Personal Info

E-mail: richard.katz(at)earth.ox.ac.uk
Web Link: http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~richardk

Academic Background:

BA (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 2000); PhD (Columbia University, New York City, NY, 2005); Senior Research Fellow, Department of Applied Maths & Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge (2006–08)

Teaching Interests:

Mathematical methods for Earth sciences. Fluid mechanics. Dynamics of the mantle and core.

Research Interests:

Dynamics of fluid–solid systems with chemical, mechanical and thermodynamic interactions between phases.

• Applications to geophysical systems.
• Pattern formation in two-phase systems. Fluid focusing and localization. Shear and reactive instability in partially molten materials.
• Volcanism at the boundaries of tectonic plates. Reactive flow of magma and hydrous fluids through the mantle. Geochemical predictions and comparison with geochemical observations.
• The integration of large-scale computation, analytical theory and laboratory fluid dynamics experiments.

Selected Publications:

R.F. Katz and M.G. Worster, ‘Simulation of directional solidification, thermochemical convection, and chimney formation in a Hele-Shaw cell’, Journal of Computational Physics, 2008, doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2008.06.039
R.F. Katz, M. Knepley, B. Smith, M. Spiegelman and E. Coon, ‘Numerical simulation of geodynamic processes with the Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation’, Phys. of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 2007, 163, 52–68, doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2007.04.016
R.F. Katz, M. Spiegelman and B. Holtzman, ‘The dynamics of melt and shear localization in partially molten aggregates’, Nature, 2006, 442, 676–79, doi:10.1038/nature05039
R.F. Katz, R. Ragnarsson and E. Bodenschatz, ‘Tectonic Microplates in a Wax Model of Sea Floor Spreading’, New Journal of Physics, 2005, 7(37), doi:10.1088/1367-2630/7/1/037