Education
Trinity College.
Trinity College.
His principal research interest is the application of fluid mechanics to biology and medicine. He then spent three years at Johns Hopkins University as a post-doctoral fellowship From 1968 to 1973 he was a lecturer at Imperial College London, after which he moved to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge.
He remained at Cambridge until 1990 when he moved to Leeds University to be Professor of Applied Mathematics.
In 1996 he returned to Cambridge and from 2000 to 2005 he was head of DAMTP. He is a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a fellow of the Royal Society (elected 1995). Pedley has pioneered the application of fluid mechanics to understanding biological phenomena.
His best-known work includes the study of blood flow in arteries, flow–structure interactions in elastic tubes, flow and pressure drop in the lung, and the collective behaviour of swimming microorganisms. His research has touched on issues of medical importance, including arterial bypass grafts, urine flow from kidneys to bladder, and the ventilation of premature infants.
His work on microorganisms has application to plankton ecology.
Royal Society.