Prof. Ian Griffiths (Stewartson Memorial Lecture) #

University of Oxford, UK

How can mathematics help us keep the world clean? #

10:00–11:00 Monday 3 April 2023 in X block lecture theatres

World cleaning applies to air, water and land: In the wake of the pandemic and the potential for future pandemics, how can we predict the risk of catching a virus in an indoor setting and how do antiviral air purifiers mitigate this risk?; The continued increase in water scarcity prompts us to seek better ways of providing clean water; And the novichok chemical warfare incident in 2018 motivates questions on how one adequately cleans up a chemical spill. In this talk, we use a variety of mathematical modelling techniques - some simple, others more complicated - to provide answers to these questions and others as we seek strategies to keep our world clean.

Biography #

Ian Griffiths obtained his doctorate at the University of Oxford where he studied the mathematics of glass tube manufacture. He subsequently completed postdocs at Durham and Princeton University before become a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Oxford. His research accomplishments include modelling the performance of water filters for developing countries, which now serve more than 150,000 people, and producing mathematical models that are used in the design of Samsung and Huawei mobile phone screens. He is now a Professor of Industrial Mathematics at Oxford and the Janet Dyson Fellow of Mathematics at Mansfield College.