History

The Centre was founded in 2008 with support from the Science Foundation Ireland Mathematics Initiative and the EU Marie Curie programme. It has since received further support from the European Science Foundation, the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology, Science Foundation Ireland and the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The Centre takes its name from Monsignor Pádraig de Brún (1889-1960) - renowned polymath, mathematician and former President of University College Galway.

2018 IRRP

The Centre was assessed in 2018 as part of a campus-wide Institutional Review of Research Performance. The Centre submitted research outputs to the review under the two general headings of (i) Group Theory and (ii) Analysis. The review reported that 26% of the publications under Group Theory were of a "4* quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour". This was the highest percentage of 4* publications by any research group in Science and Engineering at NUI Galway. The review reported:

"Overall Comments
There is clearly excellent, world‐class research being carried out throughout the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics. In each research group there is evidence of a strong and vibrant research culture leading to the publication of top‐quality papers in the leading journals of each research group.

Group Theory
A breadth of outstanding research is being done in the group, and the average quality is very high. The papers relating to group theory (broadly interpreted) are especially strong, but there is evidence of excellence across a wide range of fields.

Analysis
The papers reviewed include a number of interesting papers containing rigorous, professional mathematics of an internationally excellent standard. "