Biography

• 2012 - present:  Research Fellow in the Mathematics Department at the University of Surrey
• 2010 - 2012:  NRF Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (NITheP) of South Africa and the University of Cape Town
• 2010 - 2012:  Temporary Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town
• 2007 - 2009:  Ph.D. Student in Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town
• 2005 - 2006:  M.Sc. Student in Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand
• 2001 - 2004:  B.Sc. & B.Sc. (Hons) Student in Theoretical Physics at the University of Cape Town

Research Interests

I am a research fellow in the ''Fields, Strings and Geometry'' Group.  My research focuses primarily on string theory and gauge/string theory correspondences.  I am interested in better understanding how gravity arises as an emergent phenomenon from a quantum field theory with a large number of gauge degrees of freedom (large N).

My current research interests include:

• non-spherical and topologically non-trivial membranes in string theory and M-theory
• long O(N) gauge-invariant operators dual to membranes and collections of membranes
• supergravity geometries

Publications

1. “Beyond the Planar Limit in ABJM”, with R. de Mello Koch, B.A.E. Mohammed and J. Murugan, J. High Energy Phys., 05 (2012) 037 [arXiv:1202.4925 [hep-th]].
2. “The giant graviton on AdS₄ × CP³ - another step towards the emergence of geometry”, with D. Giovannoni and J. Murugan, J. High Energy Phys., 12 (2011) 003, [arXiv:1108.3084 [hep-th]].
3. “ABJM dibaryon spectroscopy”, with J. Murugan, J. High Energy Phys., 05 (2011) 129 (2011), [arXiv:1103.1163 [hep-th]].
4. “Lessons from giant gravitons on AdS₅×T^1,1”, with A. Hamilton and J. Murugan, J. High Energy Phys., 06 (2010) 017, [arXiv:1001.2306 [hep-th]].
5. “A note on dual giant gravitons on AdS₄ × CP³”, with A. Hamilton, J. Murugan and M. Strydom, J. High Energy Phys., 04 (2009) 132, [arXiv:0901.0009 [hep-th]].
6. “A note on the universality of the Hagedorn behavior of pp-wave strings”, with A. Hamilton and J. Murugan, J. High Energy Phys., 02 (2008) 108, [arXiv:0712.3059 [hep-th]].
7. “γ_i-deformed Lax pair for rotating strings in the fast motion limit”, J. High Energy Phys., 01 (2006) 050, [arXiv:hep-th/0510095].
8. “Pulsations in β Pictoris”, with C. Koen, L.A. Balona, K. Khadaroo, I. Lane, B. Smith and C.D. Laney, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 344, 1250 (2003).