Synopsis

I am an applied mathematician with 25 years of experience in modelling of natural phenomena. For the last 20 years my research has been focused on nonlinear dynamics, dynamical systems' application to ecology and ecological complexity. I published two books (research monographs), a few conference proceedings, and 80+ papers in peer-reviewed journals. I have co-managed several research projects supported by various national and international foundations. I am the Editor-in-Chief of Ecological Complexity. I was a (co)organizer and/or invited speaker for several international conferences.

Research Interests

non-equilibrium structures in diffusion-reaction systems:

mechanisms of spatiotemporal self-organization in a system of interacting species, pattern formation and chaos, effects of stochastisity and noise, diffusion-reaction systems on a lattice

nonlinear waves and biological invasion:

travelling population waves, biological/physical factors affecting the wave speed, patterns of species dispersal different from travelling fronts, interplay between different mechanisms of species spread, exactly solvable diffusion-reaction models

ecological complexity:

nonlinear phenomena in population dynamics, bifurcations and chaos, factors enhancing/hampering chaotic dynamics in ecological communities

individual movement and random walk:

models of individual animal movement

ecology & environment:

coupling between biological and environmental processes, interplay between processes acting on different spatial and temporal scales, mathematical modelling of self-organized plankton patterns in turbulent environment

Highlights: recent and upcoming conferences

Emerging Challenges at the Interface of Mathematics, Environmental Science and Spatial Ecology (Banff, Canada, July 4-8, 2011)

Mathematical and Theoretical Ecology 2011: Linking Models with Ecological Processes (Colchester, UK, September 19-21, 2011)

Dynamical Systems Applied to Biology and Natural Sciences: DSABNS 2012 (Lisbon, Portugal, February 8-10, 2012)

Models in Population Dynamics and Ecology 2012 (Santa Maria, Brazil, September 10-13, 2012)

Some recent publications

1. Petrovskii, S.V., Petrovskaya, N.B. (2012) Computational ecology as an emerging science. Interface Focus, in press.

2. Jansen, V.A.A., Mashanova, A., Petrovskii, S.V. (2012) Model selection and animal movement: why mussels do not do a Levy walk. Science, in press.

3. Petrovskaya, N.B., Petrovskii, S.V., Murchie, A.K. (2011) Challenges of ecological monitoring: estimating population abundance from sparse trap counts. J. R. Soc. Interface, in press. DOI 10.1098/rsif.2011.0386 

4. Petrovskii, S.V., Mashanova, A., Jansen, V.A.A. (2011) Variation in individual walking behavior creates the impression of a Levy fight. PNAS 108, 8704-8707.  DOI 10.1073/pnas.1015208108

5. Hastings, A., Petrovskii, S.V., Morozov, A.Y. (2011) Spatial ecology across scales. Biology Letters 7, 163-165.

6. Sieber, M., Malchow, H., Petrovskii, S.V. (2010) Noise-induced suppression of periodic travelling waves in oscillatory reaction–diffusion systems. Proceedings of Royal Society A 466, 1903-1917.

7. Petrovskii, S.V. and Morozov, A.Y. (2009) Dispersal in a statistically structured population: Fat tails revisited. American Naturalist 173, 278-289. (Online enhancement)

8. Volpert, V., Petrovskii, S.V. (2009) Reaction-diffusion waves in biology. Physics of Life Reviews 6, 267-310.

For an extended list of publications, please use the link here (or just use the "More Publications" button in the top left corner of the page).

For a citation report, see my Google Scholar profile.

For a broader view of the mathematical ecology research in Leicester please visit the Mathematical Ecology Group page.

Contact details

Department of Mathematics, University of Leicester

University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, United Kingdom

Phone: +44 116 252 3916

Fax: +44 116 252 3915

Email: sp237@le.ac.uk

Last updated: January 17, 2012