It is impossible not to marvel at the beauty and regularity of seashells. These intricate forms are crafted by a humble architect—the living mollusc—building them layer by layer. Despite their remarkable diversity, the fundamental geometry of most seashells is governed by simple mathematical rules, resulting in elegant three-dimensional self-similar structures. Beyond this basic framework, molluscs embellish their shells with fascinating features such as wrinkles, spines, and spikes. This lecture revealed how a mathematical theory of seashell growth explains the origins of these features and resolves many enduring questions in biology.
Professor Alain Goriely FRS
Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests in mathematical methods, mechanics, sciences, and engineering. He is well known for his contributions to dynamical systems, mathematical biology, as well as fundamental and applied mechanics. He is particularly well known for the development of a mathematical theory of biological growth, culminating with his seminal monograph The Mathematics on Mechanics of Biological Growth (2017).
He received his PhD from the University of Brussels in 1994 where he became a lecturer. In 1996, he joined the University of Arizona where he established a research group within the renowned Program of Applied Mathematics. In 2010, he joined the University of Oxford as the inaugural Statutory Professor of Mathematical Modelling and fellow of St. Catherine’s College. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
In addition, Alain has enjoyed scientific outreach based on problems connected to his research, including tendril perversion in plants, twining plants, umbilical cord knotting, whip cracking, the shape of seashells, brain modelling, and he is the author of a Very Short Introduction to Applied Mathematics (2017). His work has been recognized by a Sloan Fellowship, a Royal Society Wolfson Research Award, the Cozzarelli Prize from the National Academy of Sciences and the Engineering Medal from the Society of Engineering Sciences. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/alain.goriely
https://royalsociety.org/people/alain-goriely-13576/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Goriely
Part of:
The Geometry of Nature and the Shape of Things
This event was on Fri, 13 Feb 2026
helen the hare 