Catz Fellow awarded the 2025 David Crighton Medal
St Catherine’s is delighted to congratulate Fellow Professor Alain Goriely on being awarded the 2025 David Crighton Medal, one of the most prestigious honours in applied mathematics.
The award, made jointly by the London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, recognises Professor Goriely’s profound and wide-ranging contributions to mathematics, particularly his deep insights into mechanical and biological processes and materials. The citation also highlights his longstanding support for early-career mathematicians and his commitment to enhancing public understanding of mathematics and its real-world applications.
Professor Goriely’s research has consistently opened up new ways of understanding complex natural phenomena. His early work in dynamical systems established new criteria for the existence of chaotic solutions and introduced powerful techniques for studying integrability in complex time. In mechanics, he pioneered innovative mathematical models for filaments, developing a general theory of stability with applications across physics, engineering and biology.
Among his most striking contributions is the identification of a previously unknown instability, which he termed tendril perversion, offering a mathematical explanation for the twisting and entanglement seen in vines and other biological structures. He has also developed influential classifications of nonlinear solids, helping to determine the types of defects that can arise in materials under stress.
This interplay between material properties and dynamic behaviour underpins Professor Goriely’s broader work on growth and form, building on ideas first explored by D’Arcy Thompson over a century ago. By developing new mathematical tools to describe growth-induced instabilities in elastic materials, his research has shed light on pattern formation in fungi and bacteria, as well as other biological systems.
The David Crighton Medal is awarded annually in recognition of outstanding research in applied mathematics. The medal ceremony and accompanying Crighton Lecture will take place in spring 2026.
St Catz’s congratulates Professor Goriely on this exceptional achievement.
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Find out more about the David Crighton Medal here.
Find out more about Professor Goriely’s work here.