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Dr Lara Silvers

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Admissions, Development, and Satisfaction

School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering Department of Mathematics

Contact details

Address

Dr Lara Silvers E221, Drysdale Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Dr Lara Silvers was awarded a PhD from the University of Leeds in 2004. After a short time as a temporary lecturer at the University of Leeds she became a postdoctoral researcher at UCSD in California before moving to Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) in Paris. After working at the ENS she became a postdoctoral researcher in DAMTP at the University of Cambridge before taking up a position as a lecturer in mathematics at City in 2009.

Memberships of professional organisations

  1. Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, 2019 – present
  2. Fellow, The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Jul 2018 – present
  3. Fellow, Higher Educational Academy, 2011 – 2019
  4. Member, London Mathematics Society, 2010 – present
  5. Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society, 2004 – present

Teaching

Educational Leadership Roles at City

Associate Dean for Admissions, Development, and Satisfaction
Interim Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education
Associate Dean for Student Experience

Undergraduate Teaching at City

MA3609 Introduction to the Mathematics of Fluids
MA2615 Vector Calculus
MA1619 Programming and Computational Mathematics
MA1203 Mathematics for Economics
AS2051 Calculus for Actuarial Science
AS1051 Mathematics for Actuarial Science
AS0001 Foundation Year Computational Mathematics

Research

Research Interests

My main research interests lie in the area of Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics and I am particularly interested in understanding interactions between a plasma and a magnetic field in astrophysical objects such as the Sun. My research frequently makes use of computational techniques on high performance computing facilities to solve the governing equations of the system of interest.

Current Research

At present I am primarily focussed on a challenging research theme of the impact of temperature-dependent transport coefficients when modelling the solar interior. This research is being undertaken using a combination of analytic and numeric techniques.

Recently Completed Projects

A large body of research that has recently been completed focussed on understanding shear flow instabilities in compressible fluids. This research was conducted to obtain a deeper understanding of the solar tachocline, which is part of the solar interior where there is strong shear.

This research has led to a number of publications and the full details of these are given in my publication list.

Research students

Abrar Ali

Attendance: 2015 – 2019

Thesis title: Topics in Solar Convection and Magnetic Buoyancy

Karan Pattni

Attendance: 2013 – 2017

Thesis title: Modelling structured populations involving multiplayer games

Veronika Witzke

Attendance: 2013 – 2017

Thesis title: Topics in Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics Involving Shear Flow

Publications

Publications by category

Chapter

  1. Silvers, L., Itoh, Kimitaka, , Itoh, Sanae-I., and Diamond, Patrick H., (2007). β-Plane MHD turbulence and dissipation in the solar tachocline. In David W. Hughes, , Robert Rosner, and Nigel O. Weiss, (Eds.), (p. 213). Cambridge University Press.

Conference papers and proceedings (3)

  1. Silvers, L. and Balbus, S. A., (2006). Convergence Study of the Magnetorotational Instability in a Shearing Box With a Mean Field.
  2. Silvers, L. (2005). The role of boundary conditions in the study of the turbulent diffusion of magnetic fields. 24-25 October.
  3. Silvers, L., Vasil, G., Brummell, N. and Proctor, M. The Evolution of a Double Diffusive Magnetic Buoyancy Instability. IAU Symposium 271 Nice.

Journal articles (26)

