Rate My Professor Robert Van Gorder

Robert Van Gorder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Otago. He received his B.S. in Mathematics in 2009 and Ph.D. in Mathematics in 2014 from the University of Central Florida, supported by the Trustees Doctoral Fellowship from 2009 to 2011 and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship from 2011 to 2014. After completing his doctorate, he held positions at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, first as Research Fellow in Nonlinear Dynamics from 2014 to 2015, followed by Glasstone Research Fellow in Science from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, he joined the University of Otago as Senior Lecturer, where he was confirmed in 2023 and promoted to Associate Professor effective February 2024. He has conducted research leaves as Visiting Scholar at Merton College and the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford in the first half of 2023 and 2026, along with a CNRS-funded visit to the Institut de Physique de Nice, France.

Van Gorder specializes in applied mathematics, employing mathematical modelling, analytical and asymptotic methods, and numerical simulations to study physical phenomena in fluids, patterns, and waves. His expertise encompasses partial differential equations, nonlinear dynamics, chaos, integrable systems, approximation methods, mathematical biology, network science, pattern formation, asymptotic analysis, nonlinear waves and solitons, fluid mechanics, vortex dynamics, heat and mass transfer, condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and nonlinear optics. He has published extensively in leading journals including Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Key publications include 'Convective heat transfer in the flow of viscous Ag–water and Cu–water nanofluids over a stretching surface' (2011), 'Nonlinear flow phenomena and homotopy analysis' (book, 2013), 'A heat and mass transfer study of coffee bean roasting' (2017), 'Diffusive instabilities and spatial patterning from the coupling of reaction-diffusion processes with Stokes flow in complex domains' (2019), 'Finite time blowup of incompressible flows surrounding compressible bubbles evolving under soft equations of state' (2022), and 'Spatial eigenvalue problems for stars in hydrostatic equilibrium: Generalized Lane–Emden equations as boundary value problems' (2023). His research demonstrates substantial impact through collaborations and citations in applied mathematics and related fields. At Otago, he serves as Director of Studies for 100-level Mathematics and teaches courses such as MATH120 Mathematics for Scientists.