Dan is a recently appointed Hooke Fellow within OCIAM. His research focus is on pattern formation and the emergence of localised states in PDE models, with an emphasis on using polar coordinate systems to understand nonlinear behaviour in higher spatial dimensions. He received his MMath and PhD from the University of Surrey, with a thesis on the existence of localised spikes on the surface of a ferrofluid, and previously held postdoctoral positions at Saarland University, including an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship. www.danjhill.com

Stefan Ruschel’s research focuses on dynamical systems theory and its applications to nonlinear optics and mathematical biology, among others. He specialises in analytical and numerical methods for delay differential and functional differential equations when the delay is large compared to other time scales of the system. His specific contributions include work on the fixed point spectrum for large delay, as well as the characterisation of slowly oscillating solutions such as travelling pulses and waves.

His future research is dedicated to applying these techniques to delay and lattice dynamical systems arising from coupled excitable and coupled bi-stable systems in laser dynamics and neuroscience, where such solutions play an important role in data transmission and neural signal propagation.

He is currently a research fellow at the University of Leeds (UK), funded by UKRI in recognition of a Horizon Europe MSCA award post-Brexit.

Professor Martine Ben Amar is a theoretical physicist whose work explores the physics and mechanics of soft matter, with applications ranging from fundamental instabilities in solids and fluids to biological growth processes. Her research has addressed phenomena such as dendritic growth, Saffman–Taylor instability, elastic singularities, and morphogenesis in vegetal and animal tissues. More recently, she has focused on the interface between physics and biology, modelling the growth of cancerous tumours through reaction–diffusion equations and studying the role of mechanical stresses in tissue development—work that connects directly with medical applications in collaboration with clinicians.

A graduate in atomic physics, she has taught at UPMC since 1993 and was elected a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France in 2011. She held the McCarthy Chair at MIT in 1999–2000 and has led the federation Dynamics of Complex Systems, uniting over 200 researchers across Paris institutions. Passionate about science, she describes her vocation as “understanding, showing, and predicting the laws of the universe and life.”

Scott W. McCue is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Queensland University of Technology. His research spans interfacial dynamics, water waves, fluid mechanics, mathematical biology, and moving boundary problems. He is widely recognised for his contributions to modelling complex free-boundary phenomena, including thin-film rupture, Hele–Shaw flows, and biological invasion processes.

Professor Herbert Eric Huppert FRS
University of Cambridge | University of New South Wales

Herbert Huppert (b. 1943, Sydney) is a British geophysicist renowned for his pioneering work applying fluid mechanics to the Earth sciences, with contributions spanning meteorology, oceanography, and geology. He has been Professor of Theoretical Geophysics and the Founding Director of the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics at the University of Cambridge since 1989, and a Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, since 1970. He has held a part-time Professorship at the University of New South Wales since 1990.

Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1987, Huppert has served on its Council and chaired influential working groups on bioterrorism and carbon capture and storage. His distinctions include the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship from the US National Academy of Sciences (2005), the Bakerian Lecture (2011), and a Royal Medal (2020). He is also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Physical Society, and the Academia Europaea.

Ashleigh Hutchinson is an applied mathematician with a strong research focus on fluid mechanics problems rooted in nature and industry. Her work centres on low-Reynolds number flows and non-Newtonian fluids, where she adopts a multidisciplinary approach that combines theoretical models, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations.

Her other research interests include applying mathematical modelling to solve problems in industries such as finance, sugar, fishing, mining, and energy conservation.