Welcome, Talulah

The London Institute for Mathematical Sciences is delighted to welcome actress, author and tech entrepreneur Talulah Riley to its board of Trustees.

Riley, who is doing a physics and mathematics degree at the Open University, first became interested in the field at school when she witnessed the double-slit experiment, in which light behaves as both a wave and a particle. It changed her life, she says. She later pursued the passion with the encouragement of her then husband, the tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Musk arranged for her to sit in on classes at Caltech's prestigious Physics 11 course, taught by Prof. Tom Tombrello. The late Prof. Tombrello was a founding trustee of the London Institute. As a trustee, Riley will help fundraise for a $7.5m junior research fellowship programme in memory of Prof. Tombrello, which we are creating with Caltech, as well as raise awareness of the Institute outside the scientific community.

The London Institute is a new kind of research organisation that is dedicated to speeding up discovery. Our focus on peak performance, full-time commitment to research and the level of support we offer our scientists empower them to make the biggest breakthroughs.