A Bracing Nonlinear Walk in Applied Mechanics: Memoirs and Reflections

Abstract

This article is an informal auto-biographical memoir by Mike Thompson, reflecting in retirement on his scientific researches in nonlinear phenomena, wandering pictorially from shell buckling, through bifurcations and chaos to climate tipping points. Some ideas and advice to young researchers are offered whenever it seems appropriate. Two research groups at University College London, and their two IUTAM Symposia are given some prominence, as are the ten years editing the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.