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Thomas Woolley

@thomasewoolley.bsky.social

Mathematical biologist and outreacher extraordinaire. Reader at Cardiff University

Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Lovely email to get on a Monday morning "Dear Thomas Woolley, Congratulations! It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been nominated for Most Outstanding Learning Experience in the Enriching Student Life Awards 2026!" We don't do it for the awards, but nominations are nice.

Dear Thomas Woolley,
Congratulations!
It is our pleasure to inform you that you have been nominated for Most Outstanding Learning Experience in the Enriching Student Life Awards 2026!

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Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

So, why does it matter? Explicitly, I've shown that we have to be careful when approximating geometries in applications. Curved edges can fundamentally alter what it means for a domain to be 1D, or 2D. #TuringPatterns #MathBio #AppliedMaths #PatternFormation @springernature.com

A range of Turing patterns on different domains.

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Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Although the patterns on ellipses do tend to circle-like behaviour they don't tend to act like lines as the ellipses become thinner. To explain this I had to use Mathieu equations, which first appeared in 1868! Mathematics: once true, always true.

Illustrating patterning bifurcation points. The square point represents the solution for the 1D line. The diamonds points represent ellipses and the circle point represents the solution for the circle domain. As you can see, the ellipses don't connect the square and circle points.

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Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Due to their simplicity, rectangular and circular domains are often used to represent reality as they make the mathematics easier to work with. I assumed I could use an elliptical domain to interpolate between the circle and the thin rectangle. How wrong I was.

An elliptical coordinate system linking the flat line and the circle.

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Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

🎉 New paper out! 🥳 rdcu.be/e5A3P Turing patterns are a wonderful mathematical framework for generating nature’s pattern. I thought I understood them. But they can still lead to surprises!

A Turing simulation on a circle, rectangle, and ellipse domain (top to bottom). As the domains grow, left to right, patterns appear on the domains at different points.

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Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Beautiful Christmath trees by Daniel Mentrard. www.geogebra.org/m/fgdr5ama

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Thomas Woolley @thomasewoolley.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Woohoo! @smbmathbiology.bsky.social #SMB2025

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