Scientist. One of the founders of Chaos Theory. Lorenz studied mathematics, receiving a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth and a master's degree from Harvard before serving in the Army Air Corps as a weather forecaster during World War II. Afterwards, he earned master's and doctoral degrees in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became a Professor. As part of his research, he built a mathematical model of air currents in the atmosphere. His study revealed that small variations in the system's initial calculations caused wide variations in its long term behavior. Lorenz came to call the sensitivity of initial conditions on predictive outcomes the "Butterfly Effect", taken from the title of his 1972 paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" In this concept, the flapping wing is the small change in the system's initial condition, which then causes a series of events that lead to an unpredicted outcome that would not have occurred but for the small change at the beginning. With his pioneering formulations in Chaos Theory, or Determinative Chaos, he showed that models and systems have limits to their predictability. His work had a profound impact on several academic disciplines, altering the practical applications of meteorology, physics, and mathematics.
Scientist. One of the founders of Chaos Theory. Lorenz studied mathematics, receiving a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth and a master's degree from Harvard before serving in the Army Air Corps as a weather forecaster during World War II. Afterwards, he earned master's and doctoral degrees in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became a Professor. As part of his research, he built a mathematical model of air currents in the atmosphere. His study revealed that small variations in the system's initial calculations caused wide variations in its long term behavior. Lorenz came to call the sensitivity of initial conditions on predictive outcomes the "Butterfly Effect", taken from the title of his 1972 paper "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" In this concept, the flapping wing is the small change in the system's initial condition, which then causes a series of events that lead to an unpredicted outcome that would not have occurred but for the small change at the beginning. With his pioneering formulations in Chaos Theory, or Determinative Chaos, he showed that models and systems have limits to their predictability. His work had a profound impact on several academic disciplines, altering the practical applications of meteorology, physics, and mathematics.
Bio by: Bill McKern
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