Katie Gittins

About me.

I am an Associate Professor in Analysis at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, UK. 

From September 2020 to June 2024, I was an Assistant Professor in Analysis at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, UK.

From August 2018 to August 2020, I was a maitre-assistante at the Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, from October 2017 until July 2018. 

I spent one year as a post-doctorante working with Prof. Bruno Colbois at the Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, from October 2016 to September 2017.

I completed my PhD at the University of Bristol, UK, in September 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Michiel van den Berg.

For further information, you can find my CV here.

Research interests.

I am fascinated by problems which lie on the interface between Analysis and Geometry and typically involve Partial Differential Equations.

For example,

• The heat flow on certain sets in Euclidean space. Take an open set in Euclidean space and suppose it has initial temperature 1, while its complement has initial temperature 0. I explore the interplay between the geometry of this set and the amount of heat which is left inside it at a given time.

• Optimisation of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian (with boundary conditions) among collections of open sets in Euclidean space. The sets in these collections satisfy some geometric constraints, such as prescribed measure or prescribed perimeter. I am particularly interested in the asymptotic behaviour of a sequence of such optimal sets.

• The Courant-sharp eigenvalues of the Laplacian with Dirichlet, Neumann or Robin boundary conditions on open sets in Euclidean space. How many are there and how does this number depend upon the geometry of the set? 

For further information, please see Papers and Preprints.

COST Action mSPACE.

Since September 2025, I have been the Vice-Chair of the COST Action CA24122 - multiscale Stochastics, Patterns, and Analysis of Combinatorial Environments (mSPACE). This network aims to advance our understanding in the analysis of multiscale systems.

PhD Supervision.

Sam Farrington, October 2021 - May 2025.

Durham University Maths First-Generation Scholars Group.

Jointly with Clare Wallace and Denis Patterson, I am running the Maths First-Generation Scholars Group which forms part of Durham University's First-Generation Scholars’ network. If you are a member of Durham University who would like to participate in this group, then please feel free to contact me by email.