Thomas Edgar Woolley

Thomas Edgar Woolley MMATH(OXON), AHEA.
Dphil Mathematician.
Centre for Mathematical Biology,
Mathematical Institute,
24-29 St Giles',
Oxford,
OX1 3LB,
England.

Email: woolley at maths dot ox dot ac dot uk.

Departmental website: Thomas E. Woolley.

My main area of research is stochastic pattern formation on growing domains. An interesting combination of words, but what do they mean? For a long time mathematical biologists have been trying to recreate the animal skin patterns they see in nature, such as the stingray on the bottom right. However, quite often they assume that everything is smooth and that reactions work perfectly. This produces patterns like the top left picture. It is my job to shake things up, literally. I add randomness to these systems to see if they still work. This produces the pictures like the top right.

Mostly, I deal with Turing patterns. These occur when diffusion causes a pattern to exist. As diffusion, normally, tries to wipe patterns out, this is quite unexpected. However, I do dabble with other systems and I've produced some research with collaborators Rafael Barrio, José Luis Aragón on the incredibly complex BVAM system. This work has produced the spot patterns on the left which looks like stingray skins.

I am currently involved with a number of collaborations. One entails creating a model of Shh signalling in mice teeth with Sung-Won Cho and others from Yonsei University. Another involves creating a gradient model for Shh signalling in a chick limb and wing with Matthew Towers and Cheryl Tickle from the University of Bath.