News Release
ARTHUR WINFREE RECEIVES
AMS-SIAM WIENER PRIZE
Contact at AMS: Dr. John H. Ewing,
AMS Executive Director
e-mail: jhe@ams.org
telephone: 401-455-4100
fax: 401-331-3842
January 20, 2000
PROVIDENCE, RI --- Arthur T. Winfree of the University of
Arizona has won the 2000 AMS-SIAM Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied
Mathematics. Presented by the American Mathematical Society and the Society for
Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Wiener Prize is one of the highest
distinctions given in applied mathematics. The prize will be awarded at the
Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, DC on January 20, 2000.
According to the prize citation, Winfree is receiving the prize "in recognition
of his profound impact on the important field of biological rhythms, otherwise
known as coupled nonlinear oscillators. An experimental mathematician, Winfree
has set the agenda in that field. He was the first to determine the conditions
under which a large population of coupled nonlinear oscillators would
synchronize, thus confirming a conjecture of Norbert Wiener's. Many original
ideas that have since borne much mathematical fruit were put forth by Winfree
in the course of this research... At every stage of his illustrious career,
Winfree has looked deeply into a physical, chemical, or biological phenomenon
and managed to extract a mathematical gem. Not content to admire the beauty of
his discovery, though, he has put that gem to use in the further pursuit of
knowledge."
Founded in 1888 to
further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member American
Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that
promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education,
and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to
other disciplines and to everyday life.
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