D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson | |
|---|---|
 Thompson in 1886 | |
| Born | 2 May 1860 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 21 June 1948 (aged 88) St Andrews, Scotland |
| Education | University of Edinburgh Trinity College, Cambridge (BA) |
| Occupation | Mathematical biologist |
| Known for | On Growth and Form |
| Spouse |
Maureen Drury (m. 1901) |
| Children | 3 daughters |
| Awards | Linnean Medal (1938) Darwin Medal (1946) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology, Natural history, Mathematics |
| Institutions | University College, Dundee University of St Andrews |
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 and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait and held the position of Professor of Natural History at University College, 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, which led the way for the scientific explanation of morphogenesis, the process by which patterns and body structures are formed in plants and animals.
Thompson's description of the mathematical beauty of nature, and the mathematical basis of the forms of animals and plants, stimulated thinkers as diverse as Julian Huxley, C. H. Waddington, Alan Turing, René Thom, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Eduardo Paolozzi, Le Corbusier, Christopher Alexander and Mies van der Rohe.