Alan Turing (1912 to 1954) is best known for his work in the foundations of computing and his codebreaking activities. The last three years of his life were, however, devoted to the mathematical modelling of biological problems, and the question of the spontaneous emergence of biological structure.

In this lecture Professor Dawes will explain why Turing’s only publication on that subject (subsequently cited over 5,000 times) is not sufficient to understand the full extent of his thinking, and he will show how unpublished archive material contains the genesis of original ideas, lost and subsequently re-discovered, that have driven the last 60 years of work in the area.

It is also notable that Turing’s work was carried out separately from, and in parallel with, related developments in fluid mechanics.

The lecture will then bring the story up to date with examples of the unexpected complexity of these simple mathematical models, and their possible applications across the sciences.

This event is part of our public Minerva lecture series.

Speaker profiles

Jonathan Dawes is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bath. His research areas include dynamical systems, fluid and solid mechanics, and network science.

He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and held a number of positions there, including a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, before moving to the University of Bath in 2009. From 2007 to 2015 he held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

He is Director of the Bath Institute for Mathematical Innovation (Bath IMI), established in 2015 as the second of Bath’s two University Research Institutes, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Networks and Collective Behaviour.

Who should attend

Open to public

Accessibility

Free parking is available in the University car parks after 5pm.