Professor Michael Small

Professor Michael Small uses modern mathematics to data driven sciences to make better predictions and understand the complex world. Applications range from pandemic disease, predicting how patients will respond to cancer treatment, and identifying risk of suicidal ideation, to geophysical modelling and predictive maintenance. As one of Australia’s most published mathematicians, Professor Small is an expert in finding solutions to complicated problems.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics at the University, before undertaking a PhD in applied mathematics using nonlinear time series methods to quantify and describe children’s breathing patterns. During his PhD, Professor Small worked closely with Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, researching sudden infant death syndrome and measuring infant respiration while babies slept.

Following his PhD, Professor Small worked for a variety of global hedge funds and investment companies to develop financial market models. He went on to complete a postdoctorate research fellowship at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, where he researched cardiac dynamics on patients in the Coronary Care Unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Later, he lived in Hong Kong during the SARS outbreak in 2003, where he used his mathematical expertise at Hong Kong Polytechnic University to work with the Hong Kong Health Department to research ways to contain the disease. In 2019. He applied his mathematical modelling expertise to help the WA Health Department in modelling coronavirus transmission – particularly to remote communities.

Currently, Professor Small teaches the unit Nonlinear Dynamics at UWA, and holds the CSIRO-UWA Chair in Complex Engineering Systems (since 2016).