Ian A. Frigaard
University of British Columbia
Mechanical Engineer, Mathematician
Fellow, Elected 2019
Dr. Ian Frigaard received his B.Sc. from the University of Wales in 1989 and then received his M.Sc from the University of Oxford in 1990. He then remained at Oxford to work with
Oliver Jacobs on his Ph.D. (1993) in the area of mathematical modelling of an aluminium spray process. He subsequently took a postdoctoral position (1993-1995) in the Industrial
Mathematics Department at the Johannes Kepler Universität before joining Schlumberger Oilfield Services from 1995-2000. In 2000 he relocated to Canada to take an academic position
at the University of British Columbia where he currently serves as Professor of Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering. From 2017 he has served as Director of the Mathematical and
Computational Engineering Program.
Dr. Frigaard’s research specialties include viscoplastic fluids and understanding industrial processes that exploit the non-Newtonian properties of fluids. He has extensively worked
with a wide range of yield stress fluids as well on many industrial projects for the petroleum industry which deal with cementing of wells, preventing leakages, and techniques for
eventual abandonment – a key issue related to greenhouse gas emission control and long-term environmental protection. His work includes theory, computation, and even lab experimentation
in these areas. He has also made key contributions to simulations of multiphase fluid flows including the “augmented Lagrangian” method, understanding the rheology and flow of complex
liquids containing particles and bubbles, and hydrodynamic stability of viscoplastic flows.
He has served on a wide range of technical and scientific committees organizing numerous meetings and technical symposia. He serves on the editorial boards of four archival journals,
and in 2016 took over as Executive Editor of the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics (JNNFM). He has founded two biennial workshop series “Viscoplastic Fluids, from
Theory to Application” and “Complex Fluids and Flows in Industry and Nature.”
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