Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

prizes | media | podcasts | public lectures 

| PRIZES:  All quiet on the awards front...

Unless you count one of the highest honours in UK Mathematics! Congratulations to our Director, Professor Alain Goriely, who has been awarded the 2025 LMS/IMA David Crighton Medal.

"The medal recognises his influential mathematical work on how things stretch, twist, grow and sometimes misbehave — from biological tissues to brain mechanics — as well as his generous support of early career researchers and tireless efforts to bring mathematics to life for the wider public."

| MEDIA:  Folding under tension...don't we all! 

Buckling and folding can be positive forces and are common in nature. Marc Suñé explains.

 | PUBLIC LECTURE  

The Geometry of Nature and the Shape of Things

Join Professor Alain Goriely at Gresham College for a new series of public lectures exploring how geometry shapes the natural world. Following his acclaimed talks on How the Brain Works — and How It Breaks, this next series turns to the mathematics of form, pattern, and beauty.

Through clear, captivating, and often humorous storytelling, Alain reveals the mathematical principles behind the shapes that define our universe — from the symmetry of living organisms to the spirals of seashells and the tiling of planetary surfaces.

These six lectures uncover how simple ideas such as symmetry, chirality, self-similarity, and tiling explain the complexity of nature — bridging abstract mathematics with biology, physics, and art.

Accessible, inspiring, and free to all, the series invites audiences to see the world through a mathematical eye and discover how geometry connects everything from microscopic molecules to celestial bodies.

Watch the series at Gresham College