Professor Troy Farrell
Fellow
- Bio/Profile
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Professor Troy Farrell is an applied mathematician and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science at QUT. He blends his technical skills in mathematics with physical chemistry, and applies these to modelling and numerical simulation of chemical systems of industrial significance. Applications of his research include batteries, dye-sensitised solar cells, drying of colloidal droplets, and oxidation of biomass stockpiles. He work is mainly undertaken in collaboration with industrial partners.
Professor Farrell is very active in the wider applied and industrial mathematics community, especially within Australia and New Zealand. He is passionate about communicating the relevance, applicability and effectiveness of mathematics to a broad range of stakeholders in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics community including students, other academics and Professor Troy Farrell is an applied mathematician and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science at QUT. He blends his technical skills in mathematics with physical chemistry, and applies these to modelling and numerical simulation of chemical systems of industrial significance. Applications of his research include batteries, dye-sensitised solar cells, drying of colloidal droplets, and oxidation of biomass stockpiles. He work is mainly undertaken in collaboration with industrial partners.
Professor Farrell is very active in the wider applied and industrial mathematics community, especially within Australia and New Zealand. He is passionate about communicating the relevance, applicability and effectiveness of mathematics to a broad range of stakeholders in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics community including students, other academics and industry and business leaders. He is also passionate about facilitating connections between early career researchers and industry.
Professor Farrell has held national leadership roles as Director of the prestigious Mathematics in Industry Study Group (MISG) and Node Leader of the ATN Industry Doctoral Training Centre (IDTC).
Examples of his research impact include: improvement of the production of bio-fuels from cellulosic materials, modelling of electrochemical nano-dioides, optimisation of metal-air batteries, world-leading understanding of periodic porous materials, development of more sustainable and efficient agriculture via improved understanding of the uptake of agrochemicals through the cuticular membranes of plant leaves, development of models for microwave drying of food, predicting the component gas concentrations of coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs over time. And thermal modelling of large-scale biomass stockpiles. This last project, for example, addresses the important problem of preventing spontaneous combustion in large stockpiles of bagasse (sugar cane fibre residue). This will significantly extend its availability for renewable energy products.
