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Department of Mathematical Sciences

Professor Michael Magee awarded ERC Consolidator Grant

30 January 2026
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A black and white image of Professor Michael Magee facing the camera

This prestigious grant will support the innovative research program `Convergence of unitary representations.'

Professor Michael Magee from the Department of Mathematical Sciences has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant.

This funding will support a research program advancing our understanding of unitary representations, facilitate a team of early-career researchers, and bring international experts to Durham University through two workshops.

"This Consolidator grant will allow me to build a new research team at Durham and aim for similar successes as in my previous ERC Starting grant. I'm excited that the ERC have chosen to fund this research area which I believe will be extremely rewarding. This award is also a major step in building a strong and lasting legacy for Analysis here at Durham. I look forward to working with my new team to drive these research questions forwards,” explains Professor Magee.

Understanding Unitary Representations

Symmetries allow us to classify and predict behaviour in a wide range of systems. Representations characterise for us the different ways in which symmetries can act.
Understanding the unitary representations of even the simplest symmetry groups is one of the most persistent problems of mathematics.
Bringing together questions in Group Theory, Operator Algebras, Spectral Geometry, and Random Matrix Theory, the goal of the research program is to understand these unitary representations by developing cutting-edge methods in Analysis.

Opportunities for Early-Career Researchers 

The ERC funding will support two postdoctoral researchers and two PhD students, facilitating a team of early-career researchers contributing to this pioneering program of work. 

The new team members will join Professor Magee and the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

About the ERC and ERC Grants 

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research.  

The ERC Consolidator Grant is among the EU’s most prestigious and competitive. It provides leading researchers with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. 

Find out more