Keith Moffatt

Henry Keith Moffatt, FRS FRSE (born 12 April 1935) is a British mathematician with research interests in the field of fluid dynamics, particularly magnetohydrodynamics and the theory of turbulence. He was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge from 1980 to 2002.

Early life and education Moffatt was born on 12 April 1935 to Emmeline Marchant and Frederick Henry Moffatt. He was schooled at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, going on to study Mathematical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1957. He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics and, 1959, he was a Wrangler. In 1960, he was awarded a Smith's Prize while preparing his PhD degree. He received his doctorate in 1962; his dissertation, Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence, was supervised by George Batchelor.

Career After completing his doctorate, Moffatt joined the staff of the Mathematics Faculty at the University of Cambridge as an Assistant Lecturer

In 1977, he was appointed to the Chair of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bristol.

He also co-edited

Honours and awards Moffatt was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1986; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1988; Member of Academia Europæa in 1994; Foreign Member of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, in 1998; Foreign Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, in 2001; Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2003; and a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008.

He became an officier in the Ordre des Palmes académiques in 1998. He received the Panetti-Ferrari International Prize and Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of Turin in 2001, the Euromech Prize for Fluid Mechanics in 2003, the Caribbean Award for Fluid Dynamics in 2004, the Senior Whitehead Prize of the London Mathematical Society in 2005, and the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 2005.

Personal life In 1960, he married Katharine (Linty), and together they had four children, two daughters and two sons, one of whom is deceased.