Meet the academics and researchers from the Brumley Lab.
Academic staff
A/Prof Douglas Brumley
Dr. Douglas Brumley is an Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics and leads an interdisciplinary research group at the interface of mathematics, biophysics and microbial Ecology. The Brumley lab utilises mathematics, microfluidics and microscopy to study a range of dynamic processes in biology, including bacterial motility, symbioses, nutrient cycling and flows around coral reefs.
d.brumley@unimelb.edu.auDr Javane Javaherchian
Javane Javaherchian is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working on bacteria-algae symbiosis. She has a background in Mechanical Engineering, and her interdisciplinary research combines microfluidics, high-resolution microscopy, microfabrication, and mathematical modelling to investigate microscale interactions, including the fluid-mechanical behaviour of flagellated cells and marine microbial symbioses.
j.javaherchian@unimelb.edu.auGraduate researchers
Olle Pontén
Olle is a PhD student (co-supervised with Prof. Madeleine van Oppen) at the University of Melbourne’s School of Mathematics and Statistics. His research topics include motility and chemotaxis of Symbiodiniaceae microalgae, in silico and in vitro studies using microfluidics, and modelling the effect of stressors on the coral holobiont.
Xinyi Yang
Xinyi Yang is a PhD student in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on modelling the navigation of microswimmers under the influence of fluid flows, external fields, and confinement.
Matthew Walker
Matthew Walker is a PhD student working in non-Newtonian fluid dynamics (co-supervised by Dr. Edward Hinton and Dr. Jesse Collis). He is particularly interested in applying these flows to geophysical problems and investigating how rheological intricacies govern the movement of lava, mud and concrete.
Amelia Keynton
Amelia Keynton is a PhD student (co-supervised by Prof. Michelle Watt, Dr. Vicky Waymouth and Prof. Berit Ebert). Her research investigates the role of organelle trafficking and plant cell wall composition in root-microbe interactions using Arabidopsis thaliana.
Rodney Dharma
Rodney is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne’s School of Mathematics and Statistics. His research centres around using analytical and numerical methods to model microbial motility, chemotaxis, symbiosis, and porous-type flows.
Sarah Brook
Anuththara Lekamalage
Maya Pearson
Catherine Zhao
Kazuhide Ogawa Javes
Yanny Yan
Dorian Wright
Former group members
| Lachlan Cash, MSc | "Characterising close-range interactions between ciliated microswimmers and no-slip boundaries" |
| Howie Zhou, MSc | "Perturbative solution of weakly non-Newtonian flows at coral surfaces" |
| Allison Mertin, PhD | "Diversity and plant growth promotion potential of native Australian seed microbiomes for improving restoration outcomes" |
| Antony Selvan, PhD | "Mathematical modelling of ciliary flows: rotlet model" |
| Rania Ismail, PhD | "Cyanobacteria in Australian freshwater" |
| Nitay Ben-Shachar, PhD | "Near-hydrodynamic electron flows modelled with the linearised Boltzmann equation" |
| Tristan Bunnage, MSc | "Miscible viscous fingering subject to an oscillating injection" |
| Rebecca Rasmussen, MSc | "Impulsive breaststroke swimming at low Reynolds number, with application to Corixidae" |
| Huynh Tuan Kiet Phan, Vacation Scholar | "Using finite difference method to investigate the structure of flows in unbounded and confined geometries" |
| Shenru Duan, MSc | "Noise Influences on Synchronisation of Flagella Through Hydrodynamics and Basal Body Coupling" |
| Peijing Li, PhD | "The steady streaming flows generated by spherical particles suspended in acoustic waves" |
| Rodney Dharma, MSc | "Resolving Spatial Heterogeneity in Microbial Symbiosis" |
| Xinyi Yang, MSc | "Navigation of magnetotactic bacteria in complex environments" |
| Ben Butler, Vacation Scholar | "Synchronization of biological oscillators" |
| Douglas Heal, Vacation Scholar | "Stokeslet modelling of the hydrodynamics of stirred nutrients and tracer particles" |
| Asher Pennicuik, MSc | "An Investigation of Active Particle Systems by a Combined Complex Networks and Dynamical Systems Approach" |
| Jacob Vandenberg, Vacation Scholar | "The encounter rate of microbes in nutrient rich water" |
| Timothy Cooper, MSc | "Bacterial chemotaxis in multi-source nutrient environments" |
| Chris Darveniza, MSc | "Bumping bacteria: a model for dense suspensions of self-propelling microbes" |
| Angus Butler, MSc | "Ciliary flows of corals: An analytic representation" |
| Yujie Liu, Vacation Scholar | "Flagellar Synchronization on Biflagellate Cells" |
| Khaya Mpehle, MSc | "A fluid dynamic model for the coral’s ciliary flows" |