Pioneering Prof honoured for making waves in Mathematics

A Mathematics professor has received an international honour for his lifelong contributions to the study of waves. 

Professor Simon Chandler-Wilde, Professor of Applied Mathematics at Reading, was given the Frank J. Rizzo Award of the International Association for Boundary Element Methods (IABEM) at a ceremony held this week at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The award was established by the IABEM in 2004 to honour outstanding individuals and the long-lasting impact of their research. Professor Chandler-Wilde was honoured for his contributions to developing formulas and equations, based on boundary element methods, to work out how sound waves, radio waves and light waves move and behave. This research has been supported by organisations including the UK Met Office, Schlumberger, and TRL (the Transport Research Laboratory), based locally in Crowthorne.

Professor Chandler-Wilde said: “Mathematics can help solve a range of real-world problems. My research helps us understand how sound and light waves bounce and scatter off objects. We can use these patterns to help weather forecasters predict how ice crystals affect our atmosphere or to help engineers design better traffic noise mitigation measures. I’m grateful to have played a part in these discoveries, and even more grateful to be recognised for my work.”

Following the award presentation, Professor Chandler-Wilde gave his Rizzo Award Lecture, entitled “First kind integral boundary integral equations and boundary element methods for acoustic scattering.” This lecture was based on recent work carried out with colleagues including former and current Reading PhD students and former Reading postdocs.