D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (nonfiction)
Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician, and classics scholar.
He was a pioneer of mathematical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Straits and held the position of Professor of Natural History at University of Dundee for 32 years, then at St Andrews for 31 years.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, was knighted, and received the Darwin Medal and the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal.
Thompson is remembered as the author of the 1917 book On Growth and Form (nonfiction), which led the way for the scientific explanation of morphogenesis, the process by which patterns are formed in plants and animals.
Thompson's description of the mathematical beauty of nature stimulated thinkers as diverse as Alan Turing (nonfiction) and Claude Lévi-Strauss; and artists including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Salvador Dalí, Jackson Pollock, and Richard Hamilton (nonfiction).
In the News
Influential book proud to have been written by Sir D'Arcy.
Alan Turing (nonfiction) pleased with mathematical beauty of life.
Richard Hamilton (nonfiction) incorporates mathematical beauty in his art.
Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- On Growth and Form (nonfiction)
- Richard Hamilton (nonfiction) - artist who was inspired by Thompson
External links:
- D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson @ Wikipedia