The Selection Panel for the 2006 J.H. Michell Medal proposes that the Medal be awarded to Dr H. Sanjeeva Balasuriya.

CITATION FOR THE J.H. MICHELL MEDAL

The Committee for the award of the Outstanding New Researchers award and the J.H. Michell medal is pleased to recommend Dr H. Sanjeeva Balasuriya, from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, for this prestigious Outstanding New Researchers award.

Dr. Balasuriya has a B.S. with a major in Physics from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. He has two Masters degrees from Brown University in the USA, the first in Applied Mathematics in 1993 and the second in Engineering in 1996. He then received a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, also from Brown University, in 1996, with a thesis entitled Viscosity induced transport in barotropic jets.

Dr Balasuriya has broad research interests in Applied Mathematics, with particular focus on dynamical systems in fluid dynamics. He has published 11 papers, in journals of the highest quality such as Physica D, Nonlinearityand the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, and in most of these he is the sole author. He has a text book on Planar coordinate geometry, and has a further three papers in submission. His research includes papers on geophysical fluid dynamics and general dynamical systems, and he has tackled difficult problems using sophisticated methods such as the Mel'nikov integral. In his recent 2005 paper in Physics of Fluids, he applies Mel'nikov techniques to the optimal design of mixing in idealized micro-fluidic devices, and the Committee believes this work will be of wide interest.

The Committee is convinced that Dr Balasuriya is an excellent candidate for the J.H. Michell medal. He is clearly a researcher of outstanding quality, who will continue to develop his research career well into the future.