Stephen Wolfram

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Stephen Wolfram
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Born August 29, 1959 (1959-08-29) (age 48)
Flag of England London, England, UK
Residence Cambridