Professor Rowena Ball
Areas of expertise
- Applied Mathematics 0102
- Other Mathematical Sciences 4999
Research interests
*Student Scholarship available*
A full scholarship is available for an Indigenous student to undertake an MPhil or PhD research degree within my Mathematics Without Borders group at ANU, Canberra.
Choice of research topic is flexible, depending on the student's interests, background, and career aspirations. Possible research areas may include -
- Fluid dynamics simulations of smoke, in relation to Indigenous smoke-signalling codes and new management strategies for bushfires and cultural burning
- Tracing the origins and usages of mathematical transforms and other mathematical objects and processes through Indigenous and non-Western cultures
- Modelling aspects of the human neurophysiology of mathematical expression to help understand questions about the origins of mathematics, such as pattern recognition, cognition of cyclic phenomena, and numbers
- Truth-telling in mathematics history and cultures; tacking unbridled Eurocentrism and coloniality in mathematics
- Other exciting projects are under development
Get in touch if you would like to become a key contributer to this dynamic and rapidly expanding research program!
Research Keywords:
Mathematics Without Borders, Truth-Telling in Mathematics History, Decolonisation of STEM, Indigenous and Non-Western Mathematics, Emergence of life, Nonlinear and complex dynamical systems, Thermochemical instabilities and oscillators, Thermodynamic analysis, Railways and trains, Country pub lunches
What is mathematics? What is included in mathematics? Who gets to say? How and why did Western mathematics exclusively colonise minds and curriculums over the whole world? Should that situation continue unabated?
In this suite of research projects we investigate the mathematical knowledges of non-Western and Indigenous societies, truth-telling in mathematics history, vernacular mathematical practices, and neurology of mathematical expression.
Biography
- PhD (1997), BSc Hons I + University Medal (1993) Macquarie University
- ARC Future Fellowship 2010–2016
- Lagrange Fellowship in Complex Systems, ISI Foundation Italy 2005
- ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2000–2003
- APA, Energy Research Priority Area 1993–1996
Researcher's projects
I am a mathematical scientist and physical chemist with broad research expertise in nonlinear and complex dynamical systems.
Research:
Mathematics Without Borders
Emergence of life
Available student projects
Student projects available on
- Non-Western and Indigenous Mathematics
- Reactive oxygen species in the emergence of life
Publications
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2021, 'Does Stochasticity Favour Complexity in a Prebiotic Peptide-Micelle System?', Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, vol. 51, pp. 259ââ¬â271.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2020, 'Anomalous thermal fluctuation distribution sustains proto-metabolic cycles and biomolecule synthesis', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 22, pp. 971-975.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2019, 'The Power Without the Glory: Multiple Roles of Hydrogen Peroxide in Mediating the Origin of Life', Astrobiology, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 675-684.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2017, 'Toy trains, loaded dice and the origin of life: dimerization on mineral surfaces under periodic drive with Gaussian inputs', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 4, no. 11, pp. 170141/1-17.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2016, 'Thiosulfate-hydrogen peroxide redox oscillator as pH driver for ribozyme activity in the RNA world', Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 133-147.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2016, 'The Life Story of Hydrogen Peroxide III: Chirality and Physical Effects at the Dawn of Life', Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 81-93.
- Ball, R 2015, 'Using the second law first: Improving the thermodynamic efficiency of carbon dioxide separation from gas streams in an Endex calcium looping system', Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 74, pp. 194-201.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2015, 'The life story of hydrogen peroxide II: a periodic pH and thermochemical drive for the RNA world', Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 12, no. 109, pp. 20150366-20150366.
- Rowena Ball, 2015. STEM the gap: Science belongs to us mob too. Australian Quarterly (Ed. Grant Mills) vol. 86, Jan–Mar 2015, pages 13–19.
- Ball, R 2014, 'Entropy generation analyses of Endex and conventional calcium looping processes for CO2 capture', Fuel, vol. 127, pp. 202-211.
- Ball, R & Brindley, J 2014, 'Hydrogen peroxide thermochemical oscillator as driver for primordial RNA replication', Journal of the Royal Society Interface, vol. 11, no. 95, pp. 20131052-20131052.
- Ball, R 2014, 'Regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide by vegetation fires', Climate Research, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 125-133.
- Ball, R 2014, 'Endex stabilization of thermally unstable and explosive liquid phase systems', 24th Institution of Chemical Engineers Symposium on Hazards 2014, Curran Associates, Inc., New York, USA., pp. 474-486.
- Rowena Ball (2014). Women’s careers: Out with the linear pipeline and in with the new nonlinear paradigm. Text of invited address given at the International Women’s Day Award ceremony at University House, ANU, 7 March 2014, posted at https://anu-au.academia.edu/RowenaBall.
- Ball, R 2013, 'Thermal oscillations in the decomposition of organic peroxides: Identification of a hazard, utilization, and suppression', Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 922-933.
