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Research interests and activities
Die Mathematiker sind eine Art Franzosen: redet man zu ihnen, so übersetzen sie es in ihre Sprache, und dann ist es alsobald ganz etwas Anderes.
[Mathematicians are a kind of Frenchman: you tell them something; they translate it into their own language; and hey presto! it means something completely different.] I've several research interests in environmental and geophysical fluid dynamics. In particular, I'm interested in "mucky" flows, in which fluids carry solid particles or interact with a permeable solid matrix: examples of the first include the flow of muds and industrial slurries, while examples of the second include the injection of fluids into oil reservoirs and the circulation of saline water in aquifers or geothermal reservoirs. Some idea of what I get up to can be found in my publications. Within the Department, I'm part of the Continuum Mechanics and Industrial Mathematics group. I harbour an ambition to develop my own sub-group around the theme of earth sciences, but this is currently being delayed by my inability to think of a sufficiently silly acronym for it.
Potential research studentsThird-year students at Strathclyde might like to look at my proposed final year honours projects. I'm happy to discuss any of these in more detail, or to talk about other possibilities in my areas of interest: just get in touch. If you're interested in doing postgraduate research on any of the topics I'm interested in, then please contact me. After several years of turning away potential PhD students, I'm finally in a position to supervise them (although not necessarily to conjure up funding). Alternatively, if you'd like a more experienced supervisor, you might try contacting some of my colleagues at Strathclyde; my previous boss, Andy Woods at the BP Institute (University of Cambridge); or my own PhD advisor, Andrew Hogg at the University of Bristol. You might also like to check out the Master's courses at the BPI and in Bristol. I may also be able to offer advice or suggestions about opportunities elsewhere — so let me know if you think I might be able to help, and otherwise good luck! Current research students
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first one is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. Zafar Hayat Khan (from October 2008). Research topic: modelling moving evaporation fronts in porous media and their consequences for soil salinisation. (Funded by the Pakistan Higher Education Commission and jointly supervised with Dr John Mackenzie.) Lindsey Ritchie (from January 2009). Research topic: geochemical effects on natural convection in porous media. (Funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.) Catriona McArdle (from October 2009). Research topic: modelling slender flows of thixotropic fluids. (Funded by a Doctoral Training Grant from EPSRC, and jointly supervised with Prof. Stephen Wilson.) Previous research students
And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judges over experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please? These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin of commonwealths and the subversion of the state. So far I've had the opportunity to corrupt the minds of the following research students: Harry McClelland (Part III Earth Sciences 2009-2010, University of Cambridge). Dissertation: Convolute lamination in the Aberystwyth Grits. (Co-supervised with Dr Nigel Woodcock and Dr Charlotte Gladstone; Harry's work was awarded the Midland Valley Prize 2010 for student structural geology.) Laura Dickinson (MPhil 2004-2005, BP Institute, University of Cambridge). Thesis: The sedimentary signature of long waves on coasts. Tom Thornley (MPhil 2003-2004, BP Institute, University of Cambridge). Thesis: Bidisperse particle-laden gravity currents with reversing buoyancy. (Co-supervised with Dr Charlotte Gladstone, BPI.) Grants awarded
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. It's a mucky and dispiriting business, but every so often we actually have to persuade other people to pay us to do our research. Grants on which I've so far been Principal Investigator or co-investigator: 2009: Summer Internship under the Interns@Strathclyde [sic] scheme. Title of project: Mathematical models of turbidity currents into the deep ocean. Value: £1400. 2009: Doctoral Training Grant from EPSRC via the University of Strathclyde; joint PI with Professor Stephen K. Wilson. Title of project: Mathematical modelling of complex fluids in slender geometries. Value: approximately £50 000. 2007–2008: Bridging the Gaps Short Project Award from EPSRC via the University of Strathclyde, with co-investigators Dr James Lim (Civil Engineering; PI), Dr Tugrul Comlekci (Mechanical Engineering) and Dr Robert Hamilton (Mechanical Engineering). Title of project: Cold-formed steel frames in fire. Value: approximately £6000. 2007: Faculty of Science Starter Grant from the University of Strathclyde. Title of project: Applications of mathematical modelling to the earth sciences. Value: £8000. 2005–2007: Royal Society International Joint Project Award (ref. RG43115), with Professor George Tsypkin (Russian Academy of Sciences). Title: Modelling soil salinisation by groundwater evaporation. Value: £9500. 2004–2006: NERC/EPSRC EMS Postdoctoral Fellowship (ref. NE/B50188X/1) held in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. Title of project: Modelling the dynamics and morphology of flow-reaction processes in porous rocks. Value: approximately £117 000. Meetings organised"Organised" may be too strong a word for it, but I was co-convenor (with Prof. Robert Kalin of Civil Engineering for the Bridging the Gaps sandpit on environmental modelling, held on 19-20 November 2008 at Ross Priory. Nobody brought a bucket and spade (boo!) but a reasonable time was had by most, I think. Refereeing and examiningI try to do my fair share of refereeing work, for journals including Archive of Applied Mechanics, Bulletin of Volcanology, Catena, Chemical Engineering Science, Coastal Engineering, Comptes Rendus Geoscience, Continental Shelf Research, Ecological Modelling, the Elsevier engineering textbooks series, Geophysical Research Letters, Journal of Engineering Mathematics, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, European Journal of Mechanics B: Fluids, Hydrological Processes, IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics, Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, International Journal of Ecology and Development, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, International Journal of Sediment Research, Journal of Coastal Research, Journal of Engineering Mathematics, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Journal of Fluids Engineering, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, Journal of Structural Geology, Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences, Mechanics Research Communications, Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, Physics of Fluids, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Sedimentology, SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics, Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, Water Resources Research and Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Physik — which should give you some idea how poorly-focussed my research interests actually are. I'm also on the review panel for AMS's Mathematical Reviews: yes, an actual maths resource at last. In addition to this, I've acted as external or internal examiner, so far, for fourteen MPhil theses and five PhD theses, variously at Bristol, Cambridge and Strathclyde. The main credit for which, naturally, rests with the poor individuals who had to deal with my idiosyncratic approach to dissertation-writing. Well done, guys. Other professional activities and, er, stuffI've found myself involved with an excellent organisation called the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry, which does more or less what it says on the tin. In particular, I was involved in their Student Modelling Week in Lyngby, Denmark, in August 2006, where I inflicted various ideas connected with mine tailings and non-Newtonian fluids on a group of remarkably tolerant and keen students from across Europe. My thanks and apologies are due to all involved. Continuing the industrial theme, I recently pretended to be an oil industry "expert" at the Maths in the Pipeline schools events held in Hamilton in June 2009 and June 2010. Again, thanks to those who participated and didn't blow my cover. Finally, I'm also a member of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (and indeed a member of its Education Committee and the Strathclyde representative on the EMS General Committee, which makes me one of the trustees of the Society). The EMS is the main society for the Scottish academic maths community and, in the light of all the above, is probably my best claim to be considered as a proper mathematician... |