Julyan Cartwright is an interdisciplinary physicist working in Granada, Spain at the Andalusian Earth Sciences Institute[3] of the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) and affiliated with the Carlos I Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics[4] at the University of Granada.
He is known for his research[5] on how form and pattern emerge in nature,[6] the dynamics of natural systems,[7] across disciplinary boundaries, including his studies of the dynamics of passive scalars in chaotic advection of fluids,[8][9] bailout embeddings,[10] the Bogdanov map,[11] the influence of fluid mechanics on the development of vertebrate left-right asymmetry,[12] self-organization of biomineralization structures of mollusc shell including mother of pearl (nacre)[13][14][15] and cuttlebone,[16] excitable media,[17] and chemobrionics:[18] self-assembling porous precipitate structures, such as chemical gardens,[19] brinicles,[20] and submarine hydrothermal vents.
[21] He is among the researchers in the Stanford list of the World's top 2% most cited scientists.
[25] He is editor of the Cambridge University Press journal Elements in Dynamical Systems.
[26] Press interest in his research has highlighted his work on chemical gardens,[27][28] on pitch perception in the auditory system,[29][30] on how symmetry is broken so that the heart is on the left,[31][32] on how bees construct spiral bee combs,[33][34][35] on the formation of nacre[36] and pearls,[37][38][39][40][41] on how brinicle ice tubes grow both on Earth[42][43][44] and on Jupiter's moon, Europa,[45] on the information content of complex self-assembled materials[46][47][48][49] on the rogue wave[50] nature of Hokusai's famous artwork the Great Wave off Kanagawa,[51][52][53] on the Möbius strip before Möbius,[54][55] on the possible melting of oceanic methane hydrate deposits owing to climate change,[56] and on the origin of life at alkaline submarine hydrothermal vents[57] and their relevance to astrobiology.