MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz, who unleashed the chaos theory and the butterfly effect, has died in his Cambridge, Massachusetts home aged 90.
Father of the chaos theory Edward Lorenz, has died aged 90. Photo: Edward Lorenz. Credit: Wikipedia
The professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is famous for the "chaos theory" which he deduced when he noticed, when mapping the way air moves through the atmosphere, that weather did not always behave as predicted. He noted that minute variables in initial conditions would result in widely differing patterns, known as the butterfly effect.
The name of the effect came from an academic paper he wrote in 1972 entitled: "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"
Lorenz's theory of "deterministic chaos", initially on weather patterns, permeated through many other scientific disciplines making it one of the twentieth centuries' great theories.
"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 studied mathematics at Dartmouth College and Harvard University. He served as a weather forecaster for the United States Army Air Corps during World War Two and studied meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he later became a professor.
He received numerous science prizes during his career including the Kyoto Prize for basic sciences in the field of earth and planetary sciences for establishing "the theoretical basis of weather and climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-aided atmospheric physics and meteorology," reported MIT News.
The committee said of Lorenz that he, "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."
He is survived by three children, Nancy, Edward and Cheryl, and four grandchildren.
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