2008 Keynote Speaker

Keynote Speaker

Harry L. Swinney, University of Texas

Emergence of Spatial Patterns in Physical, Chemical, and Biological Systems

We consider macroscopic systems driven away from thermodynamic equilibrium by an imposed gradient, for example, a gradient in temperature, velocity, or concentration. The equation of motion for such systems is generally a nonlinear partial differential equation for the fields (e.g., temperature, velocity, and/or concentration field). For a sufficiently small imposed gradient, these fields will have the same symmetry as the system geometry; this solution is called the base state. We will consider the general principles for the loss of stability of the base state and the formation of ordered spatial patterns. For strong forcing, the patterns can become chaotic or even turbulent, yet some order often persists. The general principles of pattern formation will be illustrated with examples from physics, chemistry, and biology.

About the Speaker

Harry L Swinney is an American physicist noted for his contributions to the field of nonlinear dynamics. He is currently the director of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Texas at Austin. Swinney graduated from Rhodes College in 1961 with a Bachelor degree and obtained his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1968. He came to the University of Texas at Austin in 1978 and eventually headed the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics. Swinney was among one of the pioneers in chaos theory, most notably for the experiments he did with Jerry Gollub on the onset of turbulence for water in rotating cylinders ("Couette-Taylor" flow). His general research interest have concerned instabilities, chaos, pattern formation, and turbulence in systems driven away from equilibrium by the imposition of gradients in temperature, velocity, concentration, etc.