Currently the Bateman Professor of Geophysics, Mathematics and Physics at Yale University, and recently Professor of Applicable Mathematics at the University of Oxford, he has an unusual breadth in his research interests.

- We are extremely pleased that professor Wettlaufer has chosen to combine his teaching position at Yale with research at Stockholm University, where he has been a frequent visitor. We hope that this will contribute to create a long term Yale/Stockholm collaboration, says Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Vice-Chancellor at Stockholm University. 

Professor Wettlaufer’s field of research is soft condensed matter physics. His research has two broad themes; (1) interfacial phenomena; ranging from microscopic effects to the continuous limits of quantum electrodynamics and classical statistical mechanics, and (2) macrophysics; turbulent and viscous hydrodynamics, astrophysical and geophysical flows and the dynamics of climate using modern methods in applied mathematics.

The recruitment of Professor Wettlaufer as research professor is a strategic initiative to provide core strength and international reach in the crucially important and rapidly expanding field of soft condensed matter physics and to fuse connections with allied fields and institutions.