Professor Michael Proctor ScD FRS FIMA

 

 

 

 

Professor Emeritus of Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, DAMTP , University of Cambridge. Departmental Web page

Personal email . Telephone 01223 (3)37913; Secretary (7)60394

 

Provost of King's College Cambridge (2013-2023)

Contact email ,  Telephone 01223-(3)31100, PA (3)31253

 

Trustee and Former Chair, Cambridge Trusts (home page)

 

Emeritus Fellow and former Vice-Master, Trinity College Cambridge

 

 

Research Interests

 

My research is principally concerned with magnetic fields in the Sun, planets and stars. My early work was on nonlinear models of the earth's dynamo incorporating dynamical back reaction due to the growing field. More recently I have worked on the interaction of convection with magnetic fields, with the aim of understanding the structure of sunspots and solar surface active regions. In the last few years I have studied the fundamentals of dynamo theory, offering a critique of earlier approximate simplifying assumptions. I am also interested in bifurcations  and pattern formation in dynamical systems with symmetry. Most recently I ahve been studying how the Maxwell-Cattaneo effect alters the stability properties of conective layers with imposed magnetic fields and double-diffusive effects.

 

CV and publications

 

CV  Publication list