Rate My Professor James Sprittles

Professor James Sprittles is a Professor in the Mathematics Institute within the Faculty of Science at the University of Warwick. His academic background includes an MSci in Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Oxford, where his doctoral research under Yulii Shikhmurzaev focused on the interface formation model. Following his PhD, he undertook postdoctoral research positions, including an EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and joined the Micro & Nano Flows group at Warwick, collaborating across Mathematics and Engineering departments. He has advanced to a professorial role, supervising six PhD students as recorded in the Mathematics Genealogy Project, and actively contributes to departmental leadership as Co-Chair of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee.

Sprittles specializes in applied mathematics and computational fluid dynamics, particularly the modelling of technologically and biologically relevant micro- and nanofluidic flows. His research interests include capillary flows, fluctuating hydrodynamics, rarefied gas effects in interfacial flows such as dynamic wetting, drop impact, evaporation, coalescence of liquid drops, bubble formation, flow through porous media, and applications to 3D printing. Key publications encompass "How coalescing droplets jump" (ACS Nano, 2014), "Coalescence of liquid drops: Different models versus experiment" (Physics of Fluids, 2012), "Capillary breakup of a liquid bridge: identifying regimes and transitions" (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2016), "Droplet coalescence is initiated by thermal motion" (Physical Review Letters, 2019), and "Revisiting the Rayleigh–Plateau instability for the nanoscale" (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2019). In 2026, he was awarded a prestigious EPSRC Open Fellowship exceeding £1 million for "From Nanofilms to Clouds: A Modelling Approach to Drop Collisions". He has secured additional EPSRC funding and teaches modules including MA3D1 Fluid Dynamics, MA9M4 Modelling and Computation of Fluid Dynamics Across Phases and Scales, and PX912 Multiscale Modelling Methods & Applications II.