Rate My Professor Ashton Bradley

Ashton Bradley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago, where he leads the Quantum Fluids Group. He earned a BSc with a double major in Physics and Mathematics in 1998 and an MSc in Theoretical Physics in 2001 from the University of Auckland. Bradley completed his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2005 at Victoria University of Wellington under Professor Crispin Gardiner, with a thesis on trapped ultra-cold Bose gases. Following his doctorate, he served as a Research Associate at the University of Auckland in 2002 and held postdoctoral Research Fellow positions at the University of Queensland's ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, he joined the University of Otago as a NZFRST Postdoctoral Fellow, followed by a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship from 2011 to 2016. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2016, advanced to Senior Lecturer above the bar from 2017 to 2020, and became Associate Professor in 2021. Bradley also serves as Self-Organisation Question Leader in the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies and coordinates PHSI 365 Computational Physics.

Bradley's research focuses on the dynamics and statistical mechanics of quantum fluids at the intersection of ultracold atoms and quantum optics, including vortex dynamics in superfluids, quantum turbulence, open quantum systems, and Bose-Einstein condensates. His contributions include predictions of inverse energy cascades in two-dimensional quantum turbulence and formulations of stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equations. Notable publications encompass 'Spontaneous vortices in the formation of Bose–Einstein condensates' in Nature (2008), 'Energy Spectra of Vortex Distributions in Two-Dimensional Quantum Turbulence' in Physical Review X (2012), 'Giant vortex clusters in a two-dimensional quantum fluid' in Science (2019), 'Turbulent relaxation to equilibrium in a two-dimensional quantum vortex gas' in Physical Review X (2022), and 'Thermal decay of planar Jones-Roberts solitons' in Physical Review A (2024). With over 2,800 citations and an h-index of 27, his work has advanced quantum many-body physics. Awards include the Inaugural Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (2011-2016), NZFRST Fellowship (2009-2011), University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005-2008), and TEC Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship (2003-2005).