My research centres on the behaviour of the prime numbers. This is a really exciting area of maths where chaos and order seem to get along with each other quite well.

Adrian Dudek is a 25-year-old PhD student with a passion for inspiring others in mathematics and has designed an engaging maths program for Year 5 and 6 students that is run out of Melba Copland Secondary School. 

“The point is to help the students see that maths can be both exciting and useful. We want them to enjoy the activities and then associate that enjoyment with maths. This will inspire them to keep on doing it,” he said.

“Some students start to thrive and you can see them pick it up and really start loving maths. It’s the sort of work that I like doing because they’re from schools that are considered to be disadvantaged yet we can still offer them something original and stimulating.”

Adrian is driven to share his passion for mathematics with the community and he feels that all researchers should actively communicate the importance of their work.

“I think that people have a right to ask, why is your work useful? Why is science useful? And I think we should have good answers to those questions,” he said.

After completing his undergraduate studies in Western Australia, Adrian moved to Canberra to understand more about the most mysterious phenomenon in mathematics: the prime numbers.

“People have been interested in prime numbers for thousands of years, just out of pure human curiosity. And while it is easy to tell somebody what a prime number is, it is often difficult to answer questions about prime numbers beyond that,” he said.

“My research centres on the behaviour of the prime numbers. This is a really exciting area of maths where chaos and order seem to get along with each other quite well.

“It’s also a very small area of research in Australia. There’s my supervisor and me and his two other PhD students and that’s pretty much it for this kind of prime number research in Australia.”

Adrian adds that having skills in mathematics can be very valuable, because it makes you question the world.

“When you do a major in mathematics you get some really powerful tools. Not only do you get critical thinking and quantitative skills, but maths can be very useful if you link it with other areas of science, computing or finance,” he said.