Dr Alexander Pretty

(he/him)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Indoor disease transmission
My most recent research position was here at Cardiff, investigating indoor transmission of COVID-19, with particular interest in the impact of air purification devices. The risk of infection was determined using an advection-diffusion-reaction equation so that the spatiotemporal variation across the room could be accounted for, with the purifier modelled as a source/sink of airflow into/out of the room. The research was carried out alongside Dr Katerina Kaouri and Prof Ian Griffiths.

Electromagnetics
Prior to this, I held a postdoctoral research position at Swansea University, with Prof Oubay Hassan, Dr Ruben Sevilla and Prof Kenneth Morgan, using reduced order modeling of Maxwell's equations to facilitate the design and optimisation of nano-scale structures for coatings on thermal solar panels. This work was undertaken in collaboration with industry partners LIST.

Fluid Dynamics
I studied a PhD in fluid dynamics at Cardiff University under the supervision of Dr Chris Davies, entitled "Linear disturbance evolution in the semi-infinite Stokes layer and related flows". In this project we demonstrated that the Stokes layer - being the flow generated by the sinusiodal motion of a bounding plate - is subject to a form of absolute instability. The approach taken was a combination of direct numerical simulation of the linearised Navier-Stokes equations and solution of an eigenvalue problem arising from a linear stability analysis informed by Floquet theory.

Teaching

I am currently employed as a Teaching Fellow supporting MSc and undergraduate modules including:

• Foundations of Statistics and Data Science (MSc)
• Foundations of Operational Research and Analytics (MSc)
• Credit Risk Scoring (MSc)
• Calculus of Several Variable (BSc)
• Foundations of Mathematics (BSc)

Prior to this role I was also a Teaching Assistant on the MMath Fluid Dynamics course. During my PhD I held tutorials in a variety of first-year modules, including Elementary Differential Equations, Mechanics and Geometry as well as being involved in the Maths Support service.

Biography

I grew up in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, and moved to Cardiff in 2010 when I began my undergraduate degree in Mathematics and its Applications here at the School of Mathematics. I've lived in Cardiff every since, undertaking my PhD off the back of my degree and comuting to Swansea when employed as a post-doc there. This is my second recent role at the School of Mathematics after completing a post-doc here (remotely) during the pandemic.

In 2021, I was married, and as a result changed my surname from Ramage to Pretty. My PhD thesis and my first paper are in my previous name.

Professional memberships

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Academic positions

Oct 2021 - present: Teaching Associate, School of Mathematics, Cardiff University

Feb 2021 - July 2021: Post Doctoral Research Associate, School of Mathematics, Cardiff University

2018 - 2020: Post Doctoral Research Associate, College of Engineering, Swansea University