Kresge Faculty Fellows
- Pronouns he, him, his, his, himself
- Title
- Professor
- Division Baskin School of Engineering
- Department
- Applied Mathematics
- Phone (831) 459-2122
- Website
- Office Location
- Jack Baskin Engineering Building, 359A
- Mail Stop SOE2
- Mailing Address
- 1156 High Street
- Santa Cruzq CA 95064
- Faculty Areas of Expertise Mathematics, Mathematical Modeling, Computational Modeling, Fluid Dynamics, Geophysics, Astrophysics, Supercomputing
- Courses AM 107/217 -- PHYS 107, AM 275 -- EART 275, AM 250
- Advisees, Grad Students, Researchers
Summary of Expertise
Fluid dynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, numerical simulations of geophysical and astrophysical dynamics, especially solar interior physics, supercomputing.
Research Interests
My interests lie in astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics. I concentrate on the highly nonlinear, turbulent flow regimes, using high resolution numerical simulations for such studies. In particular, my research is currently focussed on dynamos, where turbulence in an electrically-conducting fluid creates and maintains strong magnetic field, with a particular view to understanding the origin of magnetic activity of our Sun. The demands of such problems consume a great deal of cutting-edge supercomputing power and therefore the algorithms of efficient parallel computing are a complementary research topic. I am also interested in more basic fluid dynamic phenomena, such as double-diffusive instabilities and aerodynamics.
Biography, Education and Training
Brummell did his undergraduate studies at Imperial College at the University of London (UK) in Mathematics and received his B.Sc. there with first class honours. He was accepted to do a Ph.D. in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the same university, under the supervision of Dr.~D.R.~Moore. In 1988, Brummell received his Ph.D. for work on mathematical and numerical models of convection. In November 1988, Brummell moved to JILA and the Astrophysical and Planetary Science Department of the University of Colorado, where he worked on research problems in astrophysical and geophysical fluid dynamics, and taught mathematical and numerical methods, fluid dynamics and astrophysics. In late 2006, Brummell accepted a job in the formative Applied Mathematics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as an Associate Professor. Brummell was promoted to Full Professor in July 2009.
Teaching Interests
Basic mathematical methods; Applied mathematics; Fluid dynamics; Numerical algorithms for modern supercomputing
