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 In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applicati ...

and its applications, written two books and designed an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

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 (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(French: Centre national de la recherche scientifique).

Education and positions

Fink did his BS at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

, 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 St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he was supervised by Robin Ball in the TCM group of the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

. He was a Research

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

and did a

postdoc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

with

Bernard Derrida Bernard Derrida (; born 1952) is a French theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in statistical mechanics, and is the eponym of ''Derrida plots'', an analytical technique for characterising differences between Boolean networks. Bio ...

. 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 In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applicati ...

to study complex systems in physics and interdisciplinary fields. He has recently studied role of strategy and

serendipity Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. The term was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. The concept is often associated with scientific and technological breakthroughs, where accidental discoveries led to new insights or inventions. Ma ...

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 reg ...

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'', (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 ...

, Orion,

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

) 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 Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

, 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