Francis Poulin

Francis J. Poulin is a Full Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, cross-appointed to the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He serves as Associate Director of the Waterloo Climate Institute and Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Physics. His research focuses on geophysical fluid dynamics, stochastic differential equations, and computational mathematics, with applications to oceanography, solar physics, and biological systems.

Education: PhD in Mathematics (MIT, 2002), M.Sc. (University of Alberta, 1997), B.Sc. (University of Alberta, 1994).

Research areas include physical oceanography (jets, vortices), biological oceanography (plankton ecosystems), and solar physics (tachocline dynamics). His group develops numerical tools like Oceananigans.jl and contributes to software such as SPINS and Firedrake.

• Received the IOP Outstanding Reviewer Award (2021).
• Supervises graduate and undergraduate students in applied mathematics and computational physics.

Recent activities include NSERC grant submissions, mentoring researchers, and presenting at international workshops on climate science and ocean dynamics.