James Shaw
Education and employment
2018– | University of Sheffield | Postdoctoral research associate |
EPSRC project delivering automated, efficient, accurate flood forecast modelling, led by Georges Kesserwani
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2015–2018 | University of Reading | PhD Atmosphere Ocean and Climate |
Developed numerical methods for simulating atmospheric flows over mountains, supervised by Hilary Weller (UoR), John Methven (UoR) and Terry Davies (Met Office)
The project was funded by NERC with CASE sponsorship from the Met Office. | ||
2013–2014 | University of Reading | MSc Atmosphere Ocean and Climate (Distinction) |
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2011–2013 | Shazam | Java server developer |
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2007–2011 | NetDespatch | Software developer |
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2006–2007 | Anite | Software developer |
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2005–2006 | BuildOnline | Junior software developer |
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2002–2005 | University of Southampton | BSc Computer Science (1st) |
2001–2002 | Acterna | Industrial trainee with the Year in Industry scheme |
1994–2001 | Torquay Boys’ Grammar School | A Level Mathematics (A), Physics (A), Music (A) |
Publications
- Shaw, J., G. Kesserwani, P. Pettersson (2019) Robust finite volume shallow flow modelling with direct uncertainty propagation: is it worth it? Advances in Water Resources, in revision.
- Shaw, J., G. Kesserwani (2019) Stochastic Galerkin finite volume shallow water model: well-balanced treatment over uncertain topography. ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, accepted. Preprint at
arXiv:1907.06421
- Kesserwani, G., J. Shaw, M. K. Sharifian, D. Bau, C. J. Keylock, P. D. Bates, J. K. Ryan (2019) (Multi)wavelets increase both accuracy and efficiency of standard Godunov-type hydrodynamic models. Advances in Water Resources.
doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2019.04.019
- M. K. Sharifian, Y. Hassanzadeh, G. Kesserwani, and J. Shaw (2019) Performance study of the multiwavelet discontinuous Galerkin approach for solving the Green-Naghdi equations. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids.
doi:10.1002/fld.4732
- Kesserwani, G., M. K. Sharifian, and J. Shaw (2018) Adaptive multi-scale shallow flow model: a wavelet-based formulation. 13th International Conference on Hydroinformatics.
doi:10.29007/vm3q
- Chen, Y., H. Weller, S. Pring, and J. Shaw (2017) Comparison of dimensionally-split and multi-dimensional atmospheric transport schemes for long time-steps. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
doi:10.1002/qj.3125
- Shaw, J., H. Weller, J. Methven, and T. Davies (2017) Multidimensional method-of-lines transport for atmospheric flows over steep terrain using arbitrary meshes. Journal of Computational Physics.
doi:10.1016/j.jcp.2017.04.061
- Shaw, J. and H. Weller (2016) Comparison of terrain following and cut cell grids using a non-hydrostatic model. Monthly Weather Review.
doi:10.1175/MWR-D-15-0226.1
Skills
- Scientific Finite volume and discontinuous Galerkin methods, uncertainty quantification methods, multi-wavelets, computational hydraulics, numerical weather prediction, reproducible science
- Programming Experienced in Python 3, Java, SQL, AWS DynamoDB
- Knowledge of C, C++17, CUDA, Fortran 2003
- Data formats NetCDF, HDF5, JSON, XML, LaTeX
- Tools OpenFOAM CFD, QGIS, Git, continuous integration and debugging tools
- Systems Debian and Ubuntu Linux, Amazon Web Services EC2, Singularity
Leadership roles
2020 | Co-organiser | Flood modelling and forecasting challenges in industry workshop |
2019 | Founder | Sheffield ReproducibiliTea journal club |
2017 | Co-organiser | NERC Frontiers in Natural Environment Research Conference |
Teaching
Spring 2019 | Guest lecture | Computational methods in water engineering |
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Autumn 2016 | Assistant | Fluid dynamics MSc module |
Autumn 2015 | Assistant | Atmospheric physics MSc module |
September 2015 | Assistant | NCAS climate modelling summer school |
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September 2014 | Course teacher | Mathematics for Planet Earth |
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Supervision
- 2019– PhD cosupervisor for Xitong Sun
- 2015–2016 MSc cosupervisor for Yumeng Chen and Christiana Skea
Invited talks
- March 2019 CO₂ storage in the North Sea: quantification of uncertainties and error reduction, Finse, Norway
- February 2018 University of South Wales mathematics department seminar
- February 2017 Numerical methods for geophysical fluid dynamics, Imperial College London
- December 2016 South-East local centre meeting, Royal Meteorological Society
Conferences
Workshops
Outreach
I have engaged with the general public, parents, and children of all ages, in several scientific outreach activities:
- September 2019 Presented at Pop-up university, Millenium Gallery, Sheffield
- July 2015 Schools physicist of the year awards
- June 2015 East Reading festival
- February 2015 Brighton science festival
Informal talks
- January 2018 High-order finite volume advection
- June 2017 Subsampling for uncertainty quantification
- November 2016 Replicating computational atmospheric science
- March 2016 Numerical representation of orography in dynamical cores
- February 2016 Curl-free pressure gradients for accurate modelling of cold air pools
- October 2015 Improving modelled mountain flows with alternative representations of terrain
- April 2015 Discrete vector calculus on Arakawa C grids
- May 2013 Java Generics, London Java Community
Posters
Visits
July 2016 | Hosted Simon Clark, a PhD researcher on stratospheric theory and YouTube vlogger. Simon delivered a departmental seminar and filmed a weather balloon launch outreach video. |
July 2016 | One week visit to NCAR, hosted by Ram Nair, to discuss my research with WRF model developers. |
November 2015 | Arranged a meeting with Met Office heads of department to discuss PhD progress and future research plans. |
Training
- December 2019 Writing in the Sciences, Stanford University, Coursera
- March 2019 Basic introduction to flood risk and resilience, Brunel University online course
- September 2018 Computational methods for hyperbolic equations with applications, Prof. Toro
- June 2016 Dynamical core intercomparison project summer school, NCAR
- June 2015 Advanced numerical methods for Earth-system modelling, ECMWF
- October 2012 Computing for data analysis, Johns Hopkins University, Coursera
- June 2011 Apache Solr training