Thomas Fink (born 1972) is an Anglo-American
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
, author and entrepreneur. He has published papers in
statistical physics
Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the mathematical tools for dealing with large populations and approxim ...
and its applications, written two books and designed an
iPhone app. He set up the
London Institute for Mathematical Sciences and is a manager of research at the
French National Centre for Scientific Research
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...
(French: Centre national de la recherche scientifique).
Education and positions
Fink did his BS at
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
, where he won the annual
Fisher Prize for top physicist and Green prize for best research. He then moved to England for his PhD at
St John's College, Cambridge, where he was supervised by Robin Ball in the
TCM group of the
Cavendish Laboratory. He was a Research
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
at
Caius College, Cambridge and did a
postdoc at
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, S ...
with
Bernard Derrida. He now occupies his current positions at the London Institute and the CNRS.
Research
Fink is a researcher in theoretical physics. He published his first paper in the journal
''Science'' at the age of 20 while at Caltech and received his PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Fink uses
statistical mechanics to study complex systems in physics and interdisciplinary fields.
He has recently studied role of strategy and
serendipity in innovation.
Other interests include evolvability, cellular automata, non-random expression, competition between agents, dynamics on networks, small boolean networks, self-assembly and non-coding DNA, according to his website.
Selected Papers
*S. Ahnert, T. Fink and A. Zinovyev, 'How much
non-coding DNA
Non-coding DNA (ncDNA) sequences are components of an organism's DNA that do not encode protein sequences. Some non-coding DNA is transcribed into functional non-coding RNA molecules (e.g. transfer RNA, microRNA, piRNA, ribosomal RNA, and regula ...
do eukaryotes require?', ''J. Theor. Bio.'' 252, 587.
*F. Brown, T. Fink and K. Willbrand, ‘On arithmetic and asymptotic properties of up-down numbers’, ''Discrete Math.'' 307 1722.
*B. Derrida and T. Fink, 'Sequence determination from overlapping fragments', ''Phys. Rev. Lett.'' 88, 068106.
*T. Fink and R. Ball, 'How many conformations can a protein remember?', ''Phys. Rev. Lett.'' 87, 198103.
*T. Fink and Y. Mao, 'Designing Tie knots by random walks', ''Nature'' 398, 31.
*B. Werner and T. Fink, 'Beach cusps as self-organized patterns', ''Science'' 260, 968.
Books
According to his homepage, Fink's books have sold 1/3 million copies.
''
The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie
''The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie'' is a book by Thomas Fink and Yong Mao about the history of the knotted neckcloth, the modern necktie, and how to tie each. It is based on two mathematics papers published by the authors in ''Nature'' and '' Physic ...
'', (with Yong Mao, Fourth Estate, London) is a cultural, historical and mathematical examination of ties and tie knots. It explains how the authors proved mathematically that there are a total of 85 distinct tie knots, most of which had not been previously known. The book includes a layman's account of the authors' mathematical papers which derived all possible knots capable of being tied with a standard necktie. It has been published in 10 languages, including French, German, Hungarian, Portuguese and Italian.
''The Man's Book'' (
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991.
History
George Weidenfeld a ...
,
Orion,
Little, Brown
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown (publisher), James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Ear ...
) is a handbook of men's customs, habits and pursuits. It is organized by subject, with chapters on health, dress, sports, outdoors, drinking, eating and others. The author dedicates only a few pages to each section, and within that space tries to summarize the essentials as completely and densely as possible. The book was designed and typeset by the author. ''The Man's Book'' has been reviewed in ''The Times'' (UK), the ''Literary Review'', the ''New Statesman'', and has been translated into German, Italian, Russian and other languages.
In May 2009
IntuApps and Little, Brown released an iPhone application inspired by ''The Man's Book''.
The app hit the no. 1 spot in the Apple App Store, with over 1 million downloads, on 23 May 2009, according to the IntuApps website and Little, Brown.
London Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Fink founded the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences,
a non-profit institute for physics and mathematics research. In 2011 the London Institute became a registered charity in England and Wales. Located in
Mayfair, London, LIMS is like a university research department, but with no teaching or administrative duties. It is private in the sense that it covers its own costs through research grants and donations. According to its website, "the London Institute gives scientists the freedom and support to do what they do best: make fundamental discoveries". As of 2014, it has six Fellows in addition to postdocs and visiting scientists.
External links
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fink, Thomas
1972 births
Living people
Writers from New York (state)
Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
École Normale Supérieure alumni