Philip John Holmes (born May 24, 1945) is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. As a member of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department, he formerly served as the interim chair until May 2007. Before moving to Princeton in 1994 he taught theoretical and applied mechanics at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

from 1977 until 1994, when he was the Charles N. Mellowes Professor of Engineering and Professor of Mathematics. Holmes was educated in England at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where he studied engineering from 1964 to 1967, and at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

, where he obtained a Ph.D. in engineering in 1974. He has made solid contributions to the field of

nonlinear dynamics In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathem ...

and differential equations. His book on

dynamical systems In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models ...

with John Guckenheimer is a landmark in the field. Holmes is a very creative researcher and scientist and an outstanding lecturer. The sheer breadth of his contributions to applied mathematics is illustrated by the different topics on which he published books: apart from the aforementioned book, he published a book on turbulence with John L. Lumley and Gahl Berkooz, as well as a book on knots and links in dynamical systems with Robert Ghrist and Michael C. Sullivan, and a book about celestial mechanics with Florin Diacu. He was elected a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1994. In 2001 he was elected an honorary member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

. In 2006 he was elected a fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

, and in 2012 he was elected a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-01-21. He also has published several collections of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

. Among them his 1986 award-winning collection ‘The Green Road’.

Books

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References

External links

Home page at Princeton
1945 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Cornell University faculty Princeton University faculty 21st-century American engineers Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Southampton {{US-engineer-stub