Andrew Soward

Last updated
Andrew Soward

FRS
Born (1943-10-20) 20 October 1943 (age 79) [1]
Alma mater University of Cambridge (BA, PhD) [2] [3]
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor

Andrew Michael Soward FRS (born 20 October 1943) is a British fluid dynamicist. He is an emeritus professor at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Exeter. [2]

Contents

Education

Soward was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge. He earned his PhD in 1969, under the supervision of Keith Moffatt. [1] [3]

Research

Soward is known for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and especially dynamo theory, and also for his contributions to linear and nonlinear stability theory. He used asymptotic analysis to solve a number of outstanding problems in applied mathematics. By a new pseudo-Lagrangian technique for studying lightly damped fluid systems, he elucidated previously inexplicable features of Braginskii's geodynamo. Soward has provided explicit examples of steady fast dynamo action, thus disproving a conjecture that such dynamos did not exist. [4]

He identified new rotating modes of nonlinear convection in rotating systems, and in collaboration with Steven Childress, established an MHD dynamo model in a rapidly rotating Bénard layer; he also gave the first demonstration that situations exist where oscillatory MHD dynamos generate magnetic fields more readily than steady flows can. He collaborated with Eric Priest to provide the first mathematically consistent account of the Petschek mechanism of magnetic field line reconnection. Soward also gave the first complete solution of the Stefan (freezing) problem in cylindrical geometry; with C.A. Jones, he provided the first completely correct solution of the spherical Taylor problem. [4] [5]

Awards and honours

Soward was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1991. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Wiles</span> British mathematician who proved Fermats Last Theorem

Sir Andrew John Wiles is an English mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in number theory. He is best known for proving Fermat's Last Theorem, for which he was awarded the 2016 Abel Prize and the 2017 Copley Medal by the Royal Society. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000, and in 2018, was appointed the first Regius Professor of Mathematics at Oxford. Wiles is also a 1997 MacArthur Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnetohydrodynamics</span> Model of electrically conducting fluids

Magnetohydrodynamics is a model of electrically conducting fluids that treats all interpenetrating particle species together as a single continuous medium. It is primarily concerned with the low-frequency, large-scale, magnetic behavior in plasmas and liquid metals and has applications in numerous fields including geophysics, astrophysics, and engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric generator</span> Device that converts other energy to electrical energy

In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motion-based power or fuel-based power into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas turbines, water turbines, internal combustion engines, wind turbines and even hand cranks. The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk, was invented in 1831 by British scientist Michael Faraday. Generators provide nearly all the power for electrical grids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dynamo theory</span> Mechanism by which a celestial body generates a magnetic field

In physics, the dynamo theory proposes a mechanism by which a celestial body such as Earth or a star generates a magnetic field. The dynamo theory describes the process through which a rotating, convecting, and electrically conducting fluid can maintain a magnetic field over astronomical time scales. A dynamo is thought to be the source of the Earth's magnetic field and the magnetic fields of Mercury and the Jovian planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Weiss</span> Professor of mathematics and astronomy (1936–2020)

Nigel Oscar Weiss FRS was an astronomer and mathematician, and leader in the field of astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics. He was Emeritus Professor of Mathematical Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin David Kruskal</span> American mathematician

Martin David Kruskal was an American mathematician and physicist. He made fundamental contributions in many areas of mathematics and science, ranging from plasma physics to general relativity and from nonlinear analysis to asymptotic analysis. His most celebrated contribution was in the theory of solitons.

Eric Ronald Priest is Emeritus Professor at St Andrews University, where he previously held the Gregory Chair of Mathematics and a Bishop Wardlaw Professorship.

Professor John Richard Ockendon FRS is an applied mathematician noted especially for his contribution to fluid dynamics and novel applications of mathematics to real world problems. He is a professor at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow at St Catherine's College, Oxford, the first director of the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM) and a former director of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering.

John Francis Toland FRS FRSE is an Irish mathematician based in the UK. From 2011 to 2016 he served as Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and N M Rothschild & Sons Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brooke Benjamin</span>

Thomas Brooke Benjamin, FRS was an English mathematical physicist and mathematician, best known for his work in mathematical analysis and fluid mechanics, especially in applications of nonlinear differential equations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Hide</span> British physicist

Raymond Hide CBE FRS was a British physicist, who was a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and, since 2000, senior research investigator at Imperial College, London.

Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence concerns the chaotic regimes of magnetofluid flow at high Reynolds number. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) deals with what is a quasi-neutral fluid with very high conductivity. The fluid approximation implies that the focus is on macro length-and-time scales which are much larger than the collision length and collision time respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Proctor (academic)</span> British physicist and mathematician

Michael Richard Edward Proctor is a British physicist, mathematician, and academic. He is Professor of Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics at the University of Cambridge and, since his election in 2013, the Provost of King's College, Cambridge and school governor at Eton College.

Jonathan Peter Keating is a British mathematician. As of September 2019, he is the Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and from 2012 to 2019 was the Henry Overton Wills Professor of Mathematics at the University of Bristol, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Science (2009–2013). He has made contributions to applied mathematics and mathematical physics, in particular to quantum chaos, random matrix theory and number theory.

Raymond William Ogden is a British applied mathematician. He is the George Sinclair Professor of Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of the University of Glasgow.

Walter Alexander Strauss is American applied mathematician, specializing in partial differential equations and nonlinear waves. His Research interests are Partial Differential Equations, Mathematical Physics, Stability Theory, Solitary Waves, Kinetic Theory of Plasmas, Scattering Theory, Water Waves, Dispersive Waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alain Goriely</span> Belgian mathematician

Alain Goriely is a Belgian mathematician, currently holding the statutory professorship (chair) of mathematical modelling at the University of Oxford, Mathematical Institute. He is director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial Mathematics (OCIAM), of the International Brain and Mechanics Lab (IBMTL) and Professorial Fellow at St Catherine's College, Oxford. At the Mathematical Institute, he was the director of external relations and public engagement, from 2013 until 2022, initiating the Oxford Mathematics series of public lectures. In 2022, he was elected to the Royal Society.

Irene Margaret Moroz is a British applied mathematician whose research interests include differential equations including the Schrödinger–Newton equation, attractors, synchronization of chaos, and applications to geophysical fluid dynamics, voice analysis, the population dynamics of plankton, and dynamo theory. She is Professor of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics in the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Senior Mathematics Fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Constantin</span> Romanian-Austrian mathematician

Adrian Constantin is a Romanian-Austrian mathematician who does research in the field of nonlinear partial differential equations. He is a professor at the University of Vienna and has made groundbreaking contributions to the mathematics of wave propagation. He is listed as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher with more than 160 publications and 11000 citations.

George Jackson,, , is a British professor of chemical physics in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He is noted for developing molecular models that describe the thermodynamic properties of complex fluids; as one of the developers of statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT); and for his work in molecular systems engineering. His theoretical work has found a wide range of practical applications in industries such as gas extraction and emerging fields like carbon capture and storage.

References

  1. 1 2 "Soward, Andrew" . Who's Who . Vol. 2016 (online Oxford University Press  ed.). Oxford: A & C Black.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 "Prof Andrew Soward – CEMPS – Mathematics, University of Exeter". University of Exeter. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
  3. 1 2 Andrew Soward at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  4. 1 2 3 "Andrew Soward". London: Royal Society. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." "Terms, conditions and policies | Royal Society". Archived from the original on 2017-07-10. Retrieved 2017-07-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), "Intellectual property rights"
  5. 1 2 "EC/1991/31: Soward, Andrew Michael". The Royal Society . Retrieved 18 July 2017.