Nigel G. Stocks

Nigel Geoffrey Stocks (born 6 September 1964) is an engineer and physicist, notable for discovering suprathreshold stochastic resonance (SSR) and its application to cochlear implant technology.

Education He attended Bingley Grammar School before received a BSc in Applied Physics and Electronics (1987) and a PhD in (1991), under Peter V. E. McClintock, at Lancaster University, UK, with a dissertation entitled Experiments in Stochastic Nonlinear Dynamics.

Career

His early research work was undertaken in the Lancaster Nonlinear Group and focused on the development of the theory of nonequilibrium dynamical systems and, in particular, on stochastic resonance. Stocks moved to the University of Warwick in 1993 where he joined the Fluid Dynamics Research Centre and undertook studies on transition to turbulence. In 1996 he was awarded a TMR EU Fellowship and worked with Riccardo Mannella at Pisa University before subsequently returning to Warwick as a University of Warwick Research Fellow. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002, Reader in 2005, and full Professor in 2007. Stocks' research interests are in the general area of stochastic nonlinear systems and biomimetics. In particular, his research has focused on neural coding mechanisms for cochlear implants and the development of biomimetic signal processing techniques. In 2012 he was appointed Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick—one of the UK's largest integrated Schools of Engineering.

Selected publication Mark D. McDonnell, Nigel G. Stocks, Charles E. M. Pearce, and Derek Abbott, Stochastic Resonance, Cambridge University Press, 2008.