MEDIA RESOURCES

STEPHEN WOLFRAM TIMELINE

1950's and 1960's

1959: Born August 29 in London, England 1967-1972: Dragon School, Oxford 1968-1976: Won various prizes for English, science, math, etc

1970's

1972: Won scholarship to Eton College 1972-1976: King's Scholar, Eton College 1972-1973: Wrote unpublished book on particle physics 1973: Started programming Elliott 903C computer 1973: Did first scientific computer experiments 1974: Wrote first scientific paper 1975: Published first scientific paper 1975: Won scholarship to Oxford University 1976: Worked in Theory Division, Rutherford Laboratory 1976: Published second scientific paper 1976: Started using ARPANET and algebraic computation systems 1976-1978: Oxford University (St. John's College) 1977: Placed top in university examinations 1977: Worked in Theoretical High-Energy Physics Group, Argonne National Laboratory 1977: Wrote classic paper on heavy quark production in QCD 1978: Discovered early connections between cosmology and particle physics 1978: Moved to Caltech 1978: Invented Fox-Wolfram variables for analysis of event shapes in particle physics 1979: Discovered Politzer-Wolfram upper bound on masses of quarks in the Standard Model 1979: Published tenth scientific paper 1979: Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Caltech 1979: Began development of SMP

1980's

1979-1982: Developed standard QCD approach to simulation of particle events 1980: Described basic phenomenon of inflationary cosmology 1980-1981: Carried out first complete calculation of matter-antimatter asymmetry generation 1981: Began work on cellular automata 1980-1982: Faculty member at Caltech 1981: First version of SMP released 1981: Won MacArthur Prize Fellowship 1981: Founded Computer Mathematics Corporation (later merged into Inference Corporation) 1981: Published twenty-fifth scientific paper 1982: Wrote landmark paper "Statistical Mechanics of Cellular Automata" 1982: Discovered fractal structure of binomial coefficients mod a prime 1981-1986: Consultant on science and technology to many organizations 1982: Coined the term "complex systems research" 1983-1986: Long-term member of Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1983: Discovered Wolfram Classification of cellular automata 1983: Developed algebraic formalism for additive cellular automata 1984: Invented regular language complexity 1984: Discovered computational irreducibility 1985: Published fiftieth scientific paper 1985: Published "Undecidability and Intractability in Theoretical Physics" 1985: Published "Origins of Randomness in Physical Systems" 1985: Invented a cellular automaton-based system for cryptography 1985: Invented a cellular automaton approach to fluid dynamics 1986: Worked on the development of languages for massively parallel computers 1986: Founded the Center for Complex Systems Research 1986: Joined the University of Illinois as Professor of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science 1986: Began development of Mathematica 1987: Founded the journal Complex Systems 1987: Founded Wolfram Research, Inc. 1988: Ended active position at University of Illinois 1988: First edition of The Mathematica Book published 1988: Mathematica Version 1.0 released (June 23) 1989: Mathematica available on more than 10 computer platforms 1989: 1000 technical papers cite Wolfram's 1983 cellular automaton paper

1990's

1990: 100,000 users of Mathematica 1990: Wolfram Research reached $10M in annual revenue 1990: Completed second edition of The Mathematica Book 1990: Wolfram Research Europe founded 1990: Wolfram Research reached 100 employees 1991: Second edition of The Mathematica Book published 1991: Mathematica Version 2.0 released 1991: 38 city international lecture tour 1991: Began work on A New Kind of Science (NKS) 1991-2: Wrote NKS Chapter 2: "The Crucial Experiment" 1992: Wrote NKS Chapter 3: "The World of Simple Programs" 1992-3: Wrote NKS Chapter 4: "Systems Based on Numbers" 1992-3: Wrote NKS Chapter 6: "Starting from Randomness" 1993: Wrote NKS Chapter 5: "Two Dimensions and Beyond" 1993: Wolfram Research reached 200 employees 1994: Wolfram Research Asia founded 1994: The Mathematica Book published in Japanese and German 1994: 10,000 technical papers cite Wolfram's work 1994: Cellular Automata and Complexity: Collected Papers published 1994-5: Wrote early sections of NKS Chapter 8: "Implications for Everyday Systems" 1994-6: Wrote NKS Chapter 7: "Mechanisms in Programs and Nature" 1995: Wolfram Media, Inc. founded 1995: The Mathematica Book published in French 1995: Over a million users of Mathematica 1995: Wrote NKS Chapter 11: "The Notion of Computation" 1995-8, 2001: Wrote NKS Chapter 9: "Fundamental Physics" 1996: Complex Systems began tenth year of publication 1996: Third edition of The Mathematica Book published 1996: Mathematica Version 3.0 released 1997: Wrote later sections of NKS Chapter 8: "Implications for Everyday Systems" 1998: Ten years of Mathematica celebrated 1998-9: Wrote NKS Chapter 10: "Processes of Perception and Analysis" 1999: Fourth edition of The Mathematica Book published 1999: Mathematica Version 4.0 released 1999-2001: Wrote NKS Chapter 12: "The Principle of Computational Equivalence"

2000's

2000: CalculationCenter released 2000: The Mathematical Explorer released 2001: webMathematica released 2001: Finished NKS Chapter 1: "The Foundations for A New Kind of Science" 2002: A New Kind of Science becomes a bestseller 2002: Over 200 major news articles about A New Kind of Science 2002: wolframscience.com website launched 2002-3: 50 city lecture tour 2003: Fifth edition of The Mathematica Book 2003: Mathematica Version 5.0 released 2003: First NKS Conference 2003: First NKS Summer School 2004: A New Kind of Science available online 2005: 500 technical papers cite A New Kind of Science