Dr. Philippe Charron

Philippe Charron completed his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the Université de Montreal. He does postdoctoral research in the field of spectral geometry in the Department of Mathematics at Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, where he studies the geometric properties of heat flow in an object.

His main focus is on “Neumann domains,” a way to subdivide objects which was introduced in mathematics only in 2013. Dr. Charron explains the concept by considering a smoothly crumpled or twisted sheet of paper with some bumps and dips. Imagine a small ball rolling freely on the sheet. If it starts at a bump, at some time it will end in a dip. Its Neumann domain is the set of points which are located on one possible trajectory from the bump to the dip. Every point belongs to exactly one Neumann domain. Dr. Charron believes this new method of partitioning an object might help us understand the link between the shape of an object and the heat flow through it. Indeed, Neumann domains indicate both the location of points in which heat concentrates (so-called hot spots) and the direction in which this heat will flow outwards.

Dr. Charron is an international badminton player who was ranked second in Canada, and 54th in the world. Even while playing for Canada’s national team and publishing articles in his field, he volunteered at his university both as a badminton coach and as a math and statistics tutor.