Rate My Professor Mathew Pugh

Dr. Mathew Pugh is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University, where he has been employed since 2011 following a Research Associate position from 2008 to 2011. He obtained his BSc in Mathematics in 2004 and PhD in Mathematics in 2009, both from Cardiff University. Pugh's dedication to teaching excellence is recognized through his Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) award in 2013 and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2020. He currently holds significant leadership positions, including Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Mathematics, Chair of the School Education and Student Experience Committee, Chair of the Mathematics Undergraduate and Postgraduate Board of Studies, Chair of the School Extenuating Circumstances Panel, and member of the School Management Board. Additional internal roles encompass membership on various student-staff panels, the College Education and Student Experience Committee, the University Welsh Language Executive Group, and chairing the University Programme Approval and Revalidation Sub-Committee. Externally, he serves as a member of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Sciences Panel, co-lead of the Seren Mathematics Seminar Series, and member of the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry Educational Committee.

Pugh's research interests lie in mathematics education at higher education, focusing on students' academic engagement with mathematics studies and effective teaching and assessment methods. His pure mathematics research involves the theory of modular invariant partition functions for integrable statistical mechanical models associated to Lie groups, leading to braided subfactors and modular tensor categories, particularly for SU(3), Sp(2), SO(3), SO(5), and G2, including spectral measures and homological invariants. Key publications include 'Spectral measures for Sp(2)' with D. Evans (Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly, 2024), 'Classification of module categories for SO(3)_{2m}' with D. E. Evans (Advances in Mathematics, 2021), 'Spectral measures for G2 II: finite subgroups' with D. E. Evans (Reviews in Mathematical Physics, 2020), 'Spectral measures associated to rank two Lie groups and finite subgroups of GL(2,Z)' with D. E. Evans (Communications in Mathematical Physics, 2016), 'The effect of incentivising pre-class reading on engagement and student performance' with A. Shaker and C. Brignell (International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2025), and 'Creating a taxonomy of mathematical errors for undergraduate mathematics' with S. Ford and J. Gillard (MSOR Connections, 2019). He teaches Year 3 Knot Theory and supports Welsh-medium provision across undergraduate levels.