John Biggins

Biography

Professor Biggins studied Mathematics at the University of Cambridge (BA 1973). The undergraduate degree was followed by an MSc (1974), with the main subject for this being Statistics, and a DPhil (1976), in Probability Theory; both postgraduate degrees are from the University of Oxford. He joined the staff at the University of Sheffield in 1976, and became a Professor in 1994. His main research interest is in applied probability, in particular branching processes and their applications (in biology, computer science, fractals, and non-linear differential equations), random walks and large deviation theory.

Research Interest

  The main thread in the research, running right back to my D.Phil, is branching random walk. Recent applications of the theory to a number of problems in theoretical computer science, and connections with fractals and non-linear partial differential equations (pdes), have increased the profile of my work considerably. These avenues (theoretical computer science, fractal structures and non-linear pdes) continue to reveal fascinating and challenging problems.