Jake Bowhay

I am a PhD student in the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology at the University of Bristol, supervised by Prof. Alan Champneys and Dr. Matt Hennessy. My PhD research concerns how cells, which are typically created as sphere-like objects, undergo a break of symmetry where functional proteins and other organic matter are heterogeneously distributed within the cell. This process is controlled by the reaction and diffusion of small G-proteins. I aim to understand the patterns formed by the reaction-diffusion models of small G-proteins and couple them with a continuum mechanics model of cell growth to model the polarisation process. More broadly, I am interested in all things mathematical modelling; see my CV for more detailed research interests.

Before starting my PhD, I studied for the MMSC at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, during which I studied a wide range of courses in mathematical modelling and numerical analysis. My dissertation was on the application of rational approximation (the AAA algorithm) to pole and zero finding. When I am not working on my PhD, this is still a topic of interest.

From a young age, I have enjoyed programming and mucking around with computers. This has turned out to be a very useful skill due to the prevalence of numerical methods in applied mathematics. Most of my work is in Python, however, I am enjoying learning more about Julia. I am a maintainer of SciPy (see my open source work) and am interested in numerical methods and their implementation. Occasionally, I dabble in numerical analysis.

Outside of academia, I enjoy sailing, cycling, and the outdoors in general.

I am keen to explore new collaborations and I enjoy working on a wide range of problems, so please feel free to get in touch.