Steven Strogatz

factoids

|birth_place =|death_date =|death_place =|residence = |citizenship = United States>American|ethnicity = |field = Applied mathematics
Complex systems|work_institutions = Cornell University|alma_mater = Princeton University
Harvard University|doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = Dynamical systems theory
Complex network>Network theory|author_abbrev_bot = |author_abbrev_zoo = |influences = |influenced = |prizes = |religion = |footnotes = }}Steven Henry Strogatz (born August 13, 1959) is an American mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He is known for his contributions to the study of synchronization in dynamical systems, and for his work in a variety of areas of applied mathematics, including mathematical biology and complex network theory. In particular, his 1998 Nature paper with Duncan Watts, entitled "Collective dynamics of small-world networks", is widely regarded as a seminal contribution to the interdisciplinary field of complex networks, whose applications reach from graph theory and statistical physics to sociology, business, epidemiology, and neuroscience. As one measure of its importance, it was the most highly cited article about networks between 1998 and 2008, and the sixth most highly cited paper in all of physics.(1)Strogatz's writing includes the 2001 textbook Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos, two popular books, and frequent newspaper articles. His most recent book, published in 2009, was The Calculus of Friendship, called "a genuine tearjerker"(2) and "part biography, part autobiography and part off-the-beaten-path guide to calculus".(3) His trade book Sync was chosen as a Best Book of 2003 by Discover Magazine.(4) Strogatz also filmed a series of lectures on chaos theory for the Teaching Company, released in 2008,(5) and, in late January 2010, Strogatz began writing a weekly column on mathematics in The New York Times.(6) These columns, along with many others penned by Strogatz, will appear in a book slated for release in 2012.(7) The New York Times columns have been described as "must reads for entrepreneurs and executives who grasp that mathematics is now the `lingua franca' of serious business analysis."(8)

Career and recognition

Strogatz attended the Loomis Chaffee School (1972-1976) and graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1980. He was a Marshall Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1980–1982, and then received a PhD in applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1986 for his research on the dynamics of the human sleep-wake cycle. After spending three years as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard and Boston University, Strogatz joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at MIT in 1989. His research on dynamical systems was recognized with a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1990. In 1994 he moved to Cornell where he is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor(9) of Applied Mathematics, as well as a Professor of Mathematics, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the current Director of the Center for Applied Mathematics.(10) In 2009 Strogatz was elected a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.(11)Strogatz has been lauded for his ability as a teacher and communicator. In 1991 he was honored with the E.M. Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, MIT's only institute-wide teaching award selected and awarded solely by students. He has also won several teaching awards from Cornell's College of Engineering, including the Tau Beta Pi Excellence in Teaching Award (2006), given to a faculty member selected by engineering students for exemplary teaching. At the national level, Strogatz received the JPBM Communications Award in 2007.(12) Presented annually, this award recognizes outstanding achievement in communicating about mathematics to nonmathematicians. The JPBM represents the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Selected publications

Papers

• JOURNAL

,

• JOURNAL

• JOURNAL

• JOURNAL

Books

• BOOK

,

• BOOK

,

• BOOK

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Courses

• BOOK

,

Dissertation

• BOOK

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References

1. ScienceWatch December 2008



2. Bookslut book review for The Calculus of Friendship



3. American Scientist book review for The Calculus of Friendship



4. Discover's Best Books 2003



5. Cornell University Press Release



6. First New York Times Math Column



7. Final New York Times Math Column



8. Harvard Business Review blog by Michael Schrage



9. Cornell news article about Schurman Professors



10. Center for Applied Mathematics website



11. SIAM Fellows Class of 2009



12. JPBM award announcement

External links

• Personal web page
• Homepage at Cornell
• Profile Edge
• Video trailer for The Calculus of Friendship
• Radio show "Numbers" on New York Public Radio's "Radiolab"
• Steven Strogatz' TEDTalk on TED.com
• Conversation with Carlo Ratti in Seed Magazine
• Interview in newsletter of the American Physical Society

Steven StrogatzSteven StrogatzSteven StrogatzSteven Strogatz

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