01
Structural and ensemble dynamics
Ensemble damping, phase decoherence, stochastic Green functions, random spectra and damped localisation.
ReadUniversity of Glasgow · James Watt School of Engineering
Dynamics of uncertain and disordered mechanical systems
Every real structure differs from its neighbour, and every one differs from its model. I work out what that does to their dynamics, and how that impacts engineering decisions and understanding.
Structural and ensemble dynamics · Mechanical metamaterials · Uncertainty quantification · Inverse problems · Computational mechanics
Current scientific questions
Four questions the group is working on
Each of the five research themes below is a different way of attacking the same problem: a mechanical system whose properties are known only imprecisely, and a prediction that has to be trustworthy all the same.
- How does disorder change collective dynamic behaviour, and when does an ensemble stop behaving like its mean?
- How do decoherence and localisation interact once dissipation is present?
- What can an aggregate measurement reveal about the hidden mechanical cause that produced it?
- How should exact mechanics constrain a learned model, so that its predictions can be trusted in the tail?
Research architecture
Five connected themes
Structural dynamics, probabilistic methods and computational mechanics are the three foundations. The five themes are the directions in which they are being pushed. The research programme page sets out how they connect.
02
Mechanical metamaterials
Architected and disordered lattices, wave propagation, band gaps under manufacturing tolerance, inverse design.
Read03
Uncertainty quantification
Random operators, random eigenvalue problems, random matrices and fields, rare events, stochastic metamaterials.
Read04
Inverse problems
Identifiability, non-uniqueness, probabilistic attribution, Bayesian and simulation-based inference.
Read05
Computational mechanics
Exact and semi-analytical methods, dynamic stiffness, model reduction, neural and measure operators.
ReadAbout
Who I am
I have spent twenty-five years on one question in different disguises: what happens to a mechanical system once you admit that its properties are known only imprecisely.
I started with damping, because it is the term in the equation of motion that nobody can measure directly and everybody has to assume. That led to uncertainty, because a damping model fitted to one specimen rarely fits the next one. It led to metamaterials, because architected structures are where the assumption of a perfectly known geometry breaks down hardest. The subject has changed several times; the question has stayed the same.
I read Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Calcutta, now IIEST Shibpur, took an MSc at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2001 as a member of Trinity College, working with Jim Woodhouse on the identification of damping. After a Junior Research Fellowship at Fitzwilliam College I moved to Bristol as Lecturer in Dynamics, then to Swansea as Chair of Aerospace Engineering in 2007, and to Glasgow in 2021.
I have held visiting positions at IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, Central South University in Changsha, École Centrale de Lyon, Rice University, the University of Texas at Austin, Université Paris-Est, the University of Johannesburg, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Carleton University. Much of my best work has come out of those visits.
Alongside the theory I have spent a decade advising Embraer on uncertainty quantification for composite aircraft structures, and worked with Garrad Hassan, now DNV-GL, on wind turbine reliability. Theory earns its keep the day it meets a real structure.
- PhD University of Cambridge, 2001, Trinity College
- MSc Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 1997
- BE University of Calcutta (IIEST Shibpur), 1995
- Now Professor of Engineering Mechanics, Glasgow
- Also Head of Infrastructure and Environment Division
- Fellow Royal Aeronautical Society; Learned Society of Wales
Lectures
Plenary and keynote lectures
Nine plenary, one semi-plenary and sixteen keynote lectures at international conferences, alongside more than sixty invited seminars and eight intensive lecture courses. The most recent are below; the complete list, with slides, is on the lectures page.
- May 2026 KeynoteDynamics of structures with uncertainties International Workshop on Engineering Reliability and Stochastic Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
- May 2025 KeynoteDynamics of structures with uncertain properties: challenges and advances in stochastic modelling ASME Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference, Houston, Texas
- Sep 2025 InvitedDynamics of structures with uncertainties SLB Cambridge Academia Collaboration Week, Cambridge, UK
- Jun 2023 PlenaryInertial amplifier for vibration control and mitigation: design and analysis COMPDYN 2023, Athens, Greece
- May 2024 InvitedHarnessing geometry in 2D metamaterials: curved beams for customised band-gap manipulation Metamaterials and Architected Materials for Novel Energy Harvesting, Imperial College London
- Sep 2022 PlenaryUncertainty quantification in structural dynamics 1st International Conference on Mathematical Modelling in Mechanics and Engineering, Belgrade, Serbia
- Jan 2021 PlenaryDynamic characteristics of 2D lattice metamaterials International Conference on Futuristic Technologies, Delhi, India
- Sep 2018 PlenaryProjection methods for stochastic structural dynamics VETOMAC XIV, Lisbon, Portugal
- Jun 2017 PlenaryDynamics and homogenisation of disordered lattice metamaterials UNCECOMP 2017, Rhodes, Greece
- Feb 2013 KeynoteUncertainty propagation in structural dynamics: theory and applications DINAME 2013, Búzios, Brazil
Professional activities
Service, editing and industry
Editorial
- Computers and Structures, editorial advisory board
- Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, editorial board
- Frontiers in Built Environment
- Reviews on Advanced Materials Science
- ISSS Journal of Micro and Smart Systems
- More than twenty-five journals in total
Leadership and academies
- Head, Infrastructure and Environment Research Division, Glasgow, since 2023
- FRAeS, Royal Aeronautical Society
- FLSW, Learned Society of Wales
- Associate Fellow, AIAA
- ASCE Probabilistic Methods Committee
Industry
- Embraer, Brazil, technical consultant since 2012
- Renew Risk, London, technical advisor since 2025
- Datum Advanced Composites, Kanpur, advisory board
- Garrad Hassan, now DNV-GL, 2005 to 2009
Open research
Code, benchmarks and data
A method is finished when other people can run it. Everything the group develops is released with a documented implementation, a reference problem set and a citable DOI.
- DecoLab software platform
- Stochastic oscillator benchmark
- Random eigenproblem benchmark
- Disordered lattice benchmark
- Reproducible MATLAB and Python examples
Applications
Where the methods are used
The five themes are scientific identities. The work reaches practice through long-standing industrial collaborations in aerospace, wind energy and infrastructure.
- Aerospace composite structures
- Wind turbines and offshore foundations
- Vibration control and inerter systems
- Energy harvesting
- Civil infrastructure
- Nanoscale sensing
People and opportunities
Joining the group
Doctoral and postdoctoral positions are advertised here when funded. Enquiries are welcome at any time from candidates with a background in structural dynamics, applied probability or computational mechanics.
Prospective doctoral students: read the research programme first, then write one page saying which of the open problems you want to work on and why. That page is what gets read.