Lecturer in Analysis, Open University.
- 1997 – 1999 Temporary Lecturer in Mathematics, University of
Edinburgh.
- 1994 – 1997 Research Assistant, University of St Andrews,
EPSRC-funded position to develop theory of multifractals.
3. CONTRIBUTIONS TO OPEN UNIVERSITY TEACHING AND STUDENT SUPPORT
(a) Organisational responsibilities
M338 Topology (30 points)
- 2007. Coordinator of Diagnostic Quiz.
- 2005 – present. Course Team Chair (Presentation) and E&A Board Chair.
Responsible for coordinating assessment for first and subsequent presentations.
- 2005 – 2006. Deputy Course Team Chair
(Production). Responsible for overseeing final steps of production, ensuring quality and timeliness of material
handovers.
- 2004 – 2006. Block-coordinator. Responsible for overseeing teaching strategy and coordinating storyline of
course materials.
- 2003 – 2005. Academic Coordinator for software. Responsible for defining content and structure of
two-thirds of software. (2–3 hours study time)
M337 Complex Analysis (30 points)
- 2004. Course Team Chair (Presentation), E&A Board Chair. Responsible for overseeing
production of assessment material, and for producing Course Life Review Report (resulting in life of course being
extended to 2009).
M203 Introduction to Pure Mathematics (60 points)
- 2001 & 2005. Course Director of summer school. (Two
weeks total.)
(b) Contributions to teaching materials
M338 Topology (30 points)
- 2005 – present. Author of 2 TMAs (half of continuous assessment) per year, and main author of exam papers
(two-thirds of content).
- 2000 – 2006. Primary author of 7 units (~ 350 pages, ~ 120 study hours).
- 2000 – 2006. Critical
reader of all units and text (13 units, ~ 650 pages).
- 2002 – 2006. Author of half of the Exercise Book for whole course
(35 pages).
- 2005. Author of half of Computing Guide (15 pages, 2 study hours).
- 2005. Author and Presenter of audio
component for one-third of computer software (40 minutes).
- 2004. Academic Editor of one unit. Responsible for checking
correctness and consistency of mathematical content.
M208 Pure Mathematics (60 points)
- 2003 – 2005. Critical Reader for Analysis blocks. (8 units, ~120 study hours)
Responsible for advising on teaching of epsilon-delta definition of continuity to ensure consistency with the
approach
of M338.
M435 Metric and Topological Spaces and Geometric Topology (30 points)
- 2001 – 2004. Member of E&A Board. Responsible for
checking of TMA and examination questions for correctness.
M835 Fractal Geometry (30 points)
- 2000. Critical Reader of all course materials. Responsible for advising and checking
correctness of all course notes and exercises.
M337 Complex Analysis (30 points)
- 1999 – present. Member of E&A Board, responsible for authoring at least one TMA per
year.
- 2000. Author of Diagnostic Quiz (half a unit) to help potential students determine whether they are ready
for the
course. Still in use today.
MST121/MS221 Using Mathematics/Exploring Mathematics rewrite, (60 points)
- 1999 – 2001. Critical Reader of all course
texts (~30 units).
- 2000. Presenter of audio commentary (30 minutes) on calculus for MST121.
(c) Contributions to teaching methods and student support
M835 Fractal Geometry (30 points)
- 2009 - present. Associate Lecturer.
M338 Topology (30 points)
- 2006. Regular participant in student FirstClass course conference. Organiser of FirstClass
tutor conference. Organiser and main speaker at tutor briefing on launch of M338.
- 2005. Responsible for TMA assessment
strategy: one short TMA early on in the course designed to allow fast (formative) feedback.
- 2004. Devisor of
computer-based software for teaching of epsilon-delta definition of continuity.
M337 Complex Analysis (30 points)
- 2007 – present. Moderator of student FirstClass conference.
M203 Introduction to Pure Mathematics (60 points)
- 1999 – 2005. Tutor at summer school. (Two weeks each year.)
M431 The Lebesgue Integral (30 points)
- 2000 Associate Lecturer for final course presentation.
Other
- 2002. Internal examiner, PhD Thesis (John Wordsworth).
4. CONTRIBUTIONS TO ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
- 2008 - present. Elected member of University Research Committee.
- 2008 - present. Member of building refurbishment group.
- 2007 – present. Director of Pure Mathematics Group (about 25 staff).
Responsible for workload planning (with Head of Department).
- 2007 – present. Member of Undergraduate Mathematics Programme Board. Responsible for ensuring
representation of views of pure mathematicians.
- 2006 – present. (Elected) member of University Senate (4 year term).
- 2006 – present. Member of Special Appeals Committee of Senate. This committee is the final body of appeal
within university for students facing disciplinary proceedings.
