School of Computing and Mathematics

I am currently a lecturer in the School of Computing and Mathematics at Keele University. I received my PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Delaware, U.S.A.,in 2000. My PhD research was in thin-film fluid dynamics in the drainage of foams (supervisor: Dr. Richard Braun). My professional experience includes a Welcome Trust supported postdoctoral position in the Center for Mathematical Medicine at the University of Nottingham (2001-2004) and lectureships held at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2000-2001), Heriot-Watt University (2004-2006) and the University of Nottingham (2006).

My research interests lie in continuum mechanics of problems related to industry, biology and physiology, and specifically, problems involving strong fluid-structure interaction and free boundaries. I am interested in mathematical modelling and in using asymptotic and numerical techniques to solve these problems. I have investigated problems in pulmonary mechanics involving lung airway reopening, cough manoeuvres and mucus transport, surfactant effects in thin-film fluid dynamics such as in drop spreading and foam drainage.

I am currently involved in the mathematical modelling of in vitro/in vivo tissue engineering with researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology at Keele and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry. Projects related to this have been internally funded by the 3ME- Bridging the Gaps initiative between EPSAM and ISTM.

I currently supervise 2 PhD students:

• Mr. Joe Goddard - Fingering Instabilities in Gravity and Surfactant-related Thin-Film Flows - Modelling, Simulation, Asymptotics and Stability Analysis,
• Mr. Abdul Alharbi - Moving Adaptive Mesh Methods for Thin-Film Flow Problems.

MAT-20008: Differential Equations
MAT-20016: Mathematical Modelling