- Ball, R & Gray, B 2013, 'Thermal instability and runaway criteria: the dangers of disregarding dynamics', Process Safety and Environmental Protection, vol. 91, no. 3, pp. 221-226.
- Sullivan, A & Ball, R 2012, 'Thermal decomposition and combustion chemistry of cellulosic biomass', Atmospheric environment, vol. 47, pp. 133-141.
- Ball, R. and Gray, B.F. (2012) Thermal instability and runaway criteria: the dangers of disregarding dynamics. Preprint at http://anu.academia.edu/RowenaBall. Summary: Two published examples of incorrect and dangerous thermal runaway criteria are exposed. Stability theory has been used by chemical engineers to assay reactive thermal hazard for sixty years - why has this knowledge been completely ignored by the authors of those works? They claim to specify thermal 'safety' criteria but, to the contrary, they are seriously putting human lives at risk.
- Plouffe, P, Gamage McEvoy, J, Ball, R et al 2012, 'Object-oriented simulation of an Endex reactor for separation of carbon dioxide from flue emissions', Computers in Chemical Engineering, vol. 40, pp. 213-222.
- R. Ball, P. Fennell, (2012) Second law analyses of Endex and conventional calcium looping reactors. (Working paper)
- Ball, R 2011, 'Oscillatory thermal instability and the Bhopal disaster', Process Safety and Environmental Protection, vol. 89, no. 5, pp. 317-322.
- Ball, R 2011, 'Thermal relaxation oscillations in liquid organic peroxides', International Journal of Energetic Materials and Chemical Propulsion, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 523-540.
- Ball R (2011). Oscillatory thermal instability - the Bhopal disaster and liquid bombs. http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3778. Invited chapter for a forthcoming book "Nanotechnology Research and The Millenium Development Goals", editor Thomas Faunce, to be published by Pan Stanford.
- Ball, R (2011). Oscillatory thermal instability and the Bhopal disaster. Accepted 08 June 2011 by Process Safety and Environmental Protection, preprint available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.1487.
- Ball, R & Jones, J 2010, 'The Carbon Sequestration Capacity of Trees Expressed in Monetary Terms.', The Open Thermodynamics Journal, vol. 4, pp. 220-221.
- Ball R and Gray BF (1995,1996) Reactor system design, Australian Provisional Patents PO0176 and PN3208.
- Ball, R & Sceats, M 2010, 'Separation of carbon dioxide from flue emissions using Endex principles', Fuel, vol. 89, no. 10, pp. 2750-2759.
- Ball, R 2009, 'High Confinement at Low Power Input in Magnetic Fusion Plasmas: Analysis of Trade-offs Using Stability Theory', IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and Chinese Control Conference (CDC/CCC 2009), IEEE Inc, DOI: 10.1109/CDC.2009.5399587, pp. 297-302.
- Ball, R 2008, 'The Case of the Trapped Singularities', Complexity International, vol. 12, pp. 1-21.
- Ball, R 2008, 'Combustion of Biomass as a Global Carbon Sink', The Open Thermodynamics Journal, vol. 2, pp. 106-108.
- Stals, L, Numata, R & Ball, R 2008, 'Stability Analysis of Time Stepping for Prolonged Plasma Fluid Simulations', SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 961-986.
- Ball, R 2007, 'Distilled Turbulence. A Reduced Model for Confirnement Transitions in Magnetic Fusion Plasmas', in Jim Denier & Jorgen Fredericksen (ed.), Frontiers in Turbulence and Coherent Structures: proceedings of the COSNet/CSIRO Workshop on Turbulence and Coherent Structures in Fluids, Plasmas and Nonlinear Media, World Scientific Publishing Company, New Jersey, USA, pp. 395-414.
- Numata, R, Ball, R & Dewar, R 2007, 'Nonlinear Simulation of Drift Wave Turbulence', in Jim Denier & Jorgen Fredericksen (ed.), Frontiers in Turbulence and Coherent Structures: proceedings of the COSNet/CSIRO Workshop on Turbulence and Coherent Structures in Fluids, Plasmas and Nonlinear Media, World Scientific Publishing Company, New Jersey, USA, pp. 431-442.
- Ball, R & Holmes, P 2007, 'Dynamical Systems, Stability, and Chaos', in Jim Denier & Jorgen Fredericksen (ed.), Frontiers in Turbulence and Coherent Structures: proceedings of the COSNet/CSIRO Workshop on Turbulence and Coherent Structures in Fluids, Plasmas and Nonlinear Media, World Scientific Publishing Company, New Jersey, USA, pp. 1-28.
- Numata, R, Ball, R & Dewar, R 2007, 'Bifurcation in Electrostatic Resistive Drift Wave Turbulence', Physics of Plasmas, vol. 14, pp. 102312 1-8.
- Ball, R & Horton, W 2006, 'Dynamics of Edge Oscillations and Core Relaxations in Harness', International Atomic Energy Agency Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2006), Conference Organising Committee, Website, pp. TP/p6-24.
