Please note that the list below only shows forthcoming events, which may not include regular events that have not yet been entered for the forthcoming term. Please see the past events page for a list of all seminar series that the department has on offer.
OCIAM TBC
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Dr. Kaouri is working on developing models of airborne transmission in indoor spaces, in collaboration with the University of Oxford and funded by the Welsh Government. She continues to create tools for future epidemics. She has also been developing models for IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) and embryogenesis, focusing on the interplay between calcium signalling and cellular mechanics, and she leads the inFer academia-clinic interdisciplinary GW4 network, which aims to improve IVF success rates.
12:30
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Anne Skeldon’s background is in dynamical systems and bifurcation theory. Her early research focused on pattern formation and fluid mechanics, particularly the Faraday wave problem. She later shifted towards applications in biology and sociology, serving as a co-investigator on the six-year complexity-science project Evolution and Resilience of Industrial Ecosystems. She is part of the Mathematics of Life and Social Sciences research group and co-leads the cross-faculty Centre for Mathematical and Computational Biology.
Her current research centres on sleep, circadian rhythms, and data science. She collaborates with researchers at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre to develop and analyse mathematical models of sleep–wake regulation—work that has featured in the UK parliamentary debate, “School should start at 10am because teenagers are too tired.” She has a particular interest in the influence of the light environment on sleep, including the potential effects of permanent daylight saving time, and in the use of mathematical models for fatigue risk management.
Mean field games without rational expectations
Abstract
Mean-field limits of non-exchangeable interacting diffusions on co-evolutionary networks
Abstract
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Dr Marcelo A. Dias is a Reader in Structural Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. His research spans theoretical structural mechanics, soft condensed matter, and materials modelling. He focuses on understanding how the mechanical behaviour of elastic bodies emerges from the interplay between material composition and carefully designed internal geometry. His work has applications across shape formation in nature, biomechanics, materials and structural mechanics, and the controlled design and functionality of thin plates and shells. You can find some wonderful examples of this research on his research site: https://mazdias.wordpress.com/research/
What makes an image realistic ?
Abstract
The last decade has seen tremendous progress in our ability to generate realistic-looking data, be it images, text, audio, or video. In this presentation, we will look at the closely related problem of quantifying realism, that is, designing functions that can reliably tell realistic data from unrealistic data. This problem turns out to be significantly harder to solve and remains poorly understood, despite its prevalence in machine learning and recent breakthroughs in generative AI. Drawing on insights from algorithmic information theory, we discuss why this problem is challenging, why a good generative model alone is insufficient to solve it, and what a good solution would look like. In particular, we introduce the notion of a universal critic, which unlike adversarial critics does not require adversarial training. While universal critics are not immediately practical, they can serve both as a North Star for guiding practical implementations and as a tool for analyzing existing attempts to capture realism.
Scattering and Asymptotics for Critically Weakly Hyperbolic and Singular Systems
Abstract
We study a very general class of first-order linear hyperbolic
systems that both become weakly hyperbolic and contain singular
lower-order coefficients at a single time t = 0. In "critical" weakly
hyperbolic settings, it is well-known that solutions lose a finite
amount of regularity at t = 0. Here, we both improve upon the analysis
in the weakly hyperbolic setting, and we extend this analysis to systems
containing critically singular coefficients, which may also exhibit
modified asymptotics and regularity loss at t = 0.
In particular, we give precise quantifications for (1) the asymptotics
of solutions as t approaches 0, (2) the scattering problem of solving
the system with asymptotic data at t = 0, and (3) the loss of regularity
due to the degeneracies at t = 0. Finally, we discuss a wide range of
applications for these results, including weakly hyperbolic wave
equations (and equations of higher order), as well as equations arising
from relativity and cosmology (e.g. at big bang singularities).
This is joint work with Bolys Sabitbek (Ghent).
OCIAM Post-doc Talks
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Dr Finyashu Kaka is a materials scientist specialising in sustainable energy technologies, advanced functional materials, and computational modelling. His work spans organic photovoltaics, solid-state and metal-ion batteries, MXene-based materials, and next-generation thermal barrier coatings. He combines physics-based modelling with machine-learning methods to understand and optimise process–structure–property relationships in energy devices. His research appears in leading journals, and he holds several patents in flexible electronics and energy-efficient thermal systems. He is currently working with Professor Jon Chapman as a postdoctoral researcher in OCIAM.
OCIAM TBC
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Dr Edwina Yeo is an applied mathematician working at the interface of continuum mechanics and mathematical biology. She specialises in developing mathematical models for biological and biomedical fluid-mechanics processes, with research spanning regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, microbiology and geology. Her recent work includes models of bacterial adhesion in fluid flow, Von Willebrand Factor dynamics in arterial flows, and microscale contaminant behaviour extracted from imaging data.
Her publications appear in journals such as Biomechanics and Modelling in Mechanobiology, Advanced Materials, and Royal Society Interface, alongside recent collaborative preprints. She is currently an EPSRC National Fellow in Fluid Dynamics at UCL and a visiting research fellow in OCIAM.
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Dr Rob Van Gorder’s research focuses on how physical phenomena can be described, predicted, and controlled using applied mathematics. He works across mathematical modelling, analytical and asymptotic methods, and numerical simulation, applying this combination to a wide range of physical systems.
His interests in fluid dynamics centre on fundamental flow structures—such as vortices, bubbles, waves, and boundary layers—and how they evolve, persist, or break apart. He also studies spatial instabilities and pattern formation, investigating how mechanisms such as Turing and Benjamin–Feir instabilities extend to heterogeneous or non-autonomous systems arising in chemistry, physics, biology, and epidemiology.
In theoretical physics, Dr Van Gorder works on quantum mechanics, quantum fluids, and nonlinear waves, including the dynamics of Bose–Einstein condensates, quantised vortices in superfluid helium, and confined quantum systems. Across these areas, he aims to understand how nonlinear and quantum systems behave under realistic constraints and external forcing.
His recent publications include work on pattern formation and diffusive instabilities in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.
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Dr Stuart J. Thomson is an applied mathematician whose research sits at the intersection of mathematics, physics, and engineering. He works closely with table-top experiments to uncover how complex fluid and soft-matter systems give rise to novel emergent phenomena through nonlinear dynamics, many-body interactions, and geometric confinement. His interests include interfacial hydrodynamics, self-assembly, active and driven matter, interfacial robotics, transport phenomena, and fluid–structure interaction.
He is currently leading the project “The statistical physics of hydrodynamic random walkers: experiments and theory”, which combines experimental and theoretical approaches to understand how fluid-mediated interactions shape the behaviour of randomly moving microscopic walkers. Dr Thomson is based in the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Technology at the University of Bristol.