SAMPLE INTRODUCTION OF STEPHEN WOLFRAM
(Based on Dr. Nigel Goldenfeld's introduction to the Arnold O. Beckman Lecture on Science and Innovation, Oct. 14, 2002, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.)
Today's speaker, Stephen Wolfram, is uniquely qualified to talk about both science and technological innovation. Anywhere that you find technical, quantitative people, from academic physics departments to the trading desks of Wall Street banks, you will find his software creation, Mathematica. Anywhere you find scientists exploring complex dynamical systems, be they physicists or evolutionary biologists, you will find his work as one of the most frequently cited influences. Stephen Wolfram marches to the beat of a different drummer, but with his thumb firmly on the fast forward button. I am sure that today's lecture will be ambitious, provocative and perhaps even controversial.
Stephen Wolfram educated himself at Eton College, Oxford University, and the California Institute of Technology, receiving his Ph.D. from Caltech in theoretical physics in 1979 at the age of 20. His early work and promise in elementary particle physics and its frontier with cosmology was recognized by a MacArthur award in 1981. While a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1982-1986, he made a series of extensive investigations into some of the simplest models of dynamical systems known as cellular automata, finding that their behavior could range from the trivial to the complex in only a small number of well-defined ways. At the time, people found it quite shocking that such simple computer games could produce such visually complex patterns. This work led to an explosion of interest in cellular automata, which remains unabated to this day, and has had ramifications in physics, mathematics, computer science, biology, chemistry, and other fields.
In 1986 Stephen moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he founded the Center for Complex Systems Research and held professorships in physics, mathematics and computer science. At the same time, he embarked upon a radical career move, founding a software company, Wolfram Research, whose product Mathematica is widely regarded as the gold standard for technical computing and symbolic manipulation. Not only does Mathematica allow the user to easily explore complicated analysis, but it permits rapid and beautiful visualization that guides the intuition and helps one understand how one's equations really work. Remarkably, for such a complex product, it has a very benign learning curve and the most well-written documentation I have ever encountered in scientific computing.
Since 1988, Stephen has been the full-time CEO of Wolfram Research, but has continued the pursuit of scientific and even philosophical questions raised by cellular automata. The fruits of his deliberations over many years have been published this year in the book which gives today's lecture its title. In common with the well-known book of another illustrious British scientist, whose name begins with Stephen, A New Kind of Science has become a best seller and found an audience with laypeople and scientists alike. The science and even the production of the book would not have been possible without Mathematica, and its distinctive graphical illustrations and crystal clear explanations have earned it many plaudits, even amongst its critics. It is paradoxical indeed that in these days when it is customary for academics to bemoan the encroaching barbarism of modern culture, a national best seller explores the patterns of sea shells, the nature of algorithmic complexity, and the problem of free will.
I am looking forward to today's event and I know you are too. Please join me in welcoming Stephen Wolfram.
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