Edward Norton Lorenz

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Edward Norton Lorenz
Image:Edward lorenz.jpg
Edward Norton Lorenz
BornMay 23 1917 (1917-05-23) (age 92)
Image:Flag of Connecticut.svg West Hartford, Connecticut, United States
EducationDartmouth College
Harvard University
OccupationMathematician and meteorologist

Edward Norton Lorenz (born May 23, 1917)[1] is an American mathematician and meteorologist, and an early pioneer of the chaos theory. He discovered the strange attractor notion and coined the term butterfly effect.

Contents

[edit] Early Career

Lorenz was born in West Hartford, Connecticut[1]. He studied mathematics at both Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During World War II, he served as a weather forecaster for the United States Army Air Corps. After his return from the war, he decided to study meteorology. Lorenz earned two degrees in the area from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he later was a professor for many years.

[edit] Research

Lorenz built a mathematical model of the way air moves around in the atmosphere. As Lorenz studied weather patterns he began to realize that the weather did not always change as predicted. Minute variations in the initial values of variables in his twelve variable computer weather model (c. 1960) would result in grossly divergent weather patterns. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions came to be known as the butterfly effect.[2]

Lorenz went on to explore the underlying mathematics and published his conclusions in a seminal work titled Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow, in which he described a relatively simple system of equations that resulted in a pattern of infinite complexity now known as the Lorenz attractor. At present, Lorenz still comes to his office on the 16th floor of the Green Building most days of week.

[edit] Awards

Professor Emeritus at MIT since 1981, Lorenz has received many awards for his work, among which:

[edit] Selected Publications

  • 1955 Available potential energy and the maintenance of the general circulation. Tellus. Vol.7
  • 1963 Deterministic nonperiodic flow. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences. Vol.20 : 130—141 link [1].
  • 1967 The nature and theory of the general circulation of atmosphere. World Meteorological Organization. No.218
  • 1969 Three approaches to atmospheric predictability. American Meteorological Society. Vol.50
  • 1976 Nondeterministic theories of climate change. Quaternary Research. Vol.6
  • 1990 Can chaos and intransitivity lead to interannual variability? Tellus. Vol.42A
  • 2005 Designing Chaotic Models. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. 62, No. 5, pp. 1574–1587.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1991/24996/24998.html
  2. ^ Term first recorded from Lorenz's Address at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in Washington, December 29, 1979.
  1. ^  According to the Web of Science online academic database, this paper has received at least 4000 unique citations by subsequent authors, making it one of the most-cited papers of all time.

[edit] External links

cs:Edward Lorenz de:Edward N. Lorenz es:Edward Lorenz fr:Edward Lorenz ko:에드워드 로렌츠 hu:Edward Norton Lorenz nl:Edward Lorenz ja:エドワード・ローレンツ pl:Edward Lorenz pt:Edward Lorenz ru:Лоренц, Эдвард Нортон fi:Edward Lorenz tr:Edward Lorenz

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