- Ball, R & Horton, W 2006, 'A Model for Coupled Edge-Core Dynamics', International Congress on Plasma Physics (ICCP 2006), ed. Anatoly Zagorodny, Olha Kocherga, Conference Organising Committee, unknown.
- Ball, R 2005, 'Kolmogorov Cascade', in Alwyn Scott (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp. 1-3.
- Ball, R 2005, 'Fairy Rings of Mushrooms', in Alwyn Scott (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp. 1-3.
- Ball, R 2005, 'Dynamical Systems Modelling of Turbulence-shear Flow Interactions in Magnetized Fusion Plasmas', Journal of Physics: Conference Series(online), vol. 7, pp. 191-202.
- Ball, R 2005, 'Singularity theory', in Alwyn Scott (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp. 813-815.
- Ball, R 2005, 'Trapped Singularities in a Dynamical Model for Plasma Confinement Transitions', National Conference on Nonlinear Systems and Dynamics (NCNSD 2005), ed. Conference Program Committee, Ujal Halder, Kharagpur.
- Ball, R 2005, 'Suppression of Turbulence at Low Power Input in a Model for Plasma Confinement Transitions', Physics of Plasmas, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 090904-1-8.
- Horton, W, Wong, H, Morrison, P et al 2005, 'Temperature Gradient Driven Electron Transport in NSTX and Tore Supra', Nuclear Fusion, vol. 45, pp. 976-985.
- Ball, R, McIntosh, A & Brindley, J 2004, 'Feedback Process in Cellulose Thermal Decomposition: Implications for Fire-retarding Strategies and Treatment', Combustion Theory and Modelling, vol. 8, pp. 281-291.
- Ball, R 2004, 'The Case of the Trapped Singularitites', Asia-Pacific Complex Systems Conference (Complex 2004), ed. Russel Stonier, Qinglong Han, Wei Li, Central Queensland University, QLD, pp. 266-286.
- Ball, R, ed., 2003, Nonlinear Dynamics: From Lasers to Butterflies: selected lectures from 15th Canberra International Physics Summer School, Australian National University, 21 January-1 February 2002, World Scientific Publishing Company, Singapore.
- Kendl, A, Scott, B, Ball, R et al 2003, 'Turbulent Edge Structure Formation in Complex Configurations', Physics of Plasmas, vol. 10, pp. 3684-3691.
- Ball, R, Dewar, R & Sugama, H 2003, 'Bifurcation and Metamorphosis of Plasma Turbulence-Shear Flow Dynamics: The Path to the Top of the Hill', in I.S. Falconer, R.L. Dewar, J. Khachan (ed.), Plasma Physics: Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Plasma Physics, ICPP2002, American Institute of Physics (AIP), New York, pp. 711-714.
- Ball, R, Dewar, R & Sugama, H 2002, 'Metamorphosis of Plasma Turbulence-shear-flow Dynamics through a Transcritical Bifurcation', Physical Review E, vol. 66, no. 6, pp. 066408-1-9.
- Ball, R 2001, 'Understanding Critical Behaviour through Visualization: A Walk around the Pitchfork', Computer Physics Communications, vol. 142, pp. 71-75.
- Ball, R & Haymet, A 2001, 'Bistability and hysteresis in self-assembling micelle systems: phenomenology and deterministic dynamics', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 3, pp. 4753-4761.
- Ball, R & Dewar, R 2001, 'A Walk in the Parameter Space of L-H Transitions without Stepping on or Through the Cracks', Journal of Plasma and Fusion Research, no. 4, pp. 266-270.
- Ball, R, Dewar, R & Sugama, H 2001, 'Symmetry and singularities in a low-dimensional model of a complex system. A back door approach to the physics of L-H transitions', IPELS-2001, ed. Sato, T., National Institute for Fusion Science, Toki, Japan, pp. 73-76.
- McIntosh, A, Gray, B, Wake, G et al 2001, 'The stability of a near adiabatic Endex batch CSTR reactor', ANZIAM Journal, vol. 43, pp. 59-75.
- Dewar, R, Cuthbert, P & Ball, R 2001, 'Strong "Quantum" Chaos in the Global Ballooning Mode Spectrum of Three-Dimensional Plasmas', Physical Review Letters, vol. 86, no. 11, pp. 2321-2324.
- Ball, R & Dewar, R 2000, 'Singularity Theory Study of Overdetermination in Models for L-H Transitions', Physical Review Letters, vol. 84, pp. 3077-3080.
- Ball, R, McIntosh, A & Brindley, J 1999, 'Thermokinetic Models for Simultaneous Reactions: a Comparative Study', Combustion Theory and Modelling, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 447-468.
- Ball, R, McIntosh, A & Brindley, J 1999, 'The Role of Char-Forming Processes in the Thermal Decomposition of Cellulose.', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 1, no. 21, pp. 5035-5043.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Indigenous mathematical transforms (Primary Investigator)
- National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (Secondary Investigator)
- The charXive challenge and the clean coal quest: thermokinetic principles and methods for capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide (Primary Investigator)
