The Boring Facts....
Date of Birth:
26 August 1960
Place of Birth:
Rotenburg a. d. Fulda
, Germany
Education
Career
- 1986-1988 Max-Planck-Institut fuer Stroemungsforschung
(M.-P.-Inst. of Fluid Dynamics; I conducted the research on the stability
of vortex pairs for my 1st degree, Diplom-Physiker, there while being
registered at Goettingen University), Goettingen, Germany
- 1988-1991
Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt
(DLR, German Aerospace Research Esatblishment, Goettingen, Germany; I conducted
research on the motion of LDA tracer particles across aerodynamics shocks
for my PhD thesis there while being registered at Goettingen
University)
- 1992-1995
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics,
University of Cambridge (I was post doc in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Group for 3.5 years. This is where I became interested in rotating flows;
which is still one of my main research areas today)
- 1995-
School of Engineering , University of Warwick,
Coventry (I was initially
Warwick Research Fellow for six years, then promoted to Reader in
October 2001 and promoted to Professor in October 2008)
Research Interests
- Rotating Flows
- Boundary Layers (Laminar-Turbulent Transition)
- Vortex Stability
- Oceanographic Coastal Currents
- Particle-Laden Flows
- ... and a bit of MHD flows ... All topics studied mostly
experimentally but have done a bit of
numerical simulation and theory too. See titles of my publications to
get a more indepth overview.
Professional Affiliations
- European Mechanics Society
- American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics
- Ludwig-Prandtl-Gesellschaft e.V., Germany
Research Contracts
- May 2009 - February 2011, A Laboratory-Scale, Versatile Experimental
Facility for Aluminium Smelting Process,
Joint project with University of Coventry,
Principal Investigator at Warwick: P.J. Thomas,
Principal Investigator at Coventry: S. Molokov,
Research Grant Awarded by Aluminium Pechiney Laboratoire des Fabrications,
value £ 12,235.
- December 2008 - November 2009, Scalable Wirelessly Interconnected
Flow-Control Technology (SWIFT),
Principal Investigator: D. A. Lockerby,
Co-Investigators: Y.M Chung, J. A. Covington, P. J. Thomas
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 170,000.
- January 2007 - March 2009, Reduction of Energy Consumption in Aluminium
Smelting, Joint project with University of Coventry,
Principal Investigator at Warwick: P.J. Thomas,
Principal Investigator at Coventry: S. Molokov,
Research Grant Awarded by Carbon Trust / Mercia Fund,
total value £ 448,517 of which £ 166,553 for experiments as Warwick.
- October 2004 - September 2007, Scaling Propreties in Particle-Laden Flows,
Principal Investigator: P.J. Thomas,
Co-Investigator: T. Mullin (U. of Manchester),
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 165,738 at Warwick
(& approx. £ 100,000 at Manchester).
- October 2004 - September 2007, Near-Wall Flow Structures in 3D Turbulent
Boundary Layers,
Principal Investigator: P.W. Carpenter,
Co-Investigator in alphabetical order:
A.J. Cooper (Cardiff)
C. Davies (Cardiff),
S.C. Li (Warwick),
P.J. Thomas (Warwick),
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 240,377.
- April 2002 - Sept. 2003,
Extension to Computational and Experimental Study of the Hydrodynamics
of Compliant Walls in Marine Environments,
Principal Investigator: P.W. Carpenter,
Co-Investigators: P.J. Thomas,
Research Grant Awarded by QinetiQ (Farnborough), value £ 14,120.
- April 2001 - March 2004, Experimental and Computational Study of
the Dynamics and the Stability of Vortex Rings in a Rotating Fluid,
Principal Investigator: P.J. Thomas,
Co-Investigators: A.D. Lucey & P.W. Carpenter,
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 154,764.
- May 2000, Experiments on Gravity-Driven Surface Currents Simulating
Fresh-Water River Discharges into the Ocean, Grant awarded through the
Laboratoire des Ecoulements G\'eophysique et Industriels (LEGI) from funds
available through their EEC, Access to Major Infrastructures grant.
Principal Investigator: P.J. Thomas,
Sponsor: EEC/LEGI, value Five weeks research time utilizing the Coriolis
facility. All expenses (use of facility, technical personnel, travel,
accommodation, subsistence etc.) for Thomas + 2 European colleagues are
covered, value ECU 45,259 = £ 27,700.
- April 2000 - March 2002, Laminar-Turbulent Transition of Fully
Three-Dimensional Boundary Layers, Royal Society Joint Project Grant for
collaboration with the Institut de Recherche sur les Ph\'enomenes Hors
Equilibre, Universit\'es d'Aix Marseille I et II, Marseille, France
Project Leader (UK): P.J. Thomas,
Project Leader (France): P. Le Gal,
Sponsor: Royal Society, value £ 9,800.
- Sept. 1999 - Sept. 2002, Computational and Experimental Study of the
Hydrodynamics of Compliant Walls in Marine Environments,
Principal Investigator: P.W. Carpenter,
Co-Investigators: A.D Lucey, P.J. Thomas,
Sponsor: DERA, value £ 52,710.
- April 1998 - March 2001, The Interaction of Granular Flow with the
Boundary-Layer Flow Over a Rotating Surface,
Principal Investigator: P.J. Thomas,
Co-Investigators: P.W. Carpenter,
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 99,255.
- April 1998 - March 2000, Further Study of Transition and Turbulence
in 3D Boundary Layers over Compliant Walls,
Principal Investigator : P.W. Carpenter,
Co-Investigators: P.J. Thomas,
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 117,016.
- Oct. 1997 - Sept 1999, The Use of Wall Compliance to Prevent
Caviation Damage,
Principal Investigator: P.W. Carpenter,
Co-Investigators: P.J. Bryanston-Cross, P.J. Thomas,
Research Grant Awarded by EPSRC, value £ 107,291.
- 1997, Experiments in 2-D Turbulence,
Principal Investigator: P.J. Thomas,
Research Grant awarded by the Royal Society, value £ 5,113
Miscellaneous other Grants and Support Received
- 2004, Travel Grant awarded by the Royal Society to
attend the 21st International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics,
International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Warsaw, Poland,
15-21 August, value £ 886
- 1997, Travel Grant awarded by the Royal Society to
attend the 50th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the
American Physical Society, San Francisco, USA, 23-25 November, value £ 665
- 1996, Travel Grant awarded by the Royal Society to
attend the 19th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics,
International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Kyoto, Japan,
25-31 August, value £ 1000
- 1996, Grant awarded by the Royal Society to enable Dr. A. Petrosyan,
Russian Academy of Science, Space Research Institute, Moscow to visit the
University of Warwick, value £ 1260
Prizes
- IUTAM
(International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics)
Bureau Prize in Fluid Mechanics for the outstanding contributed
presentation by a younger scientist at the XIXth International Congress of
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (Kyoto, Japan, August 25-31, 1996)
- Now, this one was so long ago it can almost not be considered
as true anymore, but I list it anyway.
I was the winner of a 3rd prize in the
German Mathematics Competition for Schools in 1979.
Teaching Interests
- ES1801 1st-Year Mathematics for Engineers
- ES2A71 2nd-Year Fluid Mechanics
- ES3D6 3rd-Year Fundamental Fluid Mechanics for Mechanical Engineers