Yesterday, I attended a lecture by IMA Distinguished Lecturer 2008, Manuel Doblaré of the Aragón Institute for Engineering Research, University of Zaragoza, as part of the MMBNOTT/MRM Summer Workshop in Mathematical Medicine and Biology at the University of Nottingham. The lecture was interesting and accessible even though I am not familiar with the area. The lecture covered Manuel’s work in Computational Mechanobiology, with several examples in modelling bone structure under mechanical stresses and biological considerations.

The IMA Distinguished Lecturer Programme supports visits to the United Kingdom and Ireland of eminent mathematicians from other countries, aiming to allow a wide number of UK mathematicians to meet and become familiar with the work of the Distinguished Lecturer. This certainly seemed to be happening from the lively discussions over tea and coffee that preceeded the lecture.

The photo below is of the Pope Building, where the lecture took place. Unusually, it is a photo of the “interior exterior” of the building, being an entirely contained exterior courtyard at the centre of the building.