mathematics

John Ockendon

John Ockendon is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Ockendon rather than just read about it. In short: John Richard Ockendon (born 1940) is an applied mathematician noted especially for his contribution to fluid dynamics and novel applications of mathematics to real world problems. He is a professor at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow at St Catherine's College, Oxford, served as the first director of the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM) and a former director of the Smith Inst…

Key takeaways

John Ockendon belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Ockendon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Ockendon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Richard Ockendon (born 1940) is an applied mathematician noted especially for his contribution to fluid dynamics and novel applications of mathematics to real world problems. He is a professor at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow at St Catherine's College, Oxford, served as the first director of the Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM) and a former director of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering.

Education Ockendon was privately educated at Dulwich College and the University of Oxford where he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1965 for research on fluid dynamics supervised by Alan B. Tayler.

Research and career His initial fluid mechanics interests included hypersonic aerodynamics, creeping flow, sloshing and channel flows and leading to flows in porous media, ship hydrodynamics and models for flow separation. He moved on to free and moving boundary problems. He pioneered the study of diffusion-controlled moving boundary problems in the 1970s his involvement centring on models for phase changes and elastic contact problems all built around the paradigm of the Hele-Shaw free boundary problem. Other industrial collaboration has led to new ideas for lens design, fibre manufacture, extensional and surface-tension- driven flows and glass manufacture, fluidised-bed models, semiconductor device modelling and a range of other problems in mechanics and heat and mass transfer, especially scattering and ray theory, nonlinear wave propagation, nonlinear oscillations, nonlinear diffusion and impact in solids and liquids. His efforts to promote mathematical collaboration with industry led him to organise annual meetings of the Study Groups with Industry from 1972 to 1989.

Awards and honours Ockendon was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1999, and awarded the IMA Gold Medal by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in 2006.

Personal life Ockendon is married to his coauthor and colleague Hilary Ockendon (née Mason). His Who's Who entry lists his recreations as mathematical modelling, bird watching, Hornby-Dublo model trains and old sports cars.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Ockendon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Ockendon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Ockendon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Ockendon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Ockendon

In research: John Ockendon appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Ockendon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Ockendon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940s births, 20th-century British mathematicians, 21st-century British mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Ockendon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Ockendon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Ockendon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Ockendon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Ockendon in simple terms?

Why does John Ockendon matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Ockendon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Ockendon.