Priya Subramanian

I am presently a research fellow at the School of Mathematics, University of Leeds and the underlying theme of my research interests lies in understanding spatio-temporal patterns and emergent behaviour in a variety of systems.

During my PhD, I focussed on the interaction between flames and sound, much like how a candle flame will flicker in time to loud bass sounds from a nearby speaker. I focussed on understanding this thermo-acoustic interaction and in the application of tools from dynamical systems' theory to analyze the resulting oscillations.

As part of my post-doctoral work, I have been investigating spatio-temporal patterns that occur in fluid flows. Think of the fluid sandwiched between two glass panes of a window (in particular a slanted window pane). This fluid experiences temperature difference (because the two glass panes have different temperatures) and flows down the incline. Many interesting patterns are formed in this system when buoyancy and shear forces compete. This can also be thought of as a simple model system of fluid flows in atmospheric and oceanographic flows.

Currently I am working on emergent behavior in active fluids such as the motion of organelle filaments on motility assays and in the formation of quasipatterns - patterns that never repeat and yet seem the same when rotated appropriately.