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STEM Faculty

Meet the people who make up STEM Faculty.

Professional biography

I'm a Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Open University. My research interests are in the areas of fluid mechanics and statistical physics. Previously I was a postdoctoral research associate at the Complex Multiscale Systems group at Imperial College London. I did my PhD in theoretical/statistical physics at the University of Barcelona.​

I'm currently the Director of Research of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the OU.

Personal website

 

Research interests

My research interests cover a wide range of topics on the interface of applied mathematics, statistical physics, and engineering science. I give particular emphasis on soft condensed matter theory and fluid dynamics, including multiphase flows, microfluidics, and hydrodynamic instabilities. I'm also interested in stochastic/chaotic processes and emergent collective phenomena in complex and biological dynamical systems. 

​Part of my research is funded by EPSRC. I was a co-investigator of the project 'Fluid processes in smart microengineered devices: Hydrodynamics and thermodynamics in microspace' during 2015-2019, and I was the principal investigator of the project 'Droplets with dynamic size on smooth surfaces' during 2018-2021, in which we explored the interplay between a time-dependent variation of the volume of a sessile droplet and simple smooth variations on the solid surfaces. 

Latest publications

Displaying 10 of 56 publications

  • Holba, G., Hague, J. P., Hoggard, N. and Pradas, M., 2025, ‘Brain pulsations enhance cerebrospinal fluid flow in perivascular spaces’, Physical Review Fluids, 10(11), https://oro.open.ac.uk/108254/.
  • Daddi-Moussa-Ider, A., Fischer, L., Pradas, M. and Menzel, A. M., 2025, ‘Elastic displacements and viscous hydrodynamic flows in wedge-shaped geometries with a straight edge: Green’s functions for parallel forces’, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 481(2322), https://oro.open.ac.uk/106209/.
  • Round, A., Lin, T., Pradas, M., Tseluiko, D. and Kalliadasis, S., 2025, ‘Coherent structure interactions in spatially extended systems driven by excited hidden modes’, Physical Review X, 15(3), https://oro.open.ac.uk/103683/.
  • Soyarslan, C. and Pradas, M., 2024, ‘Physics-informed machine learning in asymptotic homogenization of elliptic equations’, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 427, https://oro.open.ac.uk/97845/.
  • Bisquert, L., Ruiz-Gutiérrez, l., Pradas, M. and Ledesma-Aguilar, R., 2024, ‘Competing Bifurcations Determine Symmetry Breaking During Droplet Snaps on Smooth Patterned Surfaces’, Langmuir, 40(46), pp. 24387–24396., https://oro.open.ac.uk/101109/.
  • Daddi-Moussa-Ider, A., Tjhung, E., Pradas, M., Richter, T. and Menzel, A. M., 2024, ‘Rotational dynamics of a disk in a thin film of weakly nematic fluid subject to linear friction’, The European Physical Journal E, 47, https://oro.open.ac.uk/100056/.
  • Wilkinson, A., Pradas, M. and Wilkinson, M., 2024, ‘Dynamics of pivoted slider bearings’, Physics of Fluids, 36, https://oro.open.ac.uk/97064/.
  • Cucurull, B., Huber, G., Kawagoe, K., Pradas, M., Pumir, A. and Wilkinson, M., 2024, ‘Flux-conserving directed percolation’, Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 57(7), https://oro.open.ac.uk/95851/.
  • Wilkinson, A., Pradas, M. and Wilkinson, M., 2023, ‘Lubrication dynamics of a settling plate’, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 977, https://oro.open.ac.uk/95510/.
  • Soyarslan, C. and Pradas, M., 2023, ‘Physics-informed machine learning in the determination of effective thermomechanical properties’, in 28th International ESAFORM Conference on Materials Forming, 19-21 Apr 2023, Krakow, Poland., https://oro.open.ac.uk/90028/.