LMS-IMA David Crighton Award Lecture and Medal Presentation 2026
The LMS-IMA David Crighton Award is awarded to an eminent mathematician for services both to mathematics and to the mathematical community. It is a joint award of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society.
Professor Alain Goriely FRS was awarded the 2025 LMS-IMA Crighton Award in recognition of his deep and influential mathematical insights into mechanical and biological processes and materials, for his support of early career mathematicians, and his contributions to the public understanding of mathematics and its applications.
Professor Goriely will be presented with the Medal at a ceremony, which will take place at The Royal Society. The ceremony and talk, given by Professor Goriely will be held in the Kohn Centre/Marble Hall and will be followed by a buffet reception.
For further details about the David Crighton Medal, click here: https://www.lms.ac.uk/prizes/david-crighton-medal.
This event will not be livestreamed, but it will be recorded and we will endeavour to upload the talk to the LMS YouTube channel - click 'subscribe' to be alerted when new videos are added.
Programme (timings in GMT)
| 18:10 |
Welcome and refreshments |
| 18:30 |
Professor Alain Goriely FRS From Plato to Plateau: Natural Tilings and Soft Cells Mosaic patterns and tilings are ubiquitous in nature, design, and art, appearing in systems ranging from cellular tissues, geological formations, biological shells as well as architecture. Traditionally, these structures have been modelled using polyhedral tilings composed of flat faces, straight edges, and sharp corners. There is an immense mathematical literature on the geometry of these structures going back thousands of year. However, careful observation reveals that many natural tilings deviate significantly from this paradigm: their boundaries are curved with smooth interfaces. In the spirit of applied mathematics, this realisation has motivated the introduction of a new class of shapes known as soft cells, which arise as smooth deformations of standard tilings. Such cells are also found in the geometry of metal and liquid foam as well as in many micro-structures modelled by triply periodic minimal surfaces. In this talk, I will explain the mathematics and physics of tilings, hard and soft, pure and applied, describe their construction and classification, and illustrate how they provide a more accurate geometric description of patterns found in biology, architecture, engineering, in the deepest sea and even in space. |
| 19:30 | Reception |
Please note that speakers and timings are subject to change.
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