Probability is a beautiful and ubiquitous field of modern mathematics that can be loosely described as the mathematics of uncertainty. It has applications in all areas of pure and applied science, and provides the theoretical basis for statistics. Four of the last twelve Fields Medallists have been recognised for their work in probability.
Stochastic processes evolve randomly in time. This is a characteristic feature of the behaviour of most complex systems such as living organisms, populations of individuals of some kind (molecules, cells, stars or even students), financial markets, systems of seismic faults, etc.
Being able to understand and predict the future behaviour of such systems is of critical importance, and requires understanding the laws according to which the systems evolve in time. Discovering such laws and devising methods for using them in various applications in physics, biology, statistics, financial engineering, risk analysis and control is the principal task of researchers working in the area of stochastic processes.
Modelling, analysis and computer simulations play an important role in the field, the latter playing an important role in helping us to get insight into the behaviour of analytically intractable systems.
We investigate a diverse range of theoretical and applied stochastic processes
Research in our group covers:
- Stochastic approximation
- The theory of queues and stochastic networks
- Random walks
- Random graphs and combinatorial structures
- Reinforcement processes
- Interacting particle systems
- Stochastic dynamical systems
- Boundary crossing problems.
We pursue a wide range of applications across many industries
- Epidemiology
- Healthcare
- Traffic management
- Risk modelling
- Financial engineering.
Students interested in pursuing a career in various fields such as mathematics, statistics, physics, biology, finance, economics etc. will benefit greatly by studying probability at a deep level. Stochastic Processes graduates work in research and development departments of leading financial and insurance institutions, defence organisations, as well as in the areas of bioinformatics, signal processing, technology and many others.