The Councils of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society have jointly awarded the first David Crighton Medal for 2003 for services to Mathematics and to the mathematics community to Sir John Ball, FRS, Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Oxford.

SirJohn 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 helping to establish the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences in Scotland. Over the years it has been, and remains, a major national asset.

Sir John 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, acting as a liaison with 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.

Internationally, Sir John has been for some years prominent in the activities of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), in particular as a member of the Fields Medal Committee and of the Programme Committee for the 2002 Beijing International Congress. At the 2002 Shanghai IMU General Assembly 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.

Much of Sir John's research focuses on the calculus of variations and its applications to solid mechanics, bringing to bear an armoury of knowledge and techniques of mathematical analysis and algebra. His papers illustrate in many ways his fine qualities in linking mathematics with mechanics.

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 the construction of numerical/computational schemes that converge to physically relevant solutions.

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