Prf Michael Wilkinson
Emeritus Professor
School of Mathematics & Statistics
Biography
Professional biography
B.Sc. in Mathematical Physics, Leeds, 1981
Ph.D. in Physics, Bristol, 1984
Weingart Fellow in Theoretical Physics, Caltech, 1984-6
Faculty member, Physics and Applied Physics, Strathclyde, 1986-2000,
(promoted to personal chair in Theoretical Solid-State Physics, 1998).
Maxwell Medal, Institute of Physics, 1997.
Professor of Applied Mathematics, Open University, 2000-2019,
Emeritus Professor, Open University, 2019 to date.
Research interests
My research work is primarily in theoretical physics. The emphasis is on achieving a thorough understanding of physically realistic model problems using analytical methods, numerical investigations and (in some cases) simple experiments. I have worked on problems arising in solid-state physics, quantum mechanics, statistical physics, fluid dynamics, biophysics, genomics and astrophysics.
External collaborations
Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub
Publications
Journal Article
Scale Dependence of Distributions of Hotspots (2024)
Flux-conserving directed percolation (2024)
Dynamics of pivoted slider bearings (2024)
Lubrication dynamics of a settling plate (2023)
Universal Chern number statistics in random matrix fields (2023)
Quantifying the Lucky Droplet Model for Rainfall (2022)
Mean square winding angle of Brownian motion around an impenetrable cylinder (2022)
Lacunarity transition in a chaotic dynamical system (2022)
Correlations of quantum curvature and variance of Chern numbers (2021)
Polysomally protected viruses (2021)
Flooding dynamics of diffusive dispersion in a random potential (2021)
Polymorphism of Genetic Ambigrams (2021)
Numerical coalescence of chaotic trajectories (2020)
Nests and chains of Hofstadter butterflies (2020)
Persistent features of intermittent transcription (2020)
Terasaki spiral ramps and intracellular diffusion (2019)
An exploration of ambigrammatic sequences in narnaviruses (2019)
Uniformity transition for ray intensities in random media (2018)
Persistent stability of a chaotic system (2018)
Aggregation-fragmentation-diffusion model for trail dynamics (2017)
Large Deviation Analysis of Rapid Onset of Rain Showers (2016)
Power-law distributions in noisy dynamical systems (2015)
Advection-Diffusion Equation with Absorbing Boundary (2015)
Analysis of the correlation dimension for inertial particles (2015)
Reply to comment by M. Rohloff et al (2014)
Triangular constellations in fractal measures (2014)
Prevalence of the sling effect for enhancing collision rates in turbulent suspensions (2014)
A test-tube model for rainfall (2014)
A model for the shapes of advected triangles (2013)
Multiple collisions in turbulent flows (2013)
Super-diffusion in optical realizations of Anderson localization (2012)
Clustering of exponentially separating trajectories (2012)
A model for alignment between microscopic rods and vorticity (2012)
Universal anomalous diffusion of weakly damped particles (2012)
Spectal dimension of fractal sets (2012)
Orientation statistics of small particles in turbulence (2011)
Shock fragmentation model for gravitational collapse (2011)
Emergent order in rheoscopic swirls (2011)
Universal anomalous exponent of photoconduction (2011)
Spherical Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes (2011)
Lyapunov exponent for small particles in smooth one-dimensional flows (2011)
Poincaré indices of rheoscopic visualisations (2010)
Correlation dimension of inertial particles in random flows (2010)
Perturbation theory for a stochastic process with Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise (2010)
Fingerprints of random flows? (2009)
Multiple regimes of diffusion (2009)
Collisions of particles advected in random flows (2008)
Stokes trapping and planet formation (2008)
Stick-breaking model for variable-range hopping (2008)
Mutually unbiased bases for continuous variables (2008)
Variable-range projection model for turbulence-driven collisions (2008)
Colliding particles in highly turbulent flows (2007)
Strength distribution of repeatedly broken chains (2007)
Precise asymptotics for a variable-range hopping model (2007)
Unmixing in random flows (2007)
Caustic activation of rain showers (2006)
Staggered Ladder Spectra (2006)
Generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes (2006)
Clustering by mixing flows (2005)
Aggregation of inertial particles in random flows (2005)
Caustics in turbulent aerosols (2005)
Screening of charged singularities of random fields (2004)
Coagulation by random velocity fields as a Kramers Problem (2004)
Path coalescence transition and its applications (2003)
A new quantum model for Ohmic dissipation (2001)
Semiclassical trace formulae using coherent states (2001)
Absorption of energy at a metallic surface due to a normal electric field (2001)
Spectral correlations: understanding oscillatory contributions (2001)
Non-universality of chaotic classical dynamics: implications for quantum chaos (2001)
