17 March 2010
Become friends with D'Arcy Thompson and celebrate his genius
Photo opportunity: 5-7pm on Thursday, March 18th at the Lamb Gallery, University of Dundee. Professor Pete Downes, Principal of the University, will formally open the ‘D’Arcy Thompson: Growth & Form’ exhibition at 5.30 pm.
The University of Dundee is hosting a year-long programme of events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of renowned biologist, mathematician and classics scholar D’Arcy Thompson.
And, to keep up with events as they are added to the schedule, admirers can become ‘friends’ with the influential polymath using the popular social networking site Facebook, which organisers of the celebrations have signed Thompson up to, some 62 years after his death.
Thompson was the first Chair of Biology at University College Dundee, now the University of Dundee, and also spent many years working at the University of St Andrews.
An exhibition, ‘D’Arcy Thompson: Growth & Form’ takes place at Dundee’s Lamb Gallery until May 22nd. Professor Pete Downes, Principal of the University of Dundee, will officially open the exhibition at 5.30pm on Thursday, March 18th.
Professor Downes paid tribute to the pioneering scientist, saying, 'D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson inherited his father's love of classics together with his grandfather's love of science.
'His abilities as a writer and as a scholar, unbounded by the disciplinary silos of his time, mark him out as a pioneer who founded mathematical biology. He held chairs in Zoology and later Natural History for a total of 64 years until his death, aged 88, a record that surely cannot be broken. Biologists in Cambridge, Dundee and St Andrews, the universities in which he studied and worked, share great pride in his legacy.'
The exhibition looks at Thompson’s 32 years as the University’s first Professor of Biology and founder of the Zoology Museum; his international fisheries work; expeditions to the Bering Sea on behalf of the Government; and the writing of his masterpiece ‘On Growth & Form’.
It includes unique material from the collections of the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews, National Museums Scotland, Perth Museum & Art Gallery and the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum. A companion exhibition is being held at the Gateway Galleries, St Andrews from March 20th - May 3rd.
The year-long programme of activities is co-ordinated by the University of Dundee Museum Services in association with the College of Life Sciences, the University of St Andrews Museum Collections and with funding from the Royal Society’s Local Heroes programme.
An exhibition of work by illustration students from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design is showing in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum until March 20th.
Several events are scheduled for Thompson’s birthday weekend, April 30th - May 3rd, including a Saturday Evening Lecture on May 1st by Nobel Laureate Professor Lewis Wolpert, who will be discussing ‘On Growth and Form’.
A street theatre performance of a piece written to celebrate the man will take place the next day, and Monday, May 3rd, will see a public performance of works by creative writing students from the University inspired by the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum take place at 6pm.
A public lecture on the artistic influence of Thompson’s work will be delivered by art historian Professor Martin Kemp at the Lamb Gallery on Thursday, September 2nd. This coincides with the opening of another exhibition, ‘Sketching the Universe’, which shows Thomspon’s own collection alongside art inspired by his work.
A series of talks exploring D’Arcy Thomspn’s work will take place at St Andrews on Friday, September 3rd, while an academic conference examining his legacy will take place in Dundee the following day.
Many more events will be added to the programme over the coming months, and more information
is available by visiting www.darcythompson.org/ or by adding D’Arcy Thompson as a Facebook friend.
Notes to editor:
About D’Arcy Thompson
D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson arrived at University College Dundee to take up the Chair of Biology in 1885 and set about creating a museum to help the teaching of zoology students.
After nearly 33 years in Dundee, D’Arcy left to take up the chair of Natural History at St Andrews in 1917, the same year in which ‘On Growth and Form’ was published. Based on his research into the museum’s collections, it was a ground-breaking investigation into the growth of organisms. The book pioneered the science of mathematical biology and has been described as 'the greatest work of prose in 20th-century science.'
The original museum was demolished in 1958 to make way for the University’s Tower Building. In 2007 the collection was moved to the new D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at the University’s Carnelly Building. The main lecture theatre in the Tower Building also now bears the name of one of the University’s most illustrious former academics.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
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