Originally from
Cologne, Germany.
Lived in
Cologne, Montreal, London, Lyon, Cambridge, Stockholm.
Areas of mathematical interest
Whilst I am interested in many areas of pure and applied mathematics, I mainly spend my time in the world of Applied PDEs. My research interests include: analysis of non-linear and non-local partial differential equations, asymptotic behaviour of solutions, parabolic and hyperbolic scaling techniques, stability analysis, gradient flows, optimal transportation, functional inequalities, kinetic theory, hypocoercivity, and diffusive models in mathematical biology.
Academic background
- CCA Doctoral Training Centre since 2013, PhD supervisors: José A. Carrillo, Clément Mouhot.
- MSci Mathematics with a Year in Europe at Imperial College London, 2009 - 2013.
- Year abroad at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 2011-2012.
- Master thesis on Collective Animal Behaviour under the supervision of José A. Carrillo: Bacterial Chemotaxis and Social Forces - Parabolic and Hyperbolic Scalings.
Publications
- Asymptotic behaviour of diffusing and self-attracting particles in a one-dimensional fair competition regime with José A.Carrillo and Vincent Calvez (in preparation).
- Stability Analysis for kinetic and macroscopic bacterial pulse equations with Vincent Calvez (in preparation)
- Oxygen Isotope Exchange – Back Diffusion in Fuel Cells, with Sam J. Cooper, John A. Kilner and Mathew Niania (in preparation).
- Equilibria of homogeneous functionals in the fair-competition regime, with José A.Carrillo and Vincent Calvez, Nonlinear Analysis (submitted 30 September 2016).
- Quantifying the surface exchange coefficient of cathode materials in ambient atmospheres, with Sam J. Cooper, John A. Kilner and Mathew Niania, Proceedings of 12th European SOFC & SOE Forum (published July 2016).
- Exponential decay to equilibrium for a fibre lay-down process on a moving conveyor belt, with Emeric Bouin and Clément Mouhot, SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis (submitted 22 June 2016).
- Non-local kinetic and macroscopic models for self-organised animal aggregations, with José A.Carrillo and Raluca Eftimie, KRM (published 3 Sept 2015).
CCA mini-projects 2013/2014
- Hypocoercivity - Rate of Convergence to Equilibrium for a Model Describing Fiber Lay-down Processes on a Moving Conveyor Belt, Supervisor: Clément Mouhot (University of Cambridge), in collaboration with Émeric Bouin (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon).
- A new robust dolphin whistle detector algorithm, Supervisor: Peter Dobbins (Principal Scientist at Ultra Electronics Sonar Systems).
Independent research projects 2012
- Effective Behaviour of Mesoscale Defects, Supervisor: Yves Capdeboscq, Mathematical Institute of the University of Oxford, OxPDE Centre for Non-Linear PDEs.
- Instabilités Globales Issues d'un Modèle de la Mécanique des Fluides, Supervisor: Benoit Pier, École Centrale de Lyon, Laboratoire de la Mécanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique.
- Kinetic Models for Bacterial Chemotaxis - Mathematical Description of Bacterial Travelling Pulses, Supervisor: Vincent Calvez, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon.
Outreach activities
- 2016: Founded the Imperial College Maths Helpdesk, an inter-departmental collaboration platform, recruited a team of permanent staff and secured funding on university level.
- 2015/2016: President of the Imperial College SIAM student chapter.
- Since 2014: Director and Trustee of the non-profit SAMI (Supporting African Mathematics Initiatives): teaching and organisation for educational maths programs in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and in the UK, recruitment of international volunteers, fundraising, support of African education initiatives through the Kenyan NGO AMI (African Mathematics Initiatives).
- 2015: Crowdsourcing Campaign for the African Data Initiative - fundraised $40,000 for the creation of a new statistical software package.
- Aug/Sept 2013: Organiser of a series of applied mathematics seminars in Cameroon focused on biomathematics, mathematical epidemiology and modelling of infectious diseases: University of Ngaoundéré, Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique de Yaoundé.
- July/Aug 2011 MISE Research Camp.
- Science Education Initiative in Accra, Ghana: Teaching and organisation of a Mathematics and Engineering Research Camp for talented Ghanaian students (12 – 16 years) in cooperation with a local NGO.
Other interests
I love history, music and philosophy around a cup of tea at midnight, I love playing chamber music, jamming in a bar or playing in symphony orchestras, training dogs, swimming, questioning what seems obvious, hunt the sense of life, eating yam, pasta and good cheese, dancing salsa, staying up all night to do maths and travelling the world.
Recently, I have been involved with the production of the French-Cameroonian documentary "Yaounde-Lyon - Le voyage d'une vie" which had its UK Premiere as part of the Cambridge African Film Festival 2014. There trailer is available here (French with English subtitles).
F.K.O.Hoffmann [at] maths.cam.ac.uk
