The latest discoveries about how single-celled organisms evolved into multicellular life will take centre stage at St John’s College’s Biennial Penrose Lecture.
Physicist Professor Raymond E Goldstein FRS, Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, and Director of the GK Batchelor Laboratory, will give the third lecture in the Penrose series, titled The architecture of life. The lecture will take place on Tuesday 10 November 2026 and is open to all members of the University.
“One of the most fundamental issues in evolutionary biology is how unicellular life transitioned to multicellular life. How – and why – was it that the simplest single-celled organisms that emerged from the primordial soup evolved into organisms with many cells and many cell types, dividing up life’s processes?” said Professor Goldstein.
“This lecture will explore recent advances in understanding this transition, with particular emphasis on the geometrical issues that arise when studying some of the simplest multicellular organisms.”
Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS, an Honorary Fellow and alumnus of St John’s, gave the inaugural Biennial Penrose Lecture in February 2022. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2020 for work on black holes and he invented twistor theory, a key tool in quantum theory.
His mathematical discoveries include a non-periodic form of tiling called Penrose tiling, an example of which can be seen at the entrance to the College’s Library in Chapel Court.
Professor Goldstein’s research interests span from statistical physics to nonlinear dynamics and geophysics, with particular emphasis on biological physics, both theoretical and experimental.
His Goldstein group conducts research on problems of evolutionary biology – such as the evolution of multicellularity – developmental biology, and aspects of nonequilibrium phenomena unique to living systems. He also researches natural pattern formation in the physical and biological world.
His research has been recognised by the GK Batchelor Prize in Fluid Mechanics, the Rosalind Franklin Medal of the Institute of Physics and Fellowship in the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the Royal Society.
For his work on calculating the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail, Professor Goldstein shared the 2012 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics – a satirical award given to unusual scientific research that ‘first make people laugh, then make them think’.
Professor Goldstein joined Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in 2006 to take up his current role of Alan Turing Professor of Complex Physical Systems. His postdoctoral work was at the University of Chicago and he held faculty positions in Physics and Applied Mathematics at Princeton University and the University of Arizona.
He received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Chemistry from MIT, and a PhD in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics from Cornell University, New York.
His lecture takes place on Tuesday 10 November 2026 at 5.30pm in the Main Lecture Theatre of the old Divinity School at St John’s College. It will be followed by a Q&A and reception in the Central Hall.
All members of the University are welcome to attend. The closing date to apply for tickets is Wednesday 4 November, and early registration is advisable. An email will be sent ahead of the event to confirm places.
