[MIT NEWS] Edward Lorenz
Massachusetts Institute of Technology NEWS (April 16, 2008)
Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory and butterfly effect, dies at 90
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/obit-lorenz-0416.html
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/lorenz.jpg
(Edward Lorenz)
Edward Lorenz, an MIT meteorologist who tried to explain why it is so
hard to make good weather forecasts and wound up unleashing a scientific
revolution called chaos theory, died April 16 of cancer at his home in
Cambridge. He was 90.
A professor at MIT, Lorenz was the first to recognize what is now called
chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather systems. In the
early 1960s, Lorenz realized that small differences in a dynamic system
such as the atmosphere--or a model of the atmosphere--could trigger vast
and often unsuspected results.
These observations ultimately led him to formulate what became known
as the butterfly effect--a term that grew out of an academic paper he
presented in 1972 entitled: "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butter-
fly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"
Lorenz's early insights marked the beginning of a new field of study
that impacted not just the field of mathematics but virtually every
branch of science--biological, physical and social. In meteorology, it
led to the conclusion that it may be fundamentally impossible to predict
weather beyond two or three weeks with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
Some scientists have since asserted that the 20th century will be
remembered for three scientific revolutions--relativity, quantum
mechanics and chaos.
"By showing that certain deterministic systems have formal predictability
limits, Ed put the last nail in the coffin of the Cartesian universe and
fomented what some have called the third scientific revolution of the
20th century, following on the heels of relativity and quantum physics,"
said Kerry Emanuel professor of atmospheric science at MIT. "He was also
a perfect gentleman, and through his intelligence, integrity and humility
set a very high standard for his and succeeding generations."
Born in 1917 in West Hartford, Conn., Lorenz received an AB in
mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1938, an AM in mathematics from
Harvard University in 1940, an SM in meteorology from MIT in 1943 and an
ScD in meteorology from MIT in 1948. It was while serving as a weather
forecaster for the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II that he decided to
do graduate work in meteorology at MIT.
"As a boy I was always interested in doing things with numbers, and was
also fascinated by changes in the weather," Lorenz wrote in an auto-
biographical sketch.
Lorenz was a member of the staff of what was then MIT's Department of
Meteorology from 1948 to 1955, when he was appointed to the faculty as an
assistant professor. He was promoted to professor in 1962 and was head of
the department from 1977 to 1981. He became an emeritus professor in 1987.
Lorenz, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975, won
numerous awards, honors and honorary degrees. In 1983, he and former MIT
Professor Henry M. Stommel were jointly awarded the $50,000 Crafoord
Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a prize established to
recognize fields not eligible for Nobel Prizes.
In 1991, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize for basic sciences in the
field of earth and planetary sciences. Lorenz was cited by the Kyoto
Prize committee for establishing "the theoretical basis of weather and
climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-aided
atmospheric physics and meteorology." The committee added that Lorenz "
made his boldest scientific achievement in discovering 'deterministic
chaos,' a principle which has profoundly influenced a wide range of basic
sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind's
view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton."
During leaves of absence from MIT, he held research or teaching positions
at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.; the Department of
Meteorology at the University of California at Los Angeles; the Det
Norske Meteorologiske Insitutt in Oslo, Norway; and the National Center
for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
An avid hiker and cross-country skier, Lorenz was active up until about
two weeks before his death, his family said.
Lorenz is survived by three children, Nancy, Edward and Cheryl, and four
grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 20, at the
Swedenborg Chapel, 50 Quincy St., Cambridge. The MIT News Office will
update this announcement as more details become available.
--
夫兵者不祥之器物或惡之故有道者不處君子居則貴左用兵則貴右兵者不祥之器非君子
之器不得已而用之恬淡為上勝而不美而美之者是樂殺人夫樂殺人者則不可得志於天下
矣吉事尚左凶事尚右偏將軍居左上將軍居右言以喪禮處之殺人之眾以哀悲泣之戰勝以
喪禮處之道常無名樸雖小天下莫能臣侯王若能守之萬物將自賓天地相合以降甘露民莫
之令而自均始制有名名亦既有夫亦將知止知止可以不殆譬道之在天140.122.144.48海