Lecture theatre renamed in honour of D'Arcy Thompson

The University has honoured one of Scotland's greatest mathematicians and biologists by naming one of its main lecture theatres after him.

The extensively refurbished Tower Extension Lecture Theatre was renamed The D'Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre in a ceremony led by acclaimed writer and broadcaster, Dr Simon Singh.

D'Arcy Thompson was the first Chair of Biology at University College Dundee in 1885 and has been lauded for his research into the mathematical principles of nature, work which culminated in his 1917 landmark book, On Growth and Form, hailed as the second greatest biological textbook ever written (after Darwin's Origin of Species).

One of his greatest achievements during his 32 years in Dundee was the creation of a large and impressive Zoology Museum. He collected specimens from all over the world, and because of his friendships with the Dundee whalers he was able to boast one of the finest collections of Arctic zoology in the world.

The Zoology museum was dismantled when the building was demolished in the 1950s to make way for what is now the Tower Building - the new lecture theatre actually stands close to where the Zoology collection was located.

Many of the larger specimens were sent to Edinburgh or London. A smaller version of the Zoology Museum has since been created in the Biological Sciences Institute at Dundee, displaying many of his original specimens and some fine pieces presented to him, like the King Penguin brought back by his friend Shackleton from his 1907 expedition.

Dr Singh described D'Arcy Thompson as "an incredible man, a true polymath".

"He started off studying medicine and later became a Greek scholar, a naturalist and an accomplished mathematician. By coupling two of these interests he became the world's first biomathematician, attempting to unravel the natural world via numbers and geometry," Dr Singh said.

Professor Alistair Watson, head of Mathematics at the University, said, "I am particularly pleased that the University is going to remember D'Arcy Thompson in this way. The work he did in Dundee laid the foundations of mathematical biology, and the research of the present mathematical biology group in Dundee is of course hugely influenced by everything that he did."

Dr Singh performed the ceremony before presenting the latest lecture of the Saturday Evening Lecture Series - "The Big Bang: History of the World in 60 Minutes".