My research concerns the study of continuum mechanics, principally fluid and solid mechanics, with application to biological phenomena. Many complex fluid, solid and fluid-solid interaction problems occur naturally in the human body; for example, the veins in the arm collapse when raised above the level of the heart. Fluid-structure interaction is also important in pathologies of the body. The collapse and occlusion of the airways in the lung is driven by an interplay between the elastic properties of the airway wall and the surface tension of the lung-lining fluid.

I am also interested in non-linear phenomena in general and have been developing methods to determine and track bifurcations of large-scale systems.

Current projects include:

• the development of oomph-lib , an object-oriented library of C++ functions for the numerical solution of multi-physics problems; with Matthias Heil
• an investigation into the applicability of exact solutions of the Navier--Stokes equations (e.g. stagnation-point flows) in finite domains; with Rich Hewitt
• a study of the modes of bubble propagation in rectangular tubes containing localised constrictions in their cross-section; with Anne Juel
• the simulation of the non-linear evolution of interfacial instabilities;
  with Anne Juel and Matthias Heil
• the analysis and development of models for nitric oxide (NO) transport in the lungs;
• a study of the motion of rigid and deformable bodies in bounded fluid domains.