The 49th European Study Group with Industry was held at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, 29th March to 2nd April 2004, and was supported financially by the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry.

Over 100 mathematicians worked on eight industrial problems, making it the largest European Study Group ever. Chris Breward and his team of local organizers ensured that the event ran with a military precision. The participating companies were Unilever (2 problems), Vodafone, Lein Applied Diagnostics, Thermal Ceramics UK, Schlumberger, NATS and Motorola. The final presentations were immediately recognised by the industrial participants as having brought new methods, insights and solutions. Full information about the eight problems along the reports into each of them are available here

The problem solvers also found time to participate in a lively after-dinner discussion of ethics in industrial mathematics, and to carry out experimental studies of how to pull the perfect pint, courtesy of a glass-bottomed barrel supplied by Adnams (complete with contents).