Sneddon Lecture 2026 - So many dynamoS: The interaction of large and small

Professor Steve Tobias (University of Edinburgh)

Friday 23rd October 16:00-17:00
LT 116 Mathematics and Statistics Building, UofG

Abstract

The School of Mathematics and Statistics invites you to

The Sneddon Lecture 2026

So many dynamoS: The interaction of large and small

Professor Steve Tobias

Tait Chair of Mathematical Physics
University of Edinburgh

Friday, 23rd October 2026, 4-5pm with a wine reception to follow at 5pm

Lecture Room 116 of the Mathematics and Statistics Building, University of Glasgow

To attend, please register in advance at https://sneddon-lecture-2026.eventbrite.co.uk 

 

About the speaker

Steve Tobias is the Tait Chair of Mathematical Physics at the University of Edinburgh (since June 2025). His research is into mathematical aspects of geophysical and astrophysical fluids and their interaction with magnetic fields. He did his PhD on Nonlinear Dynamo Theory at DAMTP, University of Cambridge from 1992-1995, and was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1995.  After two years as a postdoc in Boulder, Colorado (1996-1998) he returned to Trinity College. He moved to the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Leeds in 2000, where he stayed for 25 years (as a lecturer, reader and professor). He was the founding Director of the Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics in 2018. He has been the Rothschild Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the UK Academy of Mathematical Sciences.

Abstract

In this talk I shall review what we know about the generation of magnetic fields in stars and planets and what any mathematical theory should try and explain. Although we know the equations to be solved, the conditions in astrophysics are beyond the limitations of any computational method and so we must resort to understanding the structure of underlying partial differential equations. In essence this boils down to getting a tractable, computational statistical theory for the interaction of large- and small-scale flows and magnetic fields. We do not do this because it is easy, but because we thought it was going to be easi(er).

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