Doctor Sean Symon

Dr Sean Symon

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Data assimilation and optimization
  • Reduced-order modelling
  • Flow control

More research

Accepting applications from PhD students.

Connect with Sean

About

Please visit my personal website for more information about my research and teachig.

I am an associate professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Southampton. I currently teach Part 3 aerospace control design and a masters-level module called data-driven fluid mechanics. In terms of research, I am interested in using techniques that originated in control theory to model and control turbulent flows. More specifically, my research group uses techniques such as variational data-assimilation, state-observers, frequency analysis and reduced-order modelling. 

I was born in Scotland but grew up on the east coast of the USA in Maryland. I completed my undergraduate degrees in Aerospace Engineering and French Language/Literature at the University of Maryland College Park. Along the way, I also minored in violin performance. I moved to the west coast for one year to obtain a masters in Aeronautics at Caltech before moving to France to do another masters at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. I returned to Caltech for my PhD and then switched hemisphere to do a post-doc at the University of Melbourne. I joined Southampton as a lecturer (or assistant professor as the Americans say) in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Southampton in 2020. 

From 2021-2022, I was the seminar coordinator for the AeroAstro department. I am currently the undergraduate programme lead for all AeroAstro BEng and MEng programmes. 

Outside the university bubble, I have somehow ended up playing violin in multiple orchestras based in Hampshire. Please check out my personal website for details about upcoming performances. I also play piano although probably not at a level where it is enjoyable for listening (yet).