About
I trained as a mathematical physicist at Oxford University, where I completed my PhD in quantum field theory and was an open scholar in Maths at University College. Before coming to Swansea in 1982, I worked for 13 years at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. There I did some of my most important work on the Feynman path integral and quantum field theory, which led to my election to a FRSE in 1980. I came to Swansea to learn about stochastic processes from our very own David William FRS. These have become an abiding interest for me.
I have been Visiting Professor at Princeton, Rome (La Sapienza), CNRS Marseilles and Moscow State University and was one of the first academics to be awarded a FLSW. I was Head of Department in Swansea for over 20 years – some of my happiest days. After being the main organiser of the 9th ICMP in Swansea in 1988, I was elected Secretary of the International Association of Mathematical Physics for 5 years. I became an Emeritus Professor at Swansea in 2010.
I have published over a hundred papers on Classical and Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Field Theory, Stochastic Diffusion Processes and Stochastic Mechanics. The majority of these are joint papers and have been the result of collaboration – one of the main joys of research. With the help of former students I am currently working on an exciting new field with applications to astronomy and celestial mechanics, where stochastic processes have important applications. I call the new field Semi-classical Mechanics – a halfway house between the Classical and Quantum Theories. This promises to be my most important work yet.
My lasting passions are: my loving family, Welsh Rugby, Malt Whiskey, my little dog Sally, Mathematical Physics and Physical Mathematics