Geometry, growth and shape change in Udine
Leney Travel Fund report – Douglas Brown (2023, Interdisciplinary Bioscience (BBSRC DTP) – Theoretical Physics)
In June I had the opportunity to attend a summer school at the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM) in Udine, a small town at the foot of the Alps in northern Italy. The topic of the workshop was 鈥淕eometry, Growth, and Instability in Morphing Soft and Active Systems鈥� 鈥� extremely relevant for my PhD, which is on the simulation of fluids on curved surfaces, with applications in cell biology and development.
Udine is a small town, and the nearest major airport (Venice Marco Polo) is already a two-hour train journey away. As an experienced long-distance train traveller, and with the support of the Univ travel fund, I decided to take the more sustainable approach and take the train directly from Oxford. With a strategic overnight stop with a friend in Switzerland, I arrived in Udine the evening before the summer school after two days of very pleasant European scenery out the window.
The summer school itself took place at CISM, in what was once a wealthy family鈥檚 large house in the town centre, decorated with imposing chandeliers and frescos. Not a bad venue for five days of solid nine-to-five maths. The school was made up of a number of different courses, all carried out by enthusiastic lecturers, on a range of topics on the theme of growing and shape change, many with direct application to biological systems. It was an excellent chance to expand my knowledge beyond the techniques I use day-to-day (for example, I mainly work on fluids, whereas some of these courses covered many similar ideas in solids and deformable materials), as well as a productive networking opportunity, as I met a couple of PhD students from groups I often cite in my work. It was particularly interesting to see how many other research groups use the same mathematical tools I do, with聽 applications in a range of different fields.
I am very grateful to the Univ graduate travel fund for helping me fund this trip.
You can find out more about the travel grants available to Univ students here.
Published: 6 November 2026