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Left: The Great Gate, Christ's College. Above:
The Fellows' Building (1640), where my College rooms are situated
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Receiving the Webby Award for Plus from Sam Donaldson (left) in
San Fransisco, July 2001
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The amplitude (vertical logarithmic scale) of the
response to periodic forcing (frequency on horizontal scale) of a
marginally stable fluid-dynamical system modelled with the spatially
varying Ginzburg-Landau equation. Resonant peaks can clearly be seen near
the global-mode frequencies
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Dr Robert Hunt
University of Cambridge
Positions currently held
Lecture courses (past and present)
Lecture notes, handouts and problem sheets for some of these
courses may be found on my lecturing page.
Admissions
As Director of Studies in Mathematics at Christ's College I interview all
candidates for admission to the College in mathematics. Details of the
application process, including information about the University course,
the College Fellows, Open Days, interviews and offers can be found here. More general information about applying
to Christ's, including details of Open Days, can be found here.
Awards
Research Interests
I am a member of the Waves
Group in the Department of
Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. Particular
interests include:
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Fluid dynamics, especially the hydrodynamic stability of wakes and shear
flows
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The relationship between local and global instabilities in
spatially-developing media; global modes
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Causality in partial differential equations
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Asymptotic analysis
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Special functions
University and College Societies
Public Understanding
Besides my work as Executive Editor of Plus mentioned above, I am
regularly involved in activities that enhance the public understanding of
mathematics. As well as lectures and public talks for schoolchildren,
teachers, the general public and even local education authorities about
the applications of mathematics to everyday life, I have been interviewed
on Radio 4 and other radio stations on many topics including the
teaching of mathematics, the numbers studying it at University, the
relevance of Newton's Laws of Motion to the modern world, the philosophy
of mathematics and Newton's personality. I took part in Radio 4's
The Eureka Years with Adam Hart-Davis and was scientific adviser to
the BBC2 programme Newton: The Dark Heretic. I have even been
interviewed by Japanese TV about Newton's work on light (his
Opticks, published in 1704).
At the turn of the millennium, I was involved in the design and
production of the Newton
Institute's contribution to World Mathematics Year 2000: the Posters in the London
Underground project. This series of 12 posters about the relevance of
mathematics to the real world was displayed month by month in trains on
the Tube, but ever since then the posters have gone from strength to
strength, winning awards, starring in films including Agent Cody
Banks and The Perfect Man, and even appearing on TV in
Dawson's Creek and Dr Who. Long after the original poster
project finished, the Newton Institute continues to receive regular
requests for reprints from schools and Universities world-wide, and the
posters have been reprinted several times. As well as the original
posters, which are available from the Mathematical Association, a handy
pocket-sized booklet is
now available.
The Treasury
Select Committee has asked me on several occasions for advice on the
charges made by credit card providers and ways to improve transparency and
competition in the credit card market. I have been interviewed on BBC2,
Radio 4 and in many national newspapers about this topic.
Education and Qualifications
Previous positions
Dr Robert Hunt
Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
20 Clarkson Road
Cambridge
CB3 0EH
England
E-mail: reh10@damtp.cam.ac.uk
Telephone: (01223) 330532 (secretary)
Fax: (01223) 330508
College telephone: (01223) 334995
