PhD Applied Mathematics

The Applied Mathematics group contributes to research on a wide range of topics in Continuum Mechanics, Mathematical Biology, Nonlinear Systems, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing.

The Applied Mathematics Group is recognised for world leading and internationally excellent research and has active collaborations with researchers from industry, healthcare, and other areas of science and engineering. The group provides opportunities for postgraduate research across many areas of Applied Mathematics. Many PhD projects arise from engineering applications and involve collaborations with academic and industrial partners.

Continuum Mechanics is a traditionally strong research field within the School. Active research is pursued in the areas of bubble dynamics, biological and physiological fluid mechanics, dynamic wetting, flow in porous media, dynamics of liquid jets and drops, flows with phase transitions, fuel cells and many more. This research involves mathematical modelling, mathematical analysis of models and the underlying physical phenomena, as well as development of novel computational tools.

Research activities in Mathematical Biology range from applications in healthcare (antimicrobial resistance, cancer, epilepsy, microsurgical robots and infertility for example) and climate change (response of plants to increasing carbon dioxide levels), through fundamental biology (left-right symmetry-breaking in early embryo development; the role of anisotropy in tissue growth) and ecology (complexity of ecosystems and food webs), to novel mathematical and computational methods (meshfree computations for viscous flow, spitting schemes for stochastic differential equations). This research has close links to a range of stakeholders, in particular, the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine, Institute for Microbiology and Infection, Healthcare Technology Institute, and Birmingham Institute for Forestry Research.

Research in the broad area of Nonlinear Systems combines the development of fundamental mathematical theory and methodology for solving reaction-diffusion systems, inverse problems and dynamical systems with contribution to a wide range of engineering and industrial applications. The application areas include nonlinear waves in river flows, oil pipeline flows, free surface flows and jets, chemical reactions and hydrogen fuel cell models.

Employability

Preparation for your career should be one of the first things you think about as you start university. Whether you have a clear idea of where your future aspirations lie or want to consider the broad range of opportunities available once you have a Birmingham degree, our Careers Network can help you achieve your goal.

Our unique careers guidance service is tailored to your academic subject area, offering a specialised team (in each of the five academic colleges) who can give you expert advice. Our team source exclusive work experience opportunities to help you stand out amongst the competition, with mentoring, global internships and placements available to you. Once you have a career in your sights, one-to-one support with CVs and job applications will help give you the edge.