Carl Whitfield

Carl Whitfield

Dr, Dr

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

One fully-funded post, starting Sept 2025
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/modelling-the-biomechanical-networks-of-the-lung-in-heath-and-disease/?p176345

Personal profile

Overview

I am a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow developing computational models of lung structure and function in health and disease, with a particular focus on cystic fibrosis. My webpage can be found here.

Biography

I am a Research Fellow in the Department of Mathematics specialising in mathematical and computational modelling in respiratory medicine.

In January 2025 I started a DKO Fellowship in the Applied Mathematics group. My research centres around multi-scale modelling of flow, transport, and biomechanical phenomena in the lungs. I am interested in using patient-specific models to detect diseases earlier, optimise treatment delivery and understand disease mechanisms.

Before my current role, I was a Post-Doctoral Researcher and MRC Skills Development Fellow working with Dr. Alex Horsley and Prof. Oliver Jensen here in Manchester, as well as Prof. Jim Wild in Sheffield, who I continue to collaborate with in my current role. I also spent a year during the COVID-19 pandemic working with the mathematical epidemiology group, supervised by Prof Ian Hall, focusing mainly on modelling the impact of asymptomatic testing interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

I have previously held positions at the Universities of Warwick and Sheffield where my main research focus was modelling active soft matter. That is soft materials, mainly liquid crystals, driven out of equilibirum at the microscopic level. Such systems have numerous applications to biological matter such as collections of bacteria and cells as well as the cell cytoskeleton.

Research interests

  • Computational modelling
  • Respiratory physiology
  • Biomechanics
  • Biological fluid mechanics
  • Transport phenomena
  • Inverse problems and uncertainty quantification

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Education/Academic qualification

Doctor of Philosophy, Modelling Spontaneous Motion and Deformation of Active Droplets, The University of Sheffield

1 Oct 201231 Oct 2015

Award Date: 30 Nov 2015

Master of Physics, MPhys Physics with Mathematics, The University of Sheffield

1 Sept 20081 Jun 2012

Award Date: 30 Jun 2012

Areas of expertise

  • QC Physics
  • Biophysics
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Soft Matter Physics
  • QP Physiology
  • Respiratory Modelling
  • QA76 Computer software
  • Numerical Simulation

Research Beacons, Institutes and Platforms

  • Digital Futures
  • Christabel Pankhurst Institute
  • Thomas Ashton Institute

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