Public lectures to mark D’Arcy day

Academics from the University of St Andrews and beyond will give a series of talks on the ongoing relevance of Professor D’Arcy Thompson from 2 pm this Friday (Friday 3 September, 2010) in the Bute Buildings, off South Street in St Andrews.

The afternoon of public lectures is open to all as part of a programme of events to mark the 150th anniversary year of D’Arcy Thompson; Professor of Natural History at the University of St Andrews from 1917-1948.

Professor Thompson was a biologist, mathematician and classicist renowned for his book, On Growth and Form. It was within this book that he presented his ‘theory of transformations’, which shows how the differences between the forms of related species can be represented geometrically.

Lectures will include:

• Professor Peter Slater (Emeritus Professor of Natural History) – Who was D’Arcy Thompson?
• Professor Edmund Robertson – D’Arcy Thompson and the enumeration of rhyme schemes
• Professor Robertson (representing Dr John O’Connor) – Software producing D’Arcy-like transformations
• Professor Stephen Halliwell – D’Arcy and the Classics
• Dr David Ferrier – On Growth and Form in Developmental Biology
• Dr Joy Sleeman (Slade School of Fine Art) – D’Arcy and Contemporary Art
• Professor Tom Meagher – On growth and form in plants – the forgotten chapter
• Dr Stephanie Bunn – Growing, building, making: an anthropological perspective

The event will be followed by an early evening buffet supper in the Bell Pettigrew Museum with harp music.

For further information visit: www.darcythompson.org

Issued by the University of St Andrews

Contact: Emma Shea, Communications Manager, on 01334 472 109 or email [email protected]