Lucy Jean Campbell is an

applied mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History One ...

and

numerical analyst Numerical may refer to: * Number * Numerical digit * Numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical ...

from

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, specializing in the applications of

fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...

to modeling the Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Beyond fluid dynamics, she has also investigated methods for tracing the sources of

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

. She is an associate professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

Early life and education

Campbell was born in Barbados. Her father, Merville O'Neale Campbell, was a mathematician at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

and was the first person from Barbados to earn a doctorate in mathematics. Her mother, a teacher, was from Ghana, where her father had taught prior to his 1964 return to Barbados. In 1967, the family moved to another campus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, where Campbell grew up. She writes that she always wanted to become an educator, aiming more specifically for mathematics after finding it to be her best subject already as a preschooler. Campbell did her undergraduate studies in mathematics at the

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), commonly known as UST, Tech or Kwame Tech, is a public university located in Kumasi, Ashanti region, Ghana. The university focuses on science and technology. It is the second public uni ...

in Ghana, graduating with first class honours. After additional study at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, she moved to

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

in Canada, where she worked with Sherwin Maslowe. She earned a master's degree at McGill in 1996, with a master's thesis on ''Forced Rossby Wave Packets in a Zonal Shear Flow in the Presence of Critical Layers''. In 2000 she completed her Ph.D. there. Her dissertation was ''Nonlinear Critical Layer Development of Forced Wave Packets in Geophysical Shear Flows''.

Later career

After completing her doctorate, Campbell did postdoctoral research in

atmospheric physics Within the atmospheric sciences, atmospheric physics is the application of physics to the study of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists attempt to model Earth's atmosphere and the atmospheres of the other planets using fluid flow equations, rad ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, working with Ted Shepherd. She joined the Carleton faculty in 2003.

Recognition

In 2019, the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society gave Campbell their Arthur Beaumont Distinguished Service Award, in recognition of her service as an organizer of fluid dynamics meetings and as an officer of the society.

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Lucy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Barbadian academics Canadian mathematicians Ghanaian mathematicians Jamaican scientists Women mathematicians Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology alumni McGill University Faculty of Science alumni Academic staff of Carleton University 21st-century Ghanaian scientists 21st-century Ghanaian women scientists