Mark Damian McDonnell (born 28 February 1975) is an Australian

electronic engineer Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flow ...

and

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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

, notable for his work on

stochastic resonance Stochastic resonance (SR) is a behavior of non-linear systems where random (stochastic) fluctuations in the micro state cause deterministic changes in the macro state. This occurs when the non-linear nature of the system amplifies certain (reso ...

and more specifically suprathreshold stochastic resonance.

Education

McDonnell graduated from the Salesian College,

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. He received a BSc in Mathematical & Computer Sciences (1997), a BE (Hons) in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (1998), and a BSc (Hons) in Applied Mathematics (2001) all from

The University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

, Australia. He received his PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (2006), under

Derek Abbott Derek Abbott (born 1960) is a British-Australian physicist and electronic engineer, and professor at the University of Adelaide. He is known for claiming to have identified the "Somerton Man", whose body had been found decades earlier on an A ...

and Charles E. M. Pearce, also from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

, for a thesis entitled ''Theoretical Aspects of Stochastic Signal Quantisation and Suprathreshold Stochastic Resonance.'' During the course of his PhD, he was also a visiting scholar at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, UK, under

Nigel G. Stocks Nigel Geoffrey Stocks (born 6 September 1964) is an engineer and physicist, notable for discovering suprathreshold stochastic resonance (SSR) and its application to cochlear implant technology. Education He attended Bingley Grammar School befo ...

Career

McDonnell worked as a research assistant in electromagnetic propagation, ice-penetrating radar, and as a computer systems engineer, at the

. His main research interests are in the field of nonlinear signal processing, with applications in

computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematics, computer science, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand th ...

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components that may interact with one another. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

, and

lossy compression In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size ...

, reliable communication, and coding of noisy signals.

Honors

In 2002, McDonnell was awarded a D. R. Stranks Fellowship, and in 2003, he was awarded a

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

Complex Systems Fellowship, as well as the AFUW Doreen MacCarthy Bursary. In 2004 he was the recipient of an

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

Young Researcher's Award. He was awarded the Postgraduate Alumni University Medal for his PhD thesis. In 2007, he won a Fresh Science award, the Gertrude Rohan Prize, and an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship that he took up at the

University of South Australia The University of South Australia is a public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1991, it is the successor of the former South Australian Institute of Technology. Its main campuses along North Terrace are ...

Books by McDonnell

* Mark D. McDonnell,

, Charles E. M. Pearce, and

, ''

Stochastic Resonance Stochastic resonance (SR) is a behavior of non-linear systems where random (stochastic) fluctuations in the micro state cause deterministic changes in the macro state. This occurs when the non-linear nature of the system amplifies certain (reso ...

'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 2008, .

Notes

External links