  1. Ali, A.A. and Silvers, L.J. (2020). The effect of temperature-dependent viscosity and thermal conductivity on the onset of compressible convection. Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics. doi:10.1080/03091929.2020.1777549.
  2. Witzke, V. and Silvers, L.J. (2019). Mean flow evolution of saturated forced shear flows in polytropic atmospheres. EAS Publications Series, 82, pp. 259–269. doi:10.1051/eas/1982026.
  3. Witzke, V., Silvers, L.J. and Favier, B. (2019). Evolution and characteristics of forced shear flows in polytropic atmospheres: large and small Péclet number regimes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 482(1), pp. 1338–1351. doi:10.1093/mnras/sty2698.
  4. Ali, A.A. and Silvers, L.J. (2018). The effect of time-dependent γ-pumping on buoyant magnetic structures. Geophysical & Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics, 112(6), pp. 414–430. doi:10.1080/03091929.2018.1537396.
  5. Witzke, V., Silvers, L.J. and Favier, B. (2016). Evolution of forced shear flows in polytropic atmospheres: a comparison of forcing methods and energetics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 463(1), pp. 282–295. doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1925.
  6. Pattni, K., Broom, M., Rychtář, J. and Silvers, L.J. (2015). Evolutionary graph theory revisited: when is an evolutionary process equivalent to the Moran process? Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 471(2182), pp. 20150334–20150334. doi:10.1098/rspa.2015.0334.
  7. Favier, B., Silvers, L.J. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2015). Erratum: “Inverse cascade and symmetry breaking in rapidly rotating Boussinesq convection” [Phys. Fluids 26, 096605 (2014)]. Physics of Fluids, 27(7), pp. 79901–79901. doi:10.1063/1.4923752.
  8. Witzke, V., Silvers, L.J. and Favier, B. (2015). Shear instabilities in a fully compressible polytropic atmosphere. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 577. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425285.
  9. Favier, B., Silvers, L.J. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2014). Inverse cascade and symmetry breaking in rapidly rotating Boussinesq convection. Physics of Fluids, 26(9), pp. 96605–96605. doi:10.1063/1.4895131.
  10. Silvers, L. (2014). The Need for Greater Support in Academic Writing for PhD Students in Mathematics and Related Subjects. Learning at City Journal, 4(1), pp. 7–13.
  11. Silvers, L.J. and Skinner, D.M. (2013). Double-diffusive magnetic buoyancy instability in a quasi-two-dimensional Cartesian geometry. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 436(1), pp. 531–539.
  12. Barker, A.J., Silvers, L.J., Proctor, M.R.E. and Weiss, N.O. (2012). Magnetic buoyancy instabilities in the presence of magnetic flux pumping at the base of the solar convection zone. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 424(1), pp. 115–127. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21174.x.
  13. Favier, B.F.N., Louve, L., Edmunds, L.J., Silvers, L. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2012). How can large-scale twisted magnetic structures naturally emerge from buoyancy instabilities? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
  14. Silvers, L., Vasil, Geoffrey M., , Brummell, Nicholas H., and Proctor, Michael R. E., (2011). The Evolution of a Double Diffusive Magnetic Buoyancy Instability. Astrophysical Dynamics: From Stars to Galaxies, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, 271, pp. 218–226. doi:10.1017/S1743921311017649.
  15. Silvers, L.J., Bushby, P.J. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2009). Interactions between magnetohydrodynamic shear instabilities and convective flows in the solar interior. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 400(1), pp. 337–345. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15455.x.
  16. Silvers, L.J., Vasil, G.M., Brummell, N.H. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2009). Double-diffusive instabilities of a shear-generated magnetic layer. Astrophysical Journal, 702(1 PART 2). doi:10.1088/0004-637X/702/1/L14.
  17. Lin, M.K., Silvers, L.J. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2008). Three-layer magnetoconvection. Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics, 373(1), pp. 69–75. doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2008.10.074.
  18. Silvers, L.J. (2008). Magnetic fields in astrophysical objects. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 366(1884), pp. 4453–4464. doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0173.
  19. Silvers, L.J. (2008). Long-term nonlinear behaviour of the magnetorotational instability in a localized model of an accretion disc. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 385(2), pp. 1036–1044. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12906.x.
  20. Keating, S.R., Silvers, L.J. and Diamond, P.H. (2008). On cross-phase and the quenching of the turbulent diffusion of magnetic fields in two dimensions. Astrophysical Journal, 678(2 PART 2). doi:10.1086/588654.
  21. Silvers, L.J. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2007). Interacting convection zones. AIP Conference Proceedings, 948, pp. 171–175. doi:10.1063/1.2818967.
  22. Silvers, L.J. and Proctor, M.R.E. (2007). The interaction of multiple convection zones in A-type stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 380(1), pp. 44–50. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12082.x.
  23. Silvers, L.J. (2006). On the choice of boundary conditions when studying the turbulent diffusion of magnetic fields. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 367(3), pp. 1155–1162. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10008.x.
  24. Silvers, L.J. (2006). Erratum: "Evolution of zero-mean magnetic fields in cellular flows" (Physics of Fluids (2005) vol. 17). Physics of Fluids, 18(3). doi:10.1063/1.2178994.
  25. Silvers, L.J. (2005). Dynamic effects of a magnetic field on diffusion in a chaotic flow. Physics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics, 334(5-6), pp. 400–405. doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2004.11.043.
  26. Silvers, L.J. (2005). Evolution of zero-mean magnetic fields in cellular flows. Physics of Fluids, 17(10). doi:10.1063/1.2084247.