Brief Biography

John was born in Peterborough on 4 March 1947, went up to Trinity College in 1965, and has been a fixture in Cambridge ever since. He married Christine in 1969, was elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1971, was appointed as a University Teaching Officer in 1972, graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1973, and was promoted to Reader and Professor in 1994 and 1998, respectively. In 1997 he received the Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite and in 1998 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He and Christine have two children, Robert and Clare.

John has made noteworthy research contributions in a broad spectrum of fluid mechanics, including micro-hydrodynamics, colloidal dispersion, flow through porous media, polymer rheology, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics and other fields of physicochemical hydrodynamics, i.e. the study of interactions between fluid flow and physical, chemical and biochemical processes. He has worked with collaborators across the world, but notably with several experimental groups in France, using analytical techniques and building mathematical models to solve processing problems within the oil, glass, steel and food industries.

Among his many industrial collaborations, John has worked on steel processing and oil refinery problems for British Steel and Schlumberger. His models illustrate gas flow through ore in a smelting furnace and the flow of drilling mud that can clog oil wells. By enabling the prediction of the most effective route of migration of a gas or liquid, John has made it possible to improve flow efficiency in industrial processes.