Alan Davies

Who is Alan Davies?

Alan Davies is a professor of mathematics at the University of Hertfordshire. He was the head of the School of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics until he retired in 2007. Now, as Professor of Mathematics, he is responsible for the department’s outreach work being heavily involved with working with bright young mathematicians in primary and secondary schools. Together with his wife, Dr Diane Crann, he runs the Hertfordshire Royal Institution Mathematics Masterclass series at the University of Hertfordshire.

Alan is a Trustee of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Alan has a general interest in all areas of mathematics but his specific area is mathematics applied to engineering and the physical sciences. He regularly gives public lectures, aimed at a general audience ages 8 to 108, on applied mathematics and physics.

His research interest is in the area of numerical computation and he has over 100 relevant publications. In particular he and Diane have collaborated for the past fifteen years developing boundary element solutions to diffusion problems. They are particularly interested in the use of the Laplace transform and domain decomposition approaches.

Davies graduated from the University of Southampton in mathematics in 1968 before gaining a masters degree in structural engineering in 1974 and a doctorate in numerical computation in 1988 from Imperial College London.