Dr Maria Bruna

My research interests lie in the stochastic modelling of interacting particle systems, with applications for explaining how individual-level mechanisms give rise to population-level behaviour in biology and ecology. In particular, my work focuses on deriving the continuum (or population-level) description of the system from the discrete (or particle-level) model using systematic methods of applied mathematics. The aim is to obtain practical reduced descriptions, based on partial differential equations, which capture the key attributes at the particle-level (such as the interactions between individuals) and can be used to predict the spatio-temporal evolution of the system.

More generally, I am interested in partial differential equations (asymptotic methods and numerical solutions), stochastic simulation algorithms and the application of these techinques to the modelling of biological and ecological systems.