Michael Cates

Michael Elmhirst Cates (born 5 May 1961) is a British physicist. He is the 19th Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and has held this position since 1 July 2015. He was previously Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and has held a Royal Society Research Professorship since 2007.

Contents

• Michael cates top 5 facts
• Michael Cates Public Lecture Bulletproof Custards
• Early life
• Academic career
• Honours
• Works
• References

His scientific work is varied, but focuses on the theory of soft matter, such as polymers, colloids, gels, liquid crystals, and granular material. A frequent goal is to create a mathematical model that predicts the stress in a flowing material as a functional of the flow history of that material. Such a mathematical model is called a constitutive equation. Recently he has worked on theories of active matter, particularly dense suspensions of self-propelled particles which can include motile bacteria. He is increasingly interested in fundamental field theories of active systems in which time-reversal symmetry (T-symmetry, and more generally CPT symmetry) is absent. Such theories are characterised by nonzero steady-state Entropy production. Another recent interest is the flow of shear-thickening suspensions, such as dense solutions of corn-starch or custard powder in water; this work was presented in a recent public lecture.

At Edinburgh, Cates was the Principal Investigator of an EPSRC Programme Grant, awarded in 2011, entitled Design Principles for New Soft Materials. On his departure for Cambridge, Cait MacPhee took over as Principal Investigator. Cates remains an Honorary Professor at Edinburgh.