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.^[22][23] He is chair of the international COST action Chemobionics^[24] and chair of the scientific advisory committee to the international conference Dynamics Days Europe.^[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.^[58]

References