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Faculty of Mathematics

 

Career

Oct. 90 - Present: Assistant Lecturer, then Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, University of Cambridge
Oct. 11 - Present: Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Oct. 90 - Sept. 98: Fellow and Director of Studies, Selwyn College, Cambridge
Oct. 85 - Sept. 90: Lecturer, Imperial College London
Oct. 83 - Sept. 85: Lecturer, University College London
Oct. 82 - Sept. 83: Research Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Oct. 81 - Sept. 82: Research Fellow & Fulbright Scholar, Northwestern University
Jan. 81 - Sept. 81: Research Fellow, Selwyn College, Cambridge

Short and medium term visitor to the University of Brasilia, Caltech, Cornell University, Imperial College, NASA Langley, NASA Lewis, Ohio State University, Oxford University, the University of Michigan, Monash University, Moscow State University and PUC-Rio.

Qualifications

  • BA Mathematics (1977), University of Cambridge
  • Part III Mathematics (1978), MMath (2011), University of Cambridge
  • MA (1980), University of Cambridge
  • PhD (1981), University of Cambridge

Research

My research  centres around asymptotic descriptions of high-Reynolds-number (i.e. fast) fluid flows, such as occur in flows past aircraft wings/fuselages, space shuttles, turbine blades, ships, cars and other transport, and as also occur in the larger blood vessels.  Specifically I have been interested in separation/stall, the growth of instabilities leading to turbulence (i.e. transition to turbulence), the validity of the high-Reynolds-number approximation, and vortex-sheet roll-up.

Teaching

I have taught a range of courses in the Mathematical and Natural Science Triposes, including Vectors & Matrices (Part IA, previously Algebra & Geometry), Methods & Calculus (Part IA, now Vector Calculus), Numerical Analysis (both Part IB and Part II), Waves (Part II), High-Reynolds-Number Flows (Part III), Computational Methods in Fluid Dynamics (Part III), Perturbation Methods (Part III, and in a number guises) and Mathematical Methods (NST Part IB). I was the Director of CATAM from 2008-2014 (for my sins).

Other Internal Activities

I was an elected member of the University's Council (2007-14, 2017-20) and, inter alia, served on the University's Finance, HR, Resource Management, Planning & Resources and Business Committees. I was also an appointed member of the Council of the School of Physical Sciences (2008-14, 2017-20), and an elected member of the University's Board of Scruitiny (2001-05).

I was Chair of the Faculty of Mathematics (2011-2014).

External Activities

I have served on EPSRC grant and evaluation committees.

Publications

Segregation of carbon paste in a smelting electrode
T BERGSTROM, S COWLEY, AC FOWLER, PE SEWARD
– IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics (Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications)
(1989)
43,
83
The evolution of an unsteady translating nonlinear rossby-wave critical layer
PH Haynes, SJ Cowley
– Geophysical & Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics
(1986)
35,
1
Pulsatile flow through distorted channels: Low-strouhal-number and translating-critical-layer effects
SJ COWLEY
– Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics
(1985)
38,
589
The stability of solutions of the classical unsteady boundary-layer equation
SJ COWLEY, LM HOCKING, OR TUTTY
– The Physics of Fluids
(1985)
28,
441
ON THE WAVETRAINS ASSOCIATED WITH ELASTIC JUMPS ON FLUID-FILLED ELASTIC TUBES
SJ COWLEY
– Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics
(1983)
36,
289
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