Postgraduate research opportunities

Mathematical Aspects of Silicosis

Silicosis is a lung disease developed by people who work with dust. Modelling silicosis is a challenging mathematical problem involving coagulation-fragmentation equations, semigroup theory and invariant manifold theory.

Number of places

1

Opens

1 March 2020

Deadline

1 July 2020

Duration

48 months

Eligibility

Any UK/EU  mathematics graduate with interests in differential equations and bio-mathematical modelling.

Project Details

Modelling silicosis involves understanding the ingestion of dust particles, their absorption by macrophages in the lungs and the clearance  of the macrophages  by the muco-ciliary escalator and their death which results in release of dust particles in the lungs. In the project, the student will derive physically realistic models of macrophage and dust particle dynamics, prove existence of solutions using semigroup theory methods and will consider long-term asymptotic behaviour of solutions.

How to apply

Please email Dr M. Grinfeld if you would like to apply for this opportunity.