- 2006 – 2007. Member of Faculty Course Life Review Panel.
Responsible for ensuring that course life review documentation is complete and coherent before it is considered by
the
Faculty’s Quality Committee.
- 2006. Deputy Director of Pure Mathematics Group.
- 2006. Member of interview panels for Maths
Online Project. (One permanent lectureship, two temporary lectureships.) These positions are a joint Faculty and
University initiative to try to solve the problems of communicating mathematics online. Responsible for ensuring
that
appointees had relevant academic and technical skills.
- 2005 – present. Member of interview panel for tutor appointments for MSc in
Mathematics programme, following reorganisation of the Mathematics MSc programme.
- 2005 – 2007. (Elected) member of Faculty Academic Rewards
Advisory Committee (3 year term).
- 2005 – 2006. User representative on
JLB2 building project to rehouse M&C and IET staff on old Jennie Lee Library site. Responsible for representing
views
of pure and applied mathematicians on appropriate working environment.
- 2005. Member of interview panel for Staff Tutor
appointment in R08.
- 2005. Deputy Head of Pure Mathematics Department.
- 2003 & 2006. Member of Faculty Web Steering Group,
advising on structure and content of faculty website Responsible for ensuring that chosen design was
suitable for both Mathematics and Computing. In 2006, responsible for ensuring smooth transition from local
pure departmental website to Faculty-driven single website following departmental merger.
5. RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
Research Interests
Real Analysis and Geometric Measure Theory. In particular, the
structure of sets and measures in Euclidean spaces, and the relationship with classical problems in Analysis.
Research Funding
- 2007. LMS ‘Scheme 2’ Visitor Grant, £600 to enable visit of Ondrej Zindulka (Prague).
6. POSTGRADUATE STUDENT SUPERVISION
2003 - 2007
Walter Johnston (part-time) - joint supervision with Professor P. J. Rippon (OU).
7. EXTERNAL ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Membership or offices held in learned societies and professional bodies
- 1992 – present. Member of London Mathematical Society.
- 1994 – present. Member of American Mathematical Society.
- 1995 – present. Member of Edinburgh Mathematical Society.
External examining
- 2006. University of St Andrews, M.Phil. Examiner.
- 2002. University of Jyväskylä (Finland), Ph.D. Examiner.
Contributions to conferences
- 2007. Local organiser of 36th Summer Symposium in Real Analysis. Held at the University of Oxford.
- 2003. Co-organiser of the 2003 St
Andrews Colloquium: a three day conference held at the University of St Andrews.
- 2001. Lecturer at the University of Cambridge Science Summer School. Responsible for writing and delivering a
five day undergraduate course in fractal
geometry to international students.
Invited lectures
- December 2008. Keynote speaker at 'Workshop in Harmonic Analysis and Geometric Measure Theory', University of Glasgow.
- August 2007. Keynote speaker at
conference in ‘Real Analysis, Geometric Measure Theory, PDE and Banach Spaces’, University of Warwick.
- 2006. Applied
Analysis seminar, University of Oxford; Analysis seminar, University of Birmingham; Analysis seminar, University of
Glasgow.
- 2005. Lecture to undergraduate mathematics society, the Archimedeans, University of Cambridge.
- 2004. Probability
and Statistics seminar, University of Bath; Analysis seminar, University of Edinburgh.
- 2003. Workshop in Analysis and
Geometric Measure Theory, Banff International Research Station (Canada); Functional Analysis seminar, University of
Oxford.
- 2002. Departmental Colloquium, University of Jyväskylä (Finland); Dynamical Systems seminar, University of
Manchester.
- 2000. Analysis seminar, University of Edinburgh; Analysis seminar, Imperial College, London.
- 1999. Geometric
Measure Theory seminar, Rice University (USA).
- 1998. Analysis seminar, University of Edinburgh; Analysis seminar,
University of Maynooth (Ireland).
- 1997. Departmental Colloquium, University of Jyväskylä (Finland).
- 1996. Millican
Lecture, University of North Texas (USA).
- 1995. Analysis seminar, University of Edinburgh.
8. OTHER INFORMATION
- 2000. Invited visitor to Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland
for five weeks. Host paid for all local costs.
9. PUBLICATIONS
Chapters in books
- T. C. O’Neil (2002) ‘Geometric Measure Theory’, Hazewinkel, Michiel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mathematics,
Supplement
III, Springer Academic Publishers, pp.174–177, ISBN 978-1- 4020-0198-7. Online version.
