Henry Shum

I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. Before coming to Waterloo, I had the pleasure of gaining research experience at the Mathematical Institute and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, and at the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh. My research interests are in modelling and simulating various microscale fluidic systems, such as flagellated microorganism motility, control of bio-inspired microrobots, and chemo-hydrodynamic pattern formation. I work primarily with singularity-based methods for numerically solving the equations of Stokes flow and apply these methods to systems incorporating elastic, magnetic, or electrokinetic interactions.

• Biological fluid dynamics

• Microorganism motility

• Chemomechanical coupling

• Synthetic chemical reaction networks

• Numerical methods for fluid-structure interactions

• 2012, Doctorate, Mathematical Sciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom

• 2006, Masters, Mathematics and Physics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom,

• 2025 Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching

• 2017-2024, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo

• 2012-2017, Postdoctoral Associate, University of Pittsburgh

• AMATH 331 - Applied Real Analysis
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2025
• AMATH 451 - Introduction to Dynamical Systems
  • Taught in 2025
• AMATH 651 - Introduction to Dynamical Systems
  • Taught in 2025
• AMATH 751 - Advanced Ordinary Differential Equations
  • Taught in 2024, 2025
• AMATH 900 - Topics in Applied Mathematics
  • Taught in 2023
• MATH 137 - Calculus 1 for Honours Mathematics
  • Taught in 2023
• MATH 138 - Calculus 2 for Honours Mathematics
  • Taught in 2024, 2025
• MATH 147 - Calculus 1 (Advanced Level)
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023
• MATH 148 - Calculus 2 (Advanced Level)
  • Taught in 2022, 2024
• MATH 247 - Calculus 3 (Advanced Level)
  • Taught in 2021
• PMATH 331 - Applied Real Analysis
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• 2025 - Hydrodynamic interactions between a sedimenting squirmer and a planar wall

• 2025 - Control of microparticles through hydrodynamic interactions

• 2024 - Alignment, rising, sticking, and phototaxis: modulating the behavior of hematite micropeanuts

• 2024 - Designing a magnetic micro-robot for transporting stiff filamentous microcargo

• 2023 - Boundary-bound reactions: Pattern formation with and without hydrodynamics

• 2023 - A numerical method for the locomotion of bi-flagellated bacteria in viscous fluid

• 2022 - The N-link swimmer in three dimensions: controllability and optimality results

• 2021 - Patterns of bacterial motility in microfluidics-confining environments

• 2019 - Fight the flow: the role of shear in artificial rheotaxis for individual and collective motion

• 2019 - Microswimmer propulsion by two steadily rotating helical flagella

• 2019 - Achieving self-sustained motion of particles in solution with chemical pumps

• 2018 - Using chemical pumps and motors to design flows for directed particle assembly

• 2018 - Flow-driven assembly of microcapsules into three-dimensional towers

• 2017 - Entrainment and scattering in microswimmer-colloid interactions

• 2017 - Convective self-sustained motion in mixtures of chemically active and passive particles

• 2017 - Harnessing catalytic pumps for directional delivery of microparticles in microchambers

• 2017 - Solutal and thermal buoyancy effects in self-powered phosphatase micropumps

• 2017 - Synthetic quorum sensing in model microcapsule colonies

• 2016 - Convective flow reversal in self-powered enzyme micropumps

• 2016 - Harnessing surface-bound enzymatic reactions to organize microcapsules in solution

• 2015 - Hydrodynamic analysis of flagellated bacteria swimming in corners of rectangular channels

• 2015 - Self-assembly of microcapsules regulated via the repressilator signaling network

• 2015 - Computational design of microscopic swimmers and capsules: From directed motion to collective behavior

• 2015 - Designing synthetic microcapsules that undergo biomimetic communication and autonomous motion

• 2015 - Hydrodynamic analysis of flagellated bacteria swimming near one and between two no-slip plane boundaries

• 2015 - Self-propelled nanomotors autonomously seek and repair cracks

• 2014 - Designing bioinspired artificial cilia to regulate particle–surface interactions

• 2014 - Fluid-driven motion of passive cilia enables the layer to expel sticky particles

• 2014 - An introduction to the hydrodynamics of swimming microorganisms

• 2013 - Active ciliated surfaces expel model swimmers

• 2013 - Fluid transport by individual microswimmers

• 2012 - The effects of flagellar hook compliance on motility of monotrichous bacteria: A modeling study

• 2012 - Mathematical models for individual swimming bacteria

• 2011 - Comment on the article by J. Elgeti, U. B. Kaupp, and G. Gompper: Hydrodynamics of sperm cells near surfaces

• 2010 - Modelling bacterial behaviour close to a no-slip plane boundary: the influence of bacterial geometry