Dr Charles Powell
- Postdoctoral Research Associate
Contact
Location
- Centre for Mathematical Sciences
- Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA
About
Charles is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Institute of Computing for Climate Science & Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), as well as a Bye-fellow & Director of Studies for IA Mathematics at Emmanuel College.
He completed an MMath in 2021 and PhD in 2025 at the University of Cambridge, specialising in topics such as atmospheric fluid dynamics, turbulence and mixing, and numerical modelling. Charles joined ICCS shortly afterwards in 2025, using his expertise to address questions in climate science with relevance to predictability of many tropospheric phenomena such as tropical cyclones.
Beyond research and teaching, Charles has a longstanding interest in astronomy and meteorology. He enjoys applying his knowledge of fluid dynamics to weather forecasting and cloudspotting and has previously worked on meteor detection using radio. Charles was an avid rower during his studies and now regularly coaches college crews on the River Cam.
Research
Research interests
- Atmospheric fluid dynamics
- Climate science
- Computational fluid dynamics
- High Performance Computing
- Applied mathematics
- Data-driven decomposition techniques
Charles's research interests cover most areas of atmospheric fluid dynamics, with a particular focus on troposphere-stratosphere coupling, including convective influences on the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL), stratospheric chemistry, and the role of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) in tropospheric processes.
His PhD thesis used idealised numerical simulations to study turbulent transport, wave generation and hydration of the TTL by overshooting convection, where strong thunderstorms push into the stratosphere. He modelled the problem as a buoyant plume penetrating into a stratified layer and used fluid dynamical techniques to analyse the simulations.
Charles's current research deals with coupling between large-scale stratospheric dynamics, such as the QBO, and tropical convection patterns in the troposphere, such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation. The QBO is predictable on much longer timescales than the 'weather' seen in the troposphere, meaning its tropospheric teleconnections have important implications for subseasonal-to-seasonal predictive skill. Charles is using high-resolution aquaplanet simulations to develop mechanistic understanding of the coupling processes. In collaboration with other researchers at DAMTP, he is introducing a popular data-driven technique called Dynamic Mode Decomposition into studies of atmospheric teleconnections.
Teaching and supervision
Charles is co-supervising 2 DIS MPhil students and 2 ICCS summer interns. He has been an undergraduate supervisor in Differential Equations and Vector Calculus since 2021.