Colin Macdonald’s Research Group

Interests

I work on numerical computing on general domains such as curved surfaces, particularly the Closest Point Method. I am also interested in level set methods and associated numerical techniques such as WENO spatial discretizations and interpolants. Finally, I work on time-stepping for PDEs including strong-stability-preserving methods, Runge-Kutta methods and other ideas. I am also interested in scientific computing, parallel algorithms, and software.

I collaborate with various people, including Steve Ruuth (SFU), David Ketcheson (KAUST), Sigal Gottlieb (UMassD), and others.

We are also interested in applications where intrinsic surface PDEs occur, please contact us if you think the Closest Point Method could help you with an application.

Opportunities for Students

I’m not currently advertising for any specific PhD studentships, but I am usually interested in hearing from good students. You may want to look at the UBC Math graduate admissions page.

Please do not send generic emails expressing interest in “my research”. If you’ve read my website and publications and think there is a good fit, please write explaining specific things that interest you and how you are qualified for that specific research.

Previous students

Previous students, visiting students, and other people I’ve worked with include:

Name	Position	Year	Co-supervisor	Current position
Dr Yujia Chen	DPhil student	2011–2015
Dr Ingrid von Glehn	DPhil student	2010–2014		Google, 2014
Dr Tom März	Postdoc	2011–2013, 2013–2014		Roxar, 2014
Dr Martin Robinson	Postdoc	2014		Postdoc position, Oxford, 2015
Piotr Świerczyński	MSc dissertation	2014	Julia Schnabel	PhD student at TUM, August 2015.
Julien Vallaint	MSc dissertation	2014
Sophia Koepke	MSc dissertation	2014		PhD at Oxford
Mitch Dawson	undergraduate dissertation	2014	Yujia Chen	PhD student, Oxford, 2014
Craig Hull	undergraduate dissertation	2014
Emma Naden	MSc dissertation, “Fully Anisotropic Diffusion on Surfaces and Applications in Image Processing”	2013	Tom März
Jun Lu	Undergraduate summer research project	2013	Tom März	Student, University College, Oxford
Xin Zhao	Visiting KAUST summer student	2012	David Ketcheson	PhD program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2014
Jorge Cañardo Alastuey	Summer studentship	2012	David Ketcheson & Tom März
Harry Biddle	MSc dissertation, “Nonlinear Diffusion Filtering On Surfaces”	2011	Tom März	In R&D at Double Negative Visual Effects, 2012.
Xiyi (Agnes) Wen	MSc dissertation, “Pattern Formation on Growing Domains”	2011	Eamonn Gaffney
Natalie Keating	Industrial MSc dissertation with Thales Underwater Systems, “Dynamic Response of a Disc With Off-centre Holes”	2011	David Allwright
Phil Walker	OCCAM/KAUST summer studentship	2011	Tom März
Gegham Serobyan	Undergraduate dissertation, “Numerical Computing on Surfaces”	2011
Jakub Kominiarczuk	OCCAM visiting student	2010		PhD student at UC Berkeley, 2012.
Jeff Springer	OCCAM summer studentship	2010		Starting PhD at ASU, fall 2012.
Gustavo Chavez	OCCAM/KAUST summer studentship	2010		PhD student at KAUST, 2012.
Yiannis Hadjimichael	MSc dissertation, “Strong-Stability-Preserving Time Stepping”	2010		PhD student at KAUST, 2012.
Nga Hoang	Industrial MSc dissertation with NAG, “MultiCore Linesearch Optimization Algorithms”	2010	Raphael Hauser	Software Engineer, Knowledge Genes, 2012.
Matt Moore	Industrial MSc dissertation with Schlumberger, “Nonlinear Generalisations of Darcy’s Law”	2010	Ian Sobey	DPhil student at OCCAM, 2012.
Luke Tian	I helped supervise his MSc dissertation “Segmentation on surfaces by the Closest Point Method”	2009	Steve Ruuth	MSc (finance) at the Courant Institute, 2011.
Helen Alexander, Anna Belkine, Chris Poss, and Weining Wang	MITACS Industrial Math Summer School project on forest fire simulations using level set methods	2007	Adam Oberman

Keep in Touch

If you’re on this list and have an update, I’d love to hear from you. Email me, macdonald[at]maths.ox.ac.uk. Similarly, if your name should be here and I’ve accidentally left it off, let me know.