Dr. Koulis Pericleous

With a first degree in Aeronautics, Prof Koulis Pericleous completed a PhD in unsteady aerodynamics in 1978 at Queen Mary College, University of London. His first post-university employment was with Prof D B Spalding’s scientific software company CHAM Ltd, where as part of the development team contributed among others to the development of PHOENICS, the first ever commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
He joined the University of Greenwich, UK in 1989 and over his 30+ year tenure as the professor of CFD, he has enthusiastically promoted CFD as a tool for industry and the environment through both research and teaching. In Greenwich he formed the Computational Science and Engineering research group and brought his knowledge of fluid dynamics into both practical and fundamental research. Recent focus has been the multi-physics world of metals processing, in particular aerospace alloys and light metals. This work encompassed many length scales from macroscale (such as continuous or shape casting, aluminium electrolysis cells and VAR processing), mesoscale (welding and Additive Manufacturing) to microstructure formation (freckle defects, or high undercooled growth).
The complex nature of all these processes led Koulis to develop PHYSICA, a multi-physics code in continuous evolution since 1992.
Koulis has received numerous awards including the TMS 2021 Light Metals Award for his work on “Contactless Ultrasonic Treatment in Direct Chill Casting”, detailing a novel idea of generating fluid flow and ultrasonic cavitation in liquid metals from an external magnetic field. He has supervised over 40 PhD students, co-authored around 400 articles, led many national and international projects, and provided consultancy services to a number of organisations worldwide.