Rosemary Thompson

Senior Lecturer

Room 624 Carslaw Building
 School of Mathematics and Statistics
 University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia.

email:roset@maths.usyd.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 9351 5782
Fax:+61 2 9351 4534

 

Summary

Rose Thompson was educated in Melbourne and at the ANU, where she graduated with a BSc Hons 1 in Physics and Applied Mathematics. She completed a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Sydney, in 1982, and then spent over 10 years in multi-disciplinary biomedical research at Westmead Hospital. She held an NHMRC Research Fellowship from 1992 to 1996, and following this was appointed to the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, where she is a member of the Applied Mathematics group. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002 and returned to full time work in 2004.

 

Research Interests

Dr Thompson's research interests are in the application of mathematical methods and modelling to problems in biomedical science. She is particularly interested in biomedical ultrasound, with experience ranging from fundamental acoustic theory through to clinical applications, and including Doppler ultrasound. She has worked with a diverse range of medical and physiological phenomena, including neurons in lobsters, the umbilical-placental circulation of fetal sheep, and blood flow in arteries with atherosclerosis.

 

Collaborative projects

Collaborative projects involving the application of mathematical modelling to problems in the medical and clinical sciences, biology, and biomedical engineering include:

     

Acoustic Field in Biological Media

 

The field in the close vicinity of walled vessels with lesions - where the lumen is not circular - is very important in biomedical applications. For example, in the study of atherosclerotic plaque and blood vessels in vascular disease.

The IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control recently featured an image from this work on the IEEE-TUFFC cover. See also our article in the same issue.

 

Simulation of acoustic intensity inside a cylindrical vessel with radius about twice the ultrasound wavelength

This is collaborative work with A/Prof Charlie Macaskill and Dr Barrie Fraser of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney, and Professor Piero Tortoli and Dr Giacomo Bambi . The work was supported by an ARC Discovery Grant that enabled Dr Robin Steel from Edinburgh to work with the Sydney group.
     

Doppler Ultrasound and Spectral Flow Profiles

 

In Doppler ultrasound spectral flow profiles (e.g. left, profile from the MSD Lab, University of Florence, Italy), flow related information is bound up with ultrasonic information. We have studied this via experiments in the MSD Lab, and modelling in collaboration with Dr Geoff Aldis (e.g. right, simulated profile for steady flow).

 

 
     

Blood Flow and Vascular Disease

In vitro test objects or phantoms are invaluable for understanding ultrasonic measurements that might be made at complex in vivo sites such as the carotid bifurcation (left). A new project to create special phantoms and theoretical methods for realistic material interfaces has just been initiated, in collaboration with Dr Tamie Poepping in London, Ontario.

 

The branching structure of blood vessels in the placental villous tree. From a cast made by Anita Turner at Westmead Hospital, in research projects with Professor Brian Trudinger.
     
Teaching:

In Semester 1 2008 I will be lecturing Vector Calculus for:

 

 

In Semester 2 2008 I will be lecturing:

     

 

 

Other Interests:

These include lots of sports such as swimming, surfing, tennis and cycling.

I am also interested in conservation and Australian native plants.

 

Some interesting links

Publications