I was an undergraduate in Cambridge, a PhD student in Durham and a post-doc in Kyoto before returning to Cambridge, with fellowships at Queens' and then Pembroke colleges. In 1998 I moved to Sheffield as a lecturer, then on to York in 2000 - since when I've stopped moving about all the time.

Research interests

Integrable models in 1+1D, especially their algebraic structure, and quantum groups. Past doctoral and master's students include Georg Gandenberger, Ben Short, Barry Miller, Patrick Massot, Paul Melvin, Matt Ferguson, John Pinney (Imperial), Adele Taylor and Vidas Regelskis, and post-docs Nikolai Kitanine (U of Burgundy), Ian Marquette  (Queensland),  Alessandro Torrielli (U of Surrey), Benoit Vicedo and Charles Young (both Herts).

I am Editorial Adviser in Mathematical Physics for the LMS journals. I was director of BUSSTEPP in 2007, and organizer of a 6-month research programme at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, on Strong Fields, Integrability and Strings. I help organize the North British Mathematical Physics Seminar and the annual UK meetings on Integrable Models and Conformal Field Theory.

Most of my publications in mathematical physics can be found here. I have recently developed wider interests, and have published papers on

Warfare modelling: a general introduction, and then Lanchester models for mixed forces with semi-dynamical target allocation and Lanchester models and the Battle of Britain, described in this conference paper. The relationship with RAF thinking, and the implications for the 'Big Wing' controversy, are developed in a paper in History.

Scaling laws in biology: Scaling of human body mass with height: the Body Mass Index revisited and Mass scale and curvature in metabolic scaling. Here's a semi-popular article for Mathematics today.

Teaching 2012-13

Introduction to Group Theory

Electromagnetism

See all years

Administration

• member of the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME)
• departmental REF manager
• departmental schools liaison officer
• departmental representative for the HEA Maths Centre and the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge.

Other skills

• rock drumming - in my distant past. OK, I was a geek playing at being a rocker, but that's just fine. I wanted to play like Bonham and Moon ... but without the drugs, violence, early death, etc.
• nappy-changing (passed with distinction) and child psychology (failed)
• hillwalking. All right, the only skill is not getting lost, not falling down, simple stuff.
• I can skipper a yacht in coastal waters, and wish I did so more often...