Professor Stephen Coombes

Professor of Applied Maths, School of Mathematical Sciences

stephen.coombes@nottingham.ac.uk

I am an Applied Mathematician at the University of Nottingham with a background in Theoretical Physics (BSc; 1990) and Neurocomputing (PhD; 1995).  My main research interests lie in the area of mathematical biology and in particular the application of principles from nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics to the study of neural systems.

I have made substantial contributions to models of cortical and thalamic neural tissue. These models often take the form of integro-differential equations. Their non-local nature has led to the development of a set of analytical and numerical tools for the study of waves, bumps, and patterns, based around extensions of those used for local differential equation models.

I am the co-author of a recent book (Springer, 2023) which uses techniques from modern applied mathematics to provide a perspective on Neurodynamics ranging from single neuron to tissue level, and have previously edited a book on Neural Fields (Springer, 2014) for the description of coarse-grained activity of populations of interacting neurons.