About Me

This page summarises who I am and what I do, including my employment, education, and technical skills. References are available upon request.

Employment

Postdoctoral research associate (2024 - Current)

  • Supervisor: Dr. Kristian Thijssen
  • University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet; KU)

Education

PhD in Physics (2020 - 2025)

  • Supervisor: Dr. Tyler Shendruk
  • University of Edinburgh (UoE)
  • Thesis title: Mesoscale particle-based modelling of active nematic liquid crystals

MSc in Mathematics (2016-2020)

  • University of Bristol
  • First class honours
  • Specialised in applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and fluid dynamics.
  • Masters thesis:
    • Title: Hydrodynamics of Bacteria
    • Supervisor: Prof. Tanniemola Liverpool
  • Summer project:
    • Title: Simulations of Crowd Turbulence
    • Supervisor: Dr. Silke Henkes

Academics

Research Interests

Active Matter Microbe Motility Biophysics
Flock Simulations Soft Condensed Matter Physics Simulation

Students Advised

  • 2025-Current - Alexander Schodt (KU; BSc)
  • 2023 - Mark Curtis-Rose (UoE; Summer student)
  • 2022 - Frances McGinley (UoE; BSc)
  • 2021-2022 - Matthaios Chouzouris (UoE; MSc)
  • 2021 - Tom Bramwell (UoE; BSc)

Teaching

I greatly enjoy teaching, and have taught a variety of undergraduate courses since 2019. These include:

  • Mathematics for Physics 2, UoE, 2021-2023
  • Introductory Dynamics, UoE, 2022
  • Linear Algebra and Several Variable Calculus, UoE, 2020-2022
  • Computer Modelling, UoE, 2021-2022
  • Numerical Analysis, UoB, 2020
  • Mathematical Programming, UoB, 2019

I was one of only three nominees within the school of physics for a Edinburgh University-wide teaching award in 2023, for my work on Introductory Dynamics. Furthermore, I was led provision of tutorials and workshops for Mathematics for Physics 2 in 2023, a course of 300 students.

Technical Expertise

Research Summary

  • Simulate and analyse “active” systems, such as crowds, flocks, bacteria, tissues, and active-nematics liquid crystals.
  • During my PhD, I was the lead maintainer of the NIAMH MPCD simulator, a Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics (MPCD) simulator written in C for simulating low-reynolds number fluids and solutes within complex boundary conditions.
  • At Copenhagen University, I am the lead developer on our in-house Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics simulator, reactive active MPCD (raMPCD).
    • Inspired by NIAMH, raMPCD was redesigned from the ground up in C++ to retain the core feature set of NIAMH, yet be highly parallelised and more modular for future expansion.
    • raMPCD has a particular focus towards studies of mechanoreciprocity: The reciprocal relationship between how biological swimmers, such as bacteria, work to reshape their environments, and how this altered confinement in turn affects swimmers.
  • Responsible for overseeing code development within my research groups, both at Edinburgh and Copenhagen.
    • Includes software architecture, version control, code review, etc.
    • Organsied and ran technical workshops on other computational topics such as HPC, git, debugging, and profiling.
  • Present scientific research at group meetings, department seminars, and both national and international conferences (see my talks page to see some of my talks).

Achievements

  • Optimised simulator math and algorithms leading to a 5x speedup in simulation speed in NIAMH.
  • Developed a numerical and statistical analysis package for use with the NIAMH simulator.
  • Adapted numerous group analysis methods to C++, parallelised with CUDA and OpenMP, yielding speedups on the order of days for core data analysis.
  • Designed and implemented raMPCD, a highly parallelised and modular hydrodynamic solver for the active matter community.

Most of my academic work is private, however some of my older work is available to view on my Github.

Personal Projects

I have a number of personal coding projects that I work on in my spare time. This is primarily for tools or projects that I personally find useful to my interests, ranging from Unity plugins and scripts to help 3D modelling, to utilities and Android apps that manage my home server and associated services.

Most of my personal projects are published open source under seperate Github accounts. Links available upon request.

Skills Summary

  • Programming languages & frameworks:
    • Proficient: C, C++, CUDA, OpenMP, Kokkos, Python, Bash, LaTeX
    • Familiar: Fortran, MATLAB, C#, MAUI
  • Software:
    • Proficient: Git, Linux, Unity, Blender, Adobe Substance Painter and Photoshop, Affinity Photo & Designer
    • Familiar: Docker, OpenVR, OpenXR
  • Technical:
    • Proficient: Profiling, Debugging, Numerical analysis, Statistics, Data analysis, Parallelisation
    • Familiar: HPC

Hobbies

Some of my hobbies include:

  • 3D Modelling & Graphics:
    • I have been using Blender for over 6 years, primarily for organic modelling.
    • Main interest is in material design and creation of texture maps for NPR and stylised rendering.
    • Currently exploring environmental modelling and lighting.
  • Game Development:
    • Use of Unity for just under 5 years, primarily for VR development and social VR content creation.
    • Developed editor scripts and tools for use within Unity.
  • SCUBA Diving:
    • BSAC licensed SCUBA diver and assistant diving instructor.
    • Primary interest in underwater photography, wreck diving, and playing with seals.
    • Served two terms on committee of the University of Bristol Underwater Club (treasurer, then VP).
  • Photography:
    • Digital photographer for 10 years.
    • In the last 5 years most digital photography has been underwater.
    • Greatly enjoy urban photography with film cameras.