Cathal completed his BSc in mathematical physics at University College Dublin (UCD) (2003-2009, first class) for which he was awarded UCD’s prestigious Conway Medal in Mathematical Physics. The medal represents outstanding performance, and awarded only when there is a suitable candidate. Following a year teaching engineering and mathematics at Trinity College Dublin (2009-2010), he was awarded a Mathematics Applications Consortium for Science and Industry (MACSI) scholarship to undertake the MSc in mathematical modelling at the University of Limerick (UL, 2010-2011), and graduated with maximum points. He holds a PhD in applied mathematics (University of Limerick, 2011-2015). Following his PhD, he was employed as a Numerical Modelling Engineer for Aquamarine Power Ltd, Edinburgh (2014-2015), working in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast. This preceded his academic appointments as Research Fellow at UCD (2015-2016) and Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh (2016-2019).

His CV can be found here.

Cathal is an interdisciplinary fluid dynamicist focussing on the interaction of fluids with solid bodies; in particular, those that lead to counter-intuitive flow phenomena and the formation of coherent flow structures. His research is characterised by the innovative use of analytical, numerical, and physical modelling.

Some recent projects include:

1. Mathematical modelling of the transport of microplastic pollution;
2. Energy extraction from resonant wave energy systems;
3. The flight of the dandelion seed;
4. Mathematical modelling of covid-19.

First supervisor:

• Ms Mary Eby (PhD)
• Mr Christopher Wakefield (PhD)
• Mr Benjian Song (PhD)

Second supervisor:

• Ms Geethanjali Pavar (PhD)

Alumni

• Mr Carlos Sevilla (MSc, 2021)
• Mr Rory Laing (MSc, 2021) 
• Mr Olayinka Ajayi (MSc, 2020)
• Ms Nassima Boussaa (MSc, 2020)
• Mr Daniele Certini (PhD, 2023)