Warm congratulations to John Ball, who is to be the recipient of the first
David Crighton Medal, awarded by the LMS and the IMA.
Citation
The David Crighton Medal for 2003 for services to Mathematics and to the
mathematics community is awarded to Professor John Ball, F.R.S., Sedleian
Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxford (currently on
sabbatical leave at Princeton University, USA).
John Ball is an outstanding mathematician of international standing. At the
same time he has exerted himself both nationally and internationally for
the good of Mathematics and its community. In particular, his activity
internationally has done much to raise the profile of UK Mathematics,
especially of Applied Mathematics. He has an exceptional record of getting
things done and making things happen - in this he demonstrates the
qualities of David Crighton himself.
Nationally, he was very effective in pressing for and establishing an
Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Scotland; it was very much due to
his efforts that the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences was set
up in Edinburgh more than 10 years ago. Over the years it has been, and
remains, an important national asset and one whose programmes are
complementary to those of the Isaac Newton Institute.
John Ball was President of the London Mathematical Society from 1996-1998,
and led the Society's moves throughout that period to increase its activity
and influence in its promotion of mathematics and its links with other
bodies.
He has been a member of the Council of the EPSRC, nominated by the Royal
Society and speaking up for mathematics as well as for the sciences and
engineering. He chaired the 1998 EPSRC review of the Isaac Newton Institute
and served on the board of BRIMS (Hewlett-Packard) at Bristol.
Internationally, John Ball has been for some years a leading member of the
International Mathematical Union (IMU), its Fields Medal Committee and of
its Council. At the 2002 Beijing Congress he was elected President of the
IMU for the next four years, bringing distinction to the UK mathematics
community. He was one of the five members of the Abel Prize committee which
awarded its first international prize in June 2003.
John Ball's research focuses on applications to solid materials, bringing
to bear an armoury of knowledge and techniques of mathematical analysis and
algebra. He has developed an approach to applied mathematics which brings a
greater degree of mathematical rigour to bear.
In one of his earliest papers he discussed "discontinuous equilibrium
solutions and cavitation in non-linear elasticity". The discussion centred
on the emergence of a hole, cavity or void in a solid material subject to
traction, and brings into play mathematical concepts of singular solutions,
weak solutions energy-minimisers and Lyapunov functions. This paper
illustrates in many ways his fine qualities in linking Mathematics with
mechanics.
In later work with RD James, John Ball developed a non-linear theory of
martensites, materials with a fine structure in which the concept of an
energy infimum can be used in the way that is different from the rubberlike
materials; for martensites there is no true minimiser, no true infimum, but
the minimiser-infimum can be approached indefinitely closely by a
sequential development of finer and finer structure.
His work indicates how mathematical concepts can be brought to bear to
explain phenomena of real importance. At the EPSRC-IMA-LMS conference in
2001, on 'Connectivity between Mathematics and Engineering', Ball's
contribution was a highlight, showing how the choice of the space of
functions is of such importance in ensuring that the
numerical/computational scheme gives a solution that converges.
