OCMO Group Director
OCMO Group members
Anton is a BSc(Hons) student at the University of Auckland, majoring in Applied Mathematics. He has completed a BSc in Physics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Auckland and is particularly interested in geophysical problems. Anton has completed summer research projects in Cloud Satellite data retrieval, Vortex stability and is presently doing a summer internship with OCMO working on the SMART Aquifer project.
Tiangang (TC) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Auckland. He specializes in MCMC (Monte Carlo Markov Chain) algorithms for large scale inverse problems. He has successfully applied the MCMC algorithm developed in his thesis (under the supervision of Prof. Colin Fox and Prof. Mike O’Sullivan) to the calibration of a large scale numerical model of a geothermal field in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. He is currently applying the MCMC algorithms he developed to groundwater flow problems. In January 2011 he goes to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work with Karen Willcox and Youssef Marzouk in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Nick was schooled in the classical tradition of British Pure Mathematics and wrote his thesis under Professor W.K.Hayman, FRS. Switching to Control Theory after his DPhil, academic travels led to appointments at the universities of Auckland, Otago and Leeds, the French National Institute of Research in Computing and Control (INRIA), Sophia Antipolis, and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He also spent three years in the Lloyds market, City of London. His publications cover problems in pure mathematics, linear systems, inverse problems, wavelet and harmonic analysis, hydraulic and groundwater engineering. An experienced consulting engineer working mainly in groundwater, hydraulic engineering and irrigation development, his portfolio includes collaborative projects with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District, J. Richard Weggel Consulting, and for the Hurunui Water Project. In New Zealand he is a registered professional engineer (CPEng)
Link to Nick's page.
Sam is Professor Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leeds, UK. Until 1988 he worked entirely on problems in astrophysical gas dynamics such as strong explosions, radiatively driven shocks, supersonic jets and thermonuclear detonations. In 1988 he founded Mantis Numerics Ltd in order to apply the techniques developed for astrophysics to industrial problems. Much of this work has been in collaboration with industry, for example BASF, British Gas plc, DERA, Elastogran, William Halcrow and Partners, the Defence Research Agency and has also been sponsored by various research councils. This has involved the development of novel numerical techniques, such as Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR), and their application to phenomena that involve both reactive flow and solid mechanics. He is currently applying some of these ideas to groundwater flow problems.
Colin is head of the electronics group in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago. He is a leading exponent of Bayesian inference with particular expertise on MCMC (Monte Carlo Markov Chain) samplers. Past work includes, wave propagation in sea ice, capacitance tomography, and building acoustics. Colin was head of the Acoustics Research Centre at the University of Auckland for a decade, where all ISO-standard acoustic testing in New Zealand is performed. More recently he has worked on geothermal fields and groundwater, and with Tiangang Cui and Mike O'Sullivan have successfully calibrated a large scale numerical model of a geothermal field in the Taupo region using MCMC.
Jari is a Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at University of Auckland, where he is permanently stationed. He is also a Professor of Computational Physics in the Department of Applied Physics at the University of Eastern Finland, where he is the Director of the Inverse Problems Group. This group be belongs to the Finnish Center of Excellence in Inverse Problems Research (Academy of Finland) and consists of about 10 senior members and 10 doctoral students. He has worked extensively with industry and various research institutions and agencies. He has co-authored around 130 journal papers and a textbook on statistical and computational inverse problems. He is also a founding member of Numcore Ltd, a Finnish company specializing in measurement systems and software for process tomography. Numcore has won both national and international awards, including the Venture Cup (Finnish Ministry of Commerce and Industry) with over 700 contestants. He collaborates with OCMO through the SMART Aquifer project funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Science and Innovation.