Articles in refereed journals
- M. Csörnyei, B. Kirchheim, D. Preiss, T. C. O’Neil and S. Winter (2008) `Universal singular sets in the calculus of
variations', in
Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, pp 371-424. DOI: 10.1007/s00205-008-0142-4. ISSN:
0003-9527, E-ISSN: 1432-0673. [PDF] [PS] (25%).
- T.C. O’Neil (2007) ‘The Hausdorff dimension of visible sets of planar continua’ in Transactions of the American
Mathematical Society, pp.5141-5170. ISSN: 0002-9947, E-ISSN: 1088-6850. Available
electronically from the journal.
- E. Järvenpää, M.
Järvenpää, T. C. O’Neil and P. MacManus (2003) `Visible parts and dimensions’ in Nonlinearity, 16, pp.803–818. ISSN
0951-7715. [PDF]
[PS] (25%).
- M Csörnyei, D. Preiss and T. C. O’Neil (2001) ‘The composition of two derivatives has a fixed point’, Real Analysis Exchange, 26, pp.749–760. ISSN 0147-1937. [PDF] [PS] (33%).
- T. C. O’Neil (2001) ‘Graphs of continuous functions from R to R are not purely
unrectifiable’ in Real Analysis Exchange, 26, pp.445–447. ISSN 0147-1937. [PDF] [PS].
- T. C.
O’Neil and K. E. Hare (2000) `N-fold sums of Cantor Sets’, Mathematika, 47, pp.243– 250. ISSN 0025-5793. [PDF]
[PS] (75%).
- T. C.
O’Neil (2000) ‘The multifractal spectrum of projected measures in Euclidean spaces’ in Chaos, Solitons and Fractals,
11,
pp.901–921. ISSN 0960-0779.
- T. C. O’Neil and K. J. Falconer (1999) ‘Convolutions and the geometry of multifractal measures’ in Mathematische Nachrichten, 204, pp.61–82. ISSN 0025-584X. (40%).
- T. C. O’Neil (1997) ‘The multifractal spectrum of quasi self-similar measures’ in Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 211, pp.233–257. ISSN
0022-247X.
- T. C. O’Neil (1996) ‘A local version of the projection theorem’ in Proceedings of the London Mathematical
Society, 73, pp.68–104. ISSN 0024-6115. [PDF] [PS]
- T. C. O’Neil and K. J. Falconer (1996) ‘Vector-valued multifractal measures’ in
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, 452, pp.1433–1457. ISSN 0962-8444. [PDF] [PS] (60%).
- T. C. O’Neil (1995)
‘A measure with a large set of tangent measures’ in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 123,
pp.2217–2220. ISSN 0002-9939.
Conference contributions (non-refereed)
- T. C. O’Neil ‘Singular sets in the calculus of variations’ in Real Analysis Exchange 30th
Summer Symposium Conference Reports (June 2006), pp.101-104, published as a supplement to Real
Analysis Exchange, 32 number 1. ISSN 0147-1937. [PDF] [PS]
- 33rd Winter School in Abstract Analysis (2005),
Czech Republic.
- T. C. O’Neil (2004) ‘The dimension of visible sets’ in Real Analysis Exchange 28th Summer Symposium Conference Reports, (June
2005), pp.69-72, published
as a supplement to Real Analysis Exchange, 31 number 1. ISSN 0147- 1937. [PDF] [PS]
- 32nd Winter School in Abstract
Analysis, (2004) Czech Republic.
- Fractal Geometry and Stochastics III, (2003) Germany.
- 55th British Mathematical
Colloquium, (2003) Birmingham
- 29th Winter school in Abstract Analysis, (2001) Czech Republic.
- Summer school on
Geometric and Dynamical Aspects of Measure Theory, (2000) Hungary.
- Fractal Geometry and Stochastics II, (1998)
Germany.
- Number Theory and Dynamical Systems, (1997) University of York.
- 25th Winter School in Abstract Analysis,
(1997) Czech Republic.
- Ergofract 95, (1995) Gran Canaria, Spain.
- Weekend Analysis Seminar, (1995) Weinberg,
Austria.
- Fractal Geometry and Stochastics, (1994) Finsterbergen, Germany.
- Conference in Real Analysis and Measure
Theory, (1992) Capri, Italy.
All other works
- T. C. O'Neil (2009) 'A note on the parameterisation of Besicovitch sets',
available for download from Arxiv.
- T. C. O’Neil (2001) ‘How big is the Milky Way?’ in Plus,
an online mathematics magazine for sixth formers,
http://plus.maths.org/issue15/features/oneil/index.html.
- T. C. O’Neil (1998) a review of ‘Techniques in Fractal
Geometry’ in Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical
Society.
Publications in press
Created:2 October 1996
Modified:10 March 2009
Back up to the introduction.