Professor Gunnar Hornig
Chair of Magnetohydrodynamics
Contact
Biography
Gunnar Hornig obtained his PhD in 1997 from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), Germany.
He led a junior research group funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung for six years at RUB before he came for a one-year visiting position to the University of St Andrews.
In 2005 he took up a position at the University of Dundee to build up a new group on Magnetohydrodynamics.
Research
His research interests lie in the area of mathematical methods applied to fluid dynamical systems, especially to magnetohydrodynamics (MHD).
MHD is a theory which describes the behaviour of electrically conducting fluids such as plasmas or molten metals and applies for instance to the atmospheres of stars like our Sun. These plasmas show an amazing variety of phenomena of self-organisation and structure formation which are a challenge to understand.
To describe or predict these phenomena we use a wide range of mathematical tools from dynamical systems theory, differential geometry, topology and numerical analysis.
Second supervisor
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- PhD opportunity
The topology of chaos of partial differential equations
Stories
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- Press release
Dundee expertise aids COVID-19 testing effort
The University of Dundee has helped establish Scotland’s central COVID-19 testing facility in support of the national response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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- Feature
Studying the Sun
A team of mathematicians within the Magnetohydrodynamics & Astrophysics Research Cluster is generating a series of equations which will help to predict powerful solar explosions caused by the sun’s magnetic fields