Professor Ray Goldstein has been awarded the 2016 Franklin Medal and prize of the Institute of Physics.
The prize was awarded to Professor Goldstein for revealing the physical basis for fluid motion in and around active cells and its importance for the evolution of multicellularity, cell differentiation, and the synchronicity of eukaryotic flagella.
Goldstein’s research concerns the interaction between active cells and their fluid environment. His observations of random coherent motions in concentrated suspensions of swimming bacteria have motivated many research groups to try to model them. The observations show the way in which complex behaviour at the population level can emerge from the relatively simple dynamics of individual cells. The large-scale suspension can be modelled as a continuum or as a collection of individuals obeying certain rules. Goldstein seeks to understand those rules.
