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Originally Posted by Casiopea Welcome, msv1. 
What about structure? 
" Identifying the composition of this system is thus critical to understanding the mechanisms that stabilize . . . ." |
I wouldn't say it has only to do with structure. The gerund "identifying", which is used at the beginning of this sentence, is not the same thing as "to identify". If "to identify" is used at the beginning of this sentence, the meaning is not the same. Therefore, I would not say this has only to do with structure. In other words, I don't think using "to understanding" is preferred over "to understand" only because "identifying" is used at the beginning of the sentence. Using "to identify" at the beginning of the sentence would mean that the structure of the rest of the sentence has to change. But that's something else.
I might say that msv1's advisor might be going on the idea that it is better to use an infinitive than a gerund. However, there's nothing at all wrong with using a gerund - ing form - here.
critical to understanding - important in the overall idea of a clear picture
critical to understand - important in order to have a clear picture of the idea - or "it is critical to understand" - another way to use "to understand".
The key, here, lies not only in structure, but also in meaning.
It's wrong for msv1's advisor to say that using the phrase "critical to understanding" is incorrect. I wouldn't, however, attribute this to structure only. This has something to do with meaning as well.