am823

I recently joined the University of British Columbia as a Full Professor in the Department of Mathematics since October 2022. Before that, I was Professor of Mathematical and Computational Biology at the University of Sussex (2006 - 2022: rising from Assistant, Associate to Professor). Between 2003 and 2006, I was an Assistant Professor  in the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Auburn University, AL, USA. I was an EPSRC fellow at the University of Oxford, UK (2000 - 2003), where I obtained a DPhil (2000) and MSc (1997) in Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis.  I hold a BSc Hons (First Class and Book Prize) from the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe (1994)  and a Masters (First Class and Gold Medal Winner) in Mathematics and Education (1991) from the University of Enrique Jose Varona, Cuba (through the Zimbabwe-Cuba Higher Education Programme).

My research lies at the interface between fundamental disciplines (mathematics, numerical analysis, physics, scientific computing) and experimental sciences (developmental, cellular and plant biology, biomedicine) and seeks to propose, develop, analyse and simulate new mathematical and computational approaches applied to experimental sciences. My research areas are in mathematical modelling and analysis, numerical analysis, and parameter inference and estimation. More specifically, I develop bulk-surface-extracellular PDEs in biology, bulk-surface finite elements, bulk-surface virtual elements, bulk-surface geometric PDEs and their applications to pattern formation (bulk-surface reaction-diffusion models), and cell motility (coupling geometric PDEs with multi-physics to study how single and collective cells migrate through complex non-isotropic environments).

I am passionate about teaching both at undergraduate and graduate levels as well as supervising research projects in the areas of theoretical and computational biology.