Kurt Wiesenfeld is an 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 ...

working primarily on

non-linear dynamics In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a function describes the time dependence of a point in an ambient space, such as in a parametric curve. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a clock p ...

. His works primarily concern

stochastic resonance Stochastic resonance (SR) is a behavior of non-linear systems where random (stochastic) fluctuations in the micro state cause deterministic changes in the macro state. This occurs when the non-linear nature of the system amplifies certain (reso ...

, spontaneous synchronization of coupled oscillators, and non-linear

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

dynamics. Since 1987, he has been professor of physics at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

Life and work

Kurt Wiesenfeld received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1979, after which he moved to

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and received his doctorate in 1985. From 1984 to 1985, he was a Lecturer and Research Scientist at the

University of California at Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay, ...

. In 1987, as a post-doctoral research scientist in the Solid State Theory Group of

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

, he and another fellow post-doctoral scientist, Chao Tang, along with their mentor,

Per Bak Per Bak (8 December 1948 – 16 October 2002) was a Danish theoretical physicist who coauthored the 1987 academic paper that coined the term " self-organized criticality." Life and work After receiving his Ph.D. from the Technical University ...

, presented new ideas in group organization with a concept they coined

self-organized criticality Self-organized criticality (SOC) is a property of dynamical systems that have a critical point as an attractor. Their macroscopic behavior thus displays the spatial or temporal scale-invariance characteristic of the critical point of a phas ...

in their paper in ''

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. The journal is considered one of the most prestigious in the field of physics ...

.'' The first discovered example of a

dynamical system 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 ...

displaying such self-organized criticality was named after them as the Bak–Tang–Wiesenfeld "sandpile" model. Wiesenfeld is currently 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 ...

, a member of the

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...

(SIAM), and a past member of the Executive Committee of the American Physical Society's Division of Biological Physics.

Selected publications

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References

External links

Georgia Institute of Technology School of Physics

"Making the Grade"---an article published in Newsweek by Wiesenfeld

Self-organized criticality: An explanation of the 1/f noise
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiesenfeld, Kurt 21st-century American physicists Georgia Tech faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society American probability theorists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)