Rate My Professor Mike Jeffrey

Professor Mike Jeffrey is Professor of Applied Mathematics in the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology at the University of Bristol. He holds an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, where his doctoral thesis, "Conical Diffraction: Complexifying Hamilton's Diabolical Legacy," was supervised by Michael V. Berry and awarded on 3 October 2007. Following his PhD, Jeffrey advanced through research positions at Bristol, including a period from 2007 to 2010, progressing to senior lecturer and ultimately to his current professorial role.

Jeffrey's research centers on geometrical asymptotics, delving into singular and discontinuous phenomena in dynamical systems. He examines the mathematics governing qualitative world features, particularly interactions between life and technology via discontinuities from decision-making, biological, and electronic regulation. Expertise encompasses nonsmooth systems, bifurcations, catastrophes, averaging theory, perturbation, and determinacy. He has authored books such as "Modeling with Nonsmooth Dynamics" (2020), "Hidden Dynamics" (2018), "An Introduction to Piecewise Smooth Dynamics" (2017), "Underlying Catastrophes: Umbilics and Pattern Formation" (2024), and "Elementary Catastrophes Underlying Bifurcations of Vector Fields and PDEs" (2024). Notable publications include "Conical Diffraction: Hamilton's Diabolical Point at the Heart of Crystal Optics" with M.V. Berry (Progress in Optics, 2007), "Bifurcations of Piecewise Smooth Flows: Perspectives, Methodologies and Open Problems" (Physica D, 2012), "Perturbation and Determinacy of Nonsmooth Systems" (Physica D, 2025), and "Bifurcations and Catastrophes of Dynamical Systems with Centre Dimension One" (Nonlinearity, 2026). With 75 research outputs and recognition via Google Scholar citations exceeding 2,495, his work influences applied nonlinear mathematics. Awards include the EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship for "When Worlds Collide: The Asymptotics of Interacting Systems" (2012-2016). He has led projects like "Resolving Discontinuities in the Behaviour of Dynamical Systems" (2016-2018) and organized events such as Dynamics Days Europe 2010.