Dr Georg Maierhofer is a Henslow Fellow at Clare Hall and works in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. His research interests lie in Computational Mathematics for Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). PDEs are a central foundation of modern scientific modelling and help describe phenomena as varied as atmospheric processes and the generation and propagation of noise in the form of sound waves. Computational Mathematics is used to simulate nature by solving these PDEs approximately and without such numerical techniques many of humanity’s greatest technological and scientific advances would be impossible – from supercomputers processing terabytes of data on a daily basis for weather forecasting to sophisticated numerical models predicting the movement of atoms in particle accelerators.
Dr Maierhofer’s main research concerns the study of so-called structure-preserving numerical methods for PDEs – algorithms which can replicate the ‘physical behaviour’ of solutions to PDEs, by preserving associated conservation laws such as the preservation of energy. A particular focus lies on the understanding of properties of symplectic methods when applied to infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems – differential equations that can be written in a unified formalism that encompasses a powerful mathematical description of many physical systems and their conservation laws. The rigorous understanding of advantages and limitations of such structure-preserving methods could lead to improved simulation tools for example improving the accuracy of weather forecasts.
This research is complemented by a broader interest in the applications of computational mathematics, such as the simulation of extreme ocean waves, and the use of machine learning for the enhancement of classical methods from numerical analysis, for instance in meshing problems and the acceleration of classical solvers for time evolution PDEs.
Show All
Dementia is a topic of considerable public interest. How empirical evidence has contributed to this societal awareness and indeed fear will be covered in this talk. It will span research from the 1980s when not much was understood about dementia up to contemporary perspectives. The focus will be on the epidemiological and public health evidence base, and how this relates to the results published from clinical and lab based research. The findings from UK and other high income countries of reduced age specific prevalence (%) will be explored, and the implications of results from brain based studies that dementia is not inevitable in the presence of ‘alzheimer’ type changes. The role of inequalities, risk varying across countries and time and our knowledge about protective factors have strengthened during recent years, and the balance of high risk with whole population approaches to reducing risk for society will be considered.
Registered address:17 Mill LaneCambridgeCB2 1RXUnited Kingdom
Business address:6A King's ParadeCambridgeCB2 1SJUnited Kingdom
Office hours at the business address:Monday and Thursday: 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm.
Please contact philosoc@group.cam.ac.uk to agree a timing before visiting the office.