Catherine Powell

Catherine Powell is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Manchester, where she leads the Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing group. Her research develops computational methods for partial differential equations with uncertain inputs.

Her work advances uncertainty quantification techniques, focusing on adaptive stochastic finite element methods, efficient solvers for high-dimensional problems, and a posteriori error estimation. Current projects investigate multilevel methods for parametric PDEs and probabilistic foundations of AI algorithms.

Recent publications present computational frameworks like IFISS3D for 3D finite element analysis, adaptive collocation strategies for advection-diffusion problems, and robust solvers for stochastic poroelasticity. Her research bridges theoretical numerical analysis with practical scientific computing challenges.

Powell serves as associate editor for SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis and SIAM/ASA Journal on Uncertainty Quantification. She contributes to the EPSRC ProbAI Hub developing mathematical foundations for trustworthy AI systems.