Welcome to my personal webpage!

Personal Information

Full name: William Henry Ford.

Born: 22nd May 2002, Penrith, Cumbria, England.

Languages: English (Native), French (B2), German (A2).

Email: william (dot) ford (at) polytechnique (dot) edu.

Education

I am currently studying an M2 Mathematics (Optimisation) master degree at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, France as part of their PhD track programme; supported by a Sophie Germain Scholarship from the Fondation Mathématique Jacques Hadamard, as well as an IP Paris PhD track full package scholarship.

My M2 internship (April - August 2025) is at the Centre de Mathématiques Appliques (CMAP), École Polytechnique, under the supervision of my PhD track tutor Dr Michael Goldman (CMAP) and Dr Cyril Letrouit (LMO Paris-Saclay). We are working on questions regarding quantitative stability in Optimal Transport.

Before this I completed a 3 year BSc Mathematics followed by a 1 year MSc Mathematics at Durham University (England, UK). In both degrees I attained first class marks (très bien) in every module taken, and I recently recieved the Winton MSc Memorial Prize for the highest average marks on the MSc programme. I also recieved the Norton Prize for outstanding performance in the first year of my BSc in 2021. I completed my master’s thesis on regularity of optimal transport maps, under the supervision of Dr Alpár Mészáros.

My CV (April 2025) is available here.

Research Interests

In my current M2 programe I am specialising in theoretical aspects of optimisation and their connection with PDEs. I am interested in pursuing a PhD in fields connected to optimal transport and its (many) applications, with a specific view towards those in Machine Learning.