Julian Lowman

Interior Structure and Dynamics of Terrestrial Planets

Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences
University of Toronto at Scarborough
Toronto, ON,
M1C 1A4, Canada
phone: 416 208 4880; fax: 416 287 7279
e-mail: lowman@utsc.utoronto.ca

ALSO at:

Departments of Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics and Geology
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON,
M5S 1A7, Canada

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Brief CV

• B.Sc., Toronto (1990); M.Sc., York (1993); Ph.D., York (1997).

• PDF, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA (1998-99); Lecturer, Leeds, UK (2000-05); Assistant Professor, Toronto (2006-); Visiting Professor, Nantes, France (summer 2009)

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Graduate Student Opportunities

Funding opportunities are available for both M.Sc. and Ph.D. student applicants with interests in mantle convection studies and the modelling of fundamental heat transport processes in viscous fluids. Applicants should possess good communication skills and a first degree in mathematics, physics, geophysics or an appropriate branch of engineering. Potential students would be enrolled in either the Department of Physics, the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics or the Department of Geology . The start date is typically August of each year. However, as the University of Toronto has only one intake time per year, it is essential that interested students begin the application procedure prior to the end of the previous year (November). Interested Masters and PhD program applicants are encouraged to contact me directly at lowman@utsc.utoronto.ca regarding potential research projects for 2010. Projects on offer include but are not limited to:

• Studies of the effect of spherical shell thickness on the wavelengths of mantle convection

• The effect of mechanical boundary conditions on the secular cooling of planetary interiors

• Power-law relationships for Rayleigh number and Nusselt number in the hard-turbulent regime for 3D convection

• The feedback between plate motion and mantle convection

• Keely O'Farrell (PhD candidate)

• Phil Heron (MSc candidate)

• Andrew D. Gait (PhD, University of Leeds, Thesis: Mantle Convection Incorporating Evolving Plate Geometries)

• Dan Nettelfield (MPhil, University of Leeds, Thesis: The Effect Of Imposed Surface Velocities On Numerical Models of Mantle Convection)

• Numerical methods in computational fluid dynamics

• The heating modes and cooling processes in terrestrial planets

• Investigation of the feedback between mantle convection and surface motion

• The supercontinent cycle and its effect on the long wavelength heterogeneity of mantle convection

• Computer visualisation applications for 3D computational fluid dynamics

Get an f90 copy of MC3D. (Warning: 26 Mbyte download.)

AGU Figures

AGU Poster

Top of page

Lowman, J.P., Gait, A.D., Gable, C.W., and H. Kukreja, Plumes anchored by a high viscosity lower mantle in a 3D mantle convection model featuring dynamically evolving plates , Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 35, doi:10.1029/2008GL035342, 2008.

Gait, A.D., Lowman, J.P., and C.W. Gable, Time-dependence in 3D mantle convection models featuring evolving plates: the effect of lower mantle viscosity , J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 113, B08409, doi:10.1029/2007JB005538, 2008.

Shahnas, M.H., Lowman, J.P., Jarvis, G.T., and H-.P. Bunge, Convection in a spherical shell heated by an isothermal core and internal sources: implications for the thermal state of planetary mantles, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., Vol. 168, 6-15, doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2008.04.007, 2008.

Gait, A.D., and J.P. Lowman, Effect of lower mantle viscosity on the time-dependence of plate velocities in three-dimensional mantle convection models , Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 34, L21304, doi:10.1029/2007GL031396, 2007.

Lowman, J.P., Pinero-Feliciangeli, L.T., Kendall, J.-M., and M.H., Shahnas, Influence of convergent plate boundaries on upper mantle flow and implications for seismic anisotropy , Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. (Gcubed), Vol. 8, Q08007, doi:10.1029/2007GC001627, 2007.

Gait, A.D., and J.P. Lowman, Time-dependence in mantle convection models featuring dynamically evolving plates, Geophys. J. Int., Vol. 171, 463-477, doi:10.1111/j.1365-246X, 2007.

Jarvis, G.T., and J.P. Lowman, Survival times of subducted slab remnants in numerical models of mantle flow , Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., Vol. 260, 23-36, 2007.