MATRIX Research Program: Slow Viscous Flows with Interfaces

Description:

Slow viscous flows with interfaces are seen in many different industrial and natural processes including optical fibre and window glass fabrication, chemical etching, lava flows, landslides, underground salt plumes, the tear film on the eye, solidification, and more. Mathematical modelling can identify and quantify important industrial control parameters, enable solution of difficult inverse problems, and yield basic scientific understanding. Many different mathematical methods are used in the modelling of such problems. International conferences and workshops in this field are held regularly but such focused collaboration opportunities are rare in Australia. The purpose of our MATRIX workshop is to bring together researchers, from senior professors through to early-career researchers (ECRs) and higher-degree researcher students (HDRs), build collaborations, share ideas, and identify new problems/research opportunities. It will highlight to an international audience the excellent work being done in this area by Australian researchers.

An important aim is to attract more people to the study of these interesting problems. The MATRIX workshop is to span two weeks. On three or four days of each week, a key researcher with significant expertise will give a key lecture (~60 min), describing a variety of different problems already studied and future opportunities, along with the types of mathematical tools that are applicable to their solution. This will be followed by discussion and identification of problems to be explored further.

To stimulate activities for PhD students, more senior people will outline some interesting short projects at the beginning of the workshop and ask each student to choose a particular project to work on for the duration of the workshop. The students will then present their progress at the end of the workshop. More generally, throughout both weeks, other participants will also give talks on potential/current research with an aim to present work which might lead to collaboration.
Considerable time will be spent throughout the two weeks on discussion and work by different groups on problems of interest.

This MATRIX Research Program is partially supported by AMSI and AustMS through the AMSI-AustMS Workshop Funding program, and benefits from the SMRI International Visitor Program.