John Maddocks

Although English-born, John Maddocks and his family to Glasgow when he was a toddler. He obtained his doctorate at Oxford in 1981 and then became a mathematics lecturer at the same university. He went on to become one of the world’s leading experts in DNA multiscale modelling, specialising in the nanomechanical properties of DNA molecules, which determine how DNA is stored in our cells.

In 1993 Maddocks was a professor at the University of Maryland, USA and from 1997-2023 took up a similar position at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. He was also head of the EPFL Laboratory for Computation and Visualization in Mathematics and Mechanics.

Maddocks once stated on a questionnaire that sailing was one of his hobbies and added: “I used to be rather good at it.” To appear at the `Olympic Games, World, European, and North American Championships, understated his ability.

Maddocks formed a partnership in the two-man Star Class with helmsman Iain Woolward. The pair took part in the 1984 Star World Championships at Vilamoura, Portugal, but they had to retire after the fourth race because of an illness to Woolward. At the Olympics later that year, the duo was in fifth place after the opening race and, despite slipping down the leaderboard, pulled themselves back into a final overall classification of ninth, after finishing fourth in the final race.

Having competed in the 1987 European Star Championship, Maddocks and Woolward finished third in the North American Championship and were in contention for a second Olympic appearance but could only finish second in the 1988 Olympic Trial to Mike McIntyre and Bryn Vaile, who went to Seoul and captured the gold medal.