My ambition is to lead the multiscale flow X group to advance our understanding of fundamental flow physics and chemistry in micro/nano systems, with the aim of utilising these research advances to develop new technologies with capabilities beyond any currently conceived.
My expertise is in the fluid dynamics of rarefied flows, which presents an important technological challenge, with long-term research and industrial implications. My group is among the first to develop lattice Boltzmann (LB) methods for simulating rarefied flows. In particular, we were the first to prove that high-order LB models can be reduced to the linearised BGK equation, giving confidence that LB models can be applied to highly rarefied gas dynamics. We also developed a fast spectral method for solving the Boltzmann equation, considering different molecular potential models. My other research activities centre on complex flow physics, including multiphase flows, droplet technologies and granular flows. My research has been funded by the EPSRC, EU FP7, STFC, Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Leverhulme Trust. I am a Fellow of Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and a Fellow of Institute of Physics.
I currently hold the Jason Reese Chair in Multiscale Fluid Mechanics. After my PhD study in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Aberdeen in 2001, I worked as a Computational Scientist, then Senior Scientist, in the Computational Science and Engineering Department of Daresbury Laboratory. In 2007, I joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde rising to Weir Chair in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, before moving to University of Edinburgh in 2020.