1st May 2024

Over on my research page you can find out more about my recent work with Dr Alex Wray at the University of Strathclyde on topics around evaporation and the coffee ring effect and, in particular, our novel asymptotic solutions for droplets with complex geometries. 

Over the past few weeks, we have been awarded two grants to foster this collaboration even further: 

• a two-year Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Collaboration Grant 'Making droplet analysis real-world ready: OLEDs and other applications' (see here for more information);

• a one-year Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant 'Multidrop Manufacturing Methods' (see here).

The grants will cover both collaborative visits as well as funding to organize workshops on innovative evaporation techniques in additive manufacturing and wider industry, fostering KE and impact activities. It is really gratifying to see our research is well-thought of and we thank the funders for this opportunities!

11th September 2023

Over the weekend, I took part in the Humber Science Festival, an annual event organized by the University of Hull and showcasing science, maths and engineering in the region. I organized an array of different maths puzzles and activities under the umbrella 'Mathematics in Action!' in the Discovery Zone on both Saturday and Sunday, throughout support by a fellow lecturer, Stevie Chaffin, and some student helpers.  We had around 500 visitors over the weekend and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, despite the very warm weather! Looking forward to next year!

23rd August 2023

Today I had the pleasure of presenting recent work with Alex Wray (Strathclyde) on evaporation problems in complex geometries at the 10th International Congress on Industrial & Applied Mathematics in Tokyo. Although I could only attend virtually, I was invited to talk in a mini-symposium on 'Recent advances in modelling and simulation of interfacial flows' organized by Mark Blyth (UEA), Anna Kalogirou (Nottingham) and Alex. You can find a copy of my presentation here.

19 July 2023

My latest work on the coffee ring effect has just been published in the Journal of Fluid mechanics here. In the work, my collaborator Alex Wray (Strathclyde) and myself explore how gravity impacts the coffee ring. We find that stronger gravity weakens the coffee ring effect and can, in certain situations, lead to two rings!  

18 May 2023

Today I travelled down to Loughborough University to visit David Sibley and his research group. David is interested in a wide variety of applied mathematics, but particularly thin film flows. Recently, he has been working on problems related to evaporation and the coffee ring, so there's some natural overlap in interest. 

Tomorrow I am giving a seminar on some of my recent work on the evaporation of droplets with complex geometries. 

29th March 2023

A huge congratulations to Matthew Shirley who successfully defended his thesis today at the University of Oxford and has passed with minor corrections! Matthew has been working on a project looking at silicon production, supervised by Profs Jim Oliver and Colin Please alongside myself, in collaboration with Elkem.

Matthew has moved on to a PDRA position at Oxford specializing in industrial mathematics. 

20th December 2022

I am delighted to announce that I have received an EPSRC Mathematical Sciences Small Grant award for my project 'Coffee rings and ridges: predicting late time deposit profiles in evaporating droplets'.

The work furthers my recent research in evaporation and the coffee-ring effect by looking at the possibility of central deposits forming in the late stages of evaporation - as envisaged by the dark interior lines  of the letters in the image.

The project runs for a year from 1st  April 2023 and is for £21,760. You can find out more here.