On St Brendan and the Pendulum of Postgraduate Study

by Mike Clifford

My PhD thesis was quite abstract. I spent many hours staring at a computer screen whilst running mathematical simulations of a simple ordinary differential equation which was meant to represent the behaviour of a pendulum. Although the equation and the physical system itself were simple, the resulting behaviour was rich enough to keep me occupied for a full three years and beyond. The pendulum could hang lifelessly, oscillate in a regular way, go round in complete circles, stand on its head, or swing chaotically in a mesmerizing, unpredictable dance.  Perhaps we can observe many of these behaviours in doctoral students – the initial thrill of study, the lifeless second-year blues, the chaotic scramble for data before, hopefully, settling into a regular thesis.

Part of my research involved searching for particular numerical solutions to the equation. A particular challenge was to find types of solutions that other researchers had failed to find or had even declared to be unavailable. Given that desktop computers were in their infancy at the time, I soon realised that the numerical approach could only take me so far. It was like digging for buried treasure on a desert island without a map, and only a hunch that there might be some treasure to be found.

I wish I’d been more familiar with the story of St. Brendan at that time. An Irish saint who lived in Kerry in the 5th and 6th Centuries, Brendan is best known for a cruise he took with some fellow monks. Instructed by God to build a boat and to set sail into the West, tales of Brendan’s adventures have become the stuff of legend and folklore. I particularly like Christy Moore’s lyrical interpretation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWPMnWaA2U

Reading accounts of the voyage, it’s very difficult to separate physical reality from dreams and visions, but Brendan may have visited Iceland, Greenland and even North America, before returning home to Ireland. Whatever the reality, one of Brendan’s prayers is applicable for sailors, spiritual pilgrims and researchers everywhere:

Help me to journey beyond the familiar

and into the unknown.

Give me the faith to leave old ways

and break fresh ground with You.

Christ of the mysteries, I trust You

to be stronger than each storm within me.

I will trust in the darkness and know

that my times, even now, are in Your hand.

Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,

and somehow, make my obedience count for You.

It is hard to imagine anything more vulnerable than Brendan and his shipmates sailing in a little boat made of wood and leather on the Atlantic Ocean. In academia our vulnerability comes in many different forms. I was reminded at a recent conference that one of the biggest insecurities faced by academics is feeling like a fraud. Perhaps standing in front of a sceptical conference audience or a class of especially hostile students who challenge our theories, cast aspersions on our experimental methods and distrust our data is as scary as it gets, if we place our security in academic knowledge. But if our trust, like Brendan’s, is not so much in our own knowledge, or in our boat, but in Christ of the mysteries, then although we are still vulnerable, we are less likely to sink. And even if we do occasionally sink, the Christ who walked on water is better than any Baywatch lifeguard.

Back to my PhD, I had to leave my familiar computer simulations and delve into the mysteries of esoteric topological methods including braid and knot theory in order to refine my map of Treasure Island. The result was that after a lot of fruitless searching, I eventually found some stable period-three oscillatory solutions – not exactly what most people would count of as buried treasure -  but more than enough to generate a whoop or two of delight, even from this naturally reserved Englishman!

Mike Clifford is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham. His research interests are in combustion, biomass briquetting, cookstove design and other appropriate technologies. He has published over 80 refereed conference and journal publications and has contributed chapters to books on composites processing and on appropriate and sustainable technologies.

In 2009, he was voted "engineering lecturer of the year" by the Higher Education Academy's Engineering Subject Centre for his innovative teaching methods involving costume, drama, poetry and storytelling.