Professor Hutchinson has made fundamental contributions in an unusually broad array of mathematical areas, ranging from logic, through analysis and geometry to computational methods. He is particularly famous for his pioneering mathematical research on fractals which has had an impact in many applied areas. Other important achievements include his generalised curvatures in geometric measure theory, joint work with Fusco on variational problems arising inelasticity and joint work with Dziuk on numerical techniques for the computation of minimal surfaces. In the collaboration with Dziuk new algorithms with optimal error estimates were discovered for the approximation of minimal surfaces leading to significant new developments in the computation of general variational problems.