Rahil Valani

I am an applied mathematician working at the intersection of active matter, fluid mechanics and nonlinear dynamical systems.

I am currently a Leverhulme-Peierls fellow at the University of Oxford. My research focuses on understanding how complex collective behaviour emerges in physical and biological systems, using tools from nonlinear dynamics, fluid mechanics, and active matter. A particular emphasis of my current work is on active nematics and mechanobiology, in collaboration with Prof. Julia Yeomans and Prof. Sumesh Thampi.

Previously I was Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Adelaide working with Prof. Yvonne Stokes and Dr. Brendan Harding on mathematical modelling of inertial particle focusing with applications to particle sorting in industrial and biomedical microfluidic devices.

I completed my PhD on Superwalking Droplets and Generalised Pilot-Wave Dynamics from Monash University under the supervision of Dr. Anja Slim and Assoc. Prof. Tapio Simula. During my PhD, I performed experiments, theoretical analysis, and numerical modelling to understand an active particle-fluid system of superwalking droplets that has implications for active matter and hydrodynamic quantum analogs.