Des Johnston

Heriot-Watt Lectures

Lecturing, both undergraduate and postgraduate, pays the salary. The current courses are:

Heriot-Watt maths courses:

Semester 1 2025/26: F17ZA Maths for Data Scientists 1, JEP (Joint Education Programme) courses at Xidian University, Xi'an, China
Semester 2 2025/26: F17ZD Maths for Data Scientists 4, JEP (Joint Education Programme) courses at Xidian University, Xi'an, China

These are rounded off with supervising undergraduate and, increasingly, MSc projects.

Some slides on teaching at Xidian University in September 2025 are below (they can be scrolled through).

Xidian-2025.pdf

AIMS class pictures

Some pictures from stints lecturing at AIMS (African Institute for Mathematical Sciences ) in Ghana, South Africa and Senegal.

To quote their webpage: "The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a pan-African network of centres of excellence enabling Africa’s talented students to become innovators driving the continent’s scientific, educational and economic self-sufficiency."

I first got ensnared in the enterprise by Bernd Schroers, who was involved from the earliest days himself in South Africa when AIMS was set up by Neil Turok. Various other Heriot-Watt staff and former staff, such as Lyonell Boulton, Gabriel Lord and Jack Carr have also had long-standing commitments to AIMS.

AIMS Ghana course:

August/Sept 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019: Introduction to Computing and LaTeX

AIMS South Africa course:

Nov/Dec 2015: Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computing

AIMS Senegal course:

March/April 2017, 2018, 2019, May/June 2021(online), April 2023, 2024, March/April 2025: Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computing

Maths Masterclass (schools talk)

The Royal Institution supports mathematics masterclasses for school pupils around the UK. The talk below has appeared in the local sessions organized by Edinburgh University.

Maths Masterclass (schools) talk: Game of Life

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Heriot-Watt Lectures

AIMS class pictures

AIMS Lectures

Maths Masterclass (schools talk)