From the Curator of Museum Services, University of Dundee :
This Friday (13th October) at 6.30pm sees a special public lecture by the internationally renowned computer scientist and physicist Stephen Wolfram, entitled D’Arcy Thompson and the Growth of Computational Form.
Best known as the creator of Mathematica and the Wolfram Language, Stephen is the author of A New Kind of Science and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course of nearly four decades, he has been a pioneer in the development and application of computational thinking.
His early work on complexity in nature led him to study the behaviour of simple computer programs known as cellular automata. These studies laid the groundwork for the emerging field that Wolfram called complex systems research. He went on to discover fundamental connections between computation and nature, and his work led to a wide range of applications, providing scientific foundations for such initiatives as complexity theory and artificial life.
Wolfram himself used his ideas to develop a new randomness generation system and a new approach to computational fluid dynamics, both of which are now in widespread use. In this special keynote lecture, he will discuss the importance of D’Arcy Thompson to his ideas and the development of computational form.
The lecture will take place in the D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre in the Tower Building at 6.30pm. Attendance is free but places must be booked here.