Michael Cates elected 19th Lucasian Professor

th288 — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:45:38 +0000

Professor Cates is currently Professor of Natural Philosophy and Royal Society Research Professor at the ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh.

Soft matter is a description of a large class of materials, such as polymers, gels, and liquid crystals, which lack the crystalline order of the solid state and are easily deformed by external forces, leading to complex and nonlinear behaviour requiring new mathematical insights for their description.

̽��ֱ��field of soft matter is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together methods from areas such as elasticity, fluid mechanics, statistical mechanics, and computational science. In recent years it has expanded to address many problems in biology, including the properties of cellular cytoskeletons and collective behaviour of motile cells.

Professor Cates is renowned for his work over the past thirty years on an extremely broad range of problems in soft matter, from the dynamics of `living polymers’ and polymer brushes to the nature of the glass transition, at which a previously liquid-like material locks into an amorphous solid structure.

He has also been instrumental in bringing large-scale computational methods to bear on highly nonequilibrium problems in soft matter, and often works closely with experimentalists in both formulating and testing theoretical predictions.

His work has been recognised by many major awards, including the Dirac Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics, the Pierre Gille de Gennes Lecture Prize of the European Physical Journal and the Weissenberg Award of the European Society of Rheology.

More recently, Professor Cates has made important contributions to the burgeoning field of `active matter’, which explores the dynamics and self-organization of systems composed of self-propelled objects.

These can range from engineered colloidal microparticles to swimming bacteria.

Peter Haynes, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: “ ̽��ֱ��appointment of Michael Cates as Lucasian Professor continues the very distinguished tradition of that post. Professor Cates will bring a new and important scientific area to academic activities in our Department and his presence as Lucasian Professor will offer a whole range of new collaborative possibilities, both within our own Department and with several others in the ̽��ֱ��”

̽��ֱ��Lucasian Professorship has an exceptionally long and distinguished history, established in 1663 and with previous holders including Isaac Newton (1669-1702), and, more recently, Paul Dirac (1932-1969), James Lighthill (1969-1979), Stephen Hawking (1979-2009) and Michael Green (2009-2013).

Professor Cates will take up the Lucasian Professorship on 1 July 2015.

Professor Michael Cates FRS, FRSE, a distinguished theoretical physicist who is a world leader in the study of soft matter, has been elected the 19th holder of the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, succeeding Professor Michael Green.

Professor Cates will bring a new and important scientific area to academic activities in our Department

Peter Haynes

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Marking the centenary of Turing's birth

bjb42 — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 08:00:24 +0000

Alan Turing was a mathematician, cryptographer and pioneer of computer science who possessed one of the greatest brains of the 20th century. His life was one of secret triumphs shadowed by public tragedy.

Perhaps best known today for his part in breaking the German Enigma code during World War II, Turing was by that time already established as a mathematician of extraordinary capability.

During his time at King’s College, Cambridge, he conceived of the ‘Turing Machine’ - a universal machine which could imitate all possible calculating devices. This mathematical model went on to become one of the cornerstones of computer science, and is arguably the most influential mathematical abstraction of the 20^th Century. Turing was 22 years old.

“Turing’s centenary year is a very special year for me, and other mathematicians like me,” said Dr James Grime from the ̽��ֱ��’s Millenium Maths Project, who regularly tours schools with an original ‘Enigma’ machine.

“In its purest form, mathematics is the search for truth, and Turing was one of the most important contributors to this search. It’s fantastic that his life is being celebrated.”

Grime has presented a short film produced by the ̽��ֱ�� on the life and work of Turing for the ̽��ֱ��'s YouTube and Vimeo channels. ̽��ֱ��film uses some of the photographs and documents that his family gave to King's College. ̽��ֱ��Turing family have continued to donate documents to the King's Archive Centre, and you can see many of these online at the Turing Digital Archive.

At 3.30pm on the afternoon of the centenary day, Saturday 23 June, the Mayor of Cambridge - Councillor Sheila Stuart - will unveil a Blue Plaque to commemorate Alan Turing on the grass in front of King’s College. ̽��ֱ��event will be streamed live on the internet on the King’s College website here.

A major centenary conference looking at Turing’s impact on mathematics, computing, philosophy and beyond is currently taking place in Cambridge - where the first issue of a new interdisciplinary journal called "Computability" has been presented. Inspired directly by Turing and his work, the journal aims to capture the spirit of Turing through the combination of theoretical insight and practical application that is the mark of Turing's work.

More information on the conference here

More information on the journal here

Born in London on 23 June 1912, Turing spent his childhood in Hastings in Kent and Sherbourne in Dorset. He displayed a precocious talent at school for maths and science, including condensing Einstein’s theory of relativity for his mum at the age of just 15. Turing’s abilities led to him receive a scholarship to King’s College.

He famously went on to make a vital contribution to the code-breakers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Not only did he make the first breakthroughs with the Naval Enigma code, allowing Britain’s food and supplies to be shipped across the Atlantic, but, along with Gordon Welchman, he designed the machine - called the Bombe - which smashed the German Enigma code.

In 1945 Turing received an OBE for services to the Foreign Office, although the real reason for this honour remained top secret for another 30 years, long past Turing’s death. Many historians today believe that the work of the code-breakers shortened the war by two years.

In September 2009, the British government made a public apology to Alan Turing - who was gay at a time when it was illegal in Britain. When authorities discovered the truth about his sexuality, he was sentenced to endure horrific hormone treatment to avoid imprisonment, labelled a security risk and forced from his job as a code breaker.

Turing committed suicide in 1954 by biting from an apple laced with cyanide, a desperately sad end to the life of a genius whose astonishing contribution to the war effort remained unknown until the 1970s.

Saturday 23 June marks the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing - mathematical genius, hero of the WWII code breakers of Bletchley Park, and father of modern computing. To celebrate, a short film has been produced by the ̽��ֱ��. A blue plaque has been unveiled on the front of King’s College - where Turing was both a student and then a fellow.

Turing’s centenary year is a very special year for me, and other mathematicians like me.

James Grime

Alan Turing - Celebrating the life of a genius

King's College

Alan Turing aged 16

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̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - mathematical sciences

Michael Cates elected 19th Lucasian Professor

Marking the centenary of Turing's birth

Alan Turing - Celebrating the life of a genius