John Biggins is Associate Professor of Applied Mechanics in Cambridge University Engineering Department. He works on the mechanics of soft solid materials and leads the soft mechanics group research group (www.soft.eng.cam.ac.uk). Research topics include elastic instabilities, such as buckling and wrinkling, morphogenesis, how surface tension deforms soft solids, and a type of artificial muscle known as a liquid crystal elastomer. He currently holds a UKRI “Future Leaders Fellowship,” and has previously held an 1851 Royal Commission Research Fellowship and the Walter Scott Research Fellowship at Trinity Hall. John was educated at Cambridge University, where he read natural sciences and theoretical physics, and then did a PhD in the theory of condensed matter under the supervision of Prof Mark Warner FRS. He has also worked with Prof Kaushik Bhattacharya at Caltech, and Prof L. Mahadevan FRS at Harvard before returning to Cambridge. He is perhaps best known for his contribution the mechanical theory of brain folding and his explanation of the viral youtube phenomena of the chain fountain.