Personal Details

Academic Record

Academic Awards

• Johnson and Johnson Award for the best 2nd year chemistry student.
  
  
• E. D. Mountain Award for Geology (for field work).

The applicant has had work published in some of the world's most prestigious journals. The applicant is listed in several editions of Who's Who in the World (e.g. 20th edition, 2003) as a consequence of his having resolved the A.L.E. issue. Other high points in the applicant's academic career include obtaining in excess of 100% for some mathematics course electives.

Major^* Publications

1. The Energetic Implications of the Time Discretisation in Implementations of the A.L.E. Equations; International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids (I.J.N.M.F.), 32 (8): 979-1019, 2000.



2. Finite Element Simulation of a Rigid Body in a Fluid with Free Surface; Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (C.M.A.M.E.), 175 (1-2): 99-120, 1999.



3. The Energetic Implications of Using Deforming References to Simulate the Motion of Incompressible, Newtonian Fluids; Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering (C.M.A.M.E.), 180 (1-2): 219-238, 1999.



4. Incipient Motion Criteria for a Rigid Sediment Grain on a Rigid Surface; ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE J.E.M.), 127 (5): 524-529, 2001.



5. Forces on the Sea Bed using a Finite Element Solution of the Mild Slope Wave Equation.



6. Some Wave-related, Heavy Mineral Placer Deposits.



7. The Reason for the Efficiency of the Pian-Sumihara Basis.

Programming Skills

The applicant is proficient in Fortran, HTML, Java, Javascript, PHP, LaTeX and Xfig. The applicant has worked under the UNIX (including LINUX), VMS and DOS/WINDOWS operating systems. The applicant is most familiar with LINUX.

Java: Some examples of Java Applets written by the applicant feature in two flight navigation logs and a page entitled Flightplan Calculators. A stochastic Java programme to solve the eight queens problem is accessable from the applicant's website. The applicant obtained 100% in a Java Programming examination (Continuing Engineering Education Programme).

PHP: Currently out of action due to the service provider's apache problems, two on-line submission facilities, Flightplan (E.U. version) and Flightplan (F.A.A. version), are examples of PHP implementations written by the applicant. Another can be accessed from A Free, Tax Beating Will.

HTML and Javascript: The applicant has designed sufficiently many web sites to have mastered the essentials of HTML and Javascript (eg. the original Animal Rescue Organisation page, the applicant's own webpage, Flightplan Calculators and Llandudno's World). The applicant won an award for "outstanding web site design and production" at the International Web Page Awards in both 2002 and 2003.

Fortran: The applicant is essentially a finite element programmer and mathematical modeller, specialising in the field of computational fluid dynamics. The applicant's largest single Fortran undertaking was a finite element based programme to simulate the motion of a rigid body in a fluid with free surface (approximately 7 000 lines). This programme was of a highly technical nature, innovative and required the grasp of some fairly complicated mathematical and numerical theory. It involved the use of Gaussian integration, finite elements, the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method, Newton's method and a simple linear, iterative solver; all within a framework of ``skyline'' storage. This programme also required considerable innovation in the area of automatic mesh generation. The applicant has also written programmes to model surfaces locally using a least squares fit of a bi-quadratic surface. A programme to calculate the analytic first and second derivatives of a finite element solution, given the original mesh and the associated solution, has also been written by the applicant in Fortran.

LaTeX and Xfig: LaTeX experience includes approximately 400 pages of a highly technical nature. Experience using Xfig includes approximately 90 technical figures of publishable quality.

Aviation

The applicant obtained a Private Pilots Licence in 2000. (Principles of Flight 100%; Navigation 100%; Meteorology 100%; Engines and Airframes 90%; Regulations 100%.) The applicant designed the website and wrote the code for the java calculators listed at Flightplan Calculators, the Flight Navigation Log in particular.

Extra Mural

The applicant has swum a Robben Island crossing of 7 to 8km in water of temperature 15⁰C (no wetsuits permitted). The applicant has swum distances of 5km in times substantialy less than 80 minutes and distances of 8km in times substantialy less than 2 hours and 15 minutes. The applicant has climbed routes of grade 18. The applicant is generally proficient at most outdoor tasks and willing to learn new ones.

Relevant Previous Employment

The applicant was employed as a geologist by De Beers Marine from the beginning of December 1988 to the end of January the following year. This entailed working for a period at the Cape Town head office, as well as serving as a field officer aboard the M. V. Shearwater Bay (at the time involved in sediment sampling operations off the Namibian/Namaqualand coast).

The applicant is presently employed by the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (S.A.C.E.M.A.), modelling various aspects of the life cycle and population dynamics of Glossina (the Tsetse fly species).

Referees

Professor Grzegorz Lubczonok
Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics
Rhodes University
Grahamstown
6139
South Africa
Tel.: (+27/0) 46 603 8339
email: G.Lubczonok@ru.ac.za

Professor Jacek Ronda
University of Science and Technology AGH
Al. A. Mickiewicza 30
Krakow
Poland
Tel.: +48 12 421 0111
Mobile: +48 608 646 089
email: Jacek.Ronda@comarch.pl

Professor Michael Burton
Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics
Rhodes University
Grahamstown
6139
South Africa
Tel.: (+27/0) 46 603 8339
email: m.burton@ru.ac.za