Dr Ben Wilks graduated on Saturday, rounding out a year of successes - his doctoral thesis was awarded Exceptional Thesis status earlier this year, and he landed his dream job at the University of Newcastle.
Graduating with a PhD in mathematics and statistics on Saturday was the trifecta for Dr Ben Wilks; he was granted Exceptional Thesis status for his thesis on wave energy earlier in the year and then secured his dream job in Newcastle, Australia.
He was granted Exceptional Thesis status for his thesis Topics in resonant wave scattering: From rainbow reflection of water waves to time-domain scattering by acoustic resonators, which looked at wave energy conversion.
“In the ocean, there are waves and they carry energy. We want to be able to take this energy and somehow convert it to usable energy such as electricity.”
A big part of the thesis was designing structures that make use of the phenomenon of resonance, he says.
He compares it to someone blowing over the top of a bottle which creates a sound with a specific pitch.
Dr Wilks wanted to determine if the energy could be localised to a specific region so that it can later be extracted.
“We found that there’s these kind of specific arrangements where you assemble the structure so that it gets bigger.
“There are specific configurations where you do get really high energy absorption over broad frequency intervals.”
His work was all theoretical and done using computer models, and he says its to early to say if it’s a viable.
“It’s hard to extrapolate from very applied math theoretical studies to what it could actually work. These models show that it’s a promising area for more applied people to pick up.”
Dr Wilks says he was “pretty happy” to hear he had been granted Exceptional Thesis status.
Since handing his thesis in, Ben has taken up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Newcastle which he expects may last for three years.
Life in Australia is going well and he is feeling settled in.
“Although the culture is similar and immigration is streamlined for New Zealand citizens, it was still a big change to go an live in a new country.”
The postdoctoral position is keeping him “very busy”.
“I am enjoying collaborating with postgraduate students and staff on various research projects. I have also begun lecturing for a third-year course – I find lecturing challenging, and it requires a lot of preparation but I get a sense of fulfilment from this.”
He is not able to elaborate to much on what his postdoctoral project is focusing on other than to say is follows on from his existing research programme developed during his PhD.
“My postdoc advisor in this area is Professor Mike Meylen, who is also an Otago mathematics PhD – his being from the mid-90s. I am enjoying working with him.”