Boris Baeumer

Biography

Associate Professor BORIS BAEUMER has been with the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Otago since 2001. His expertise is in applied mathematics focusing on movement of particles or organisms in nature that do not adhere to classical theories. He obtained his Ph.D. in pure mathematics from Louisiana State University, USA in 1997, moved in to applied mathematics during a postdoctoral fellowship in hydrology at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2000. His research on Evolution Equations with Memory and Random Fluctuations is supported by the highly competitive Marsden Fund administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Research Interest

Dr Boris Baeumer's current research interest is in modelling fractal flow and anomalous dispersion; in particular as it pertains to solute transport of (potentially toxic) particles in groundwater flow as well as dispersal of organisms such as viruses or invading species. He is using a new approach that incorporates heavy tailing and fractal pathways. Heavy tailing occurs whenever there is a power-law probability of catastrophic events, and therefore the approach has promising applications in hydrology, ecology (invasion of species), epidemiology, chemical engineering (for example, build-up on electrodes), physics (for example, rays going through the atmosphere), economics (stock-market), meteorology (rainfall patterns, flood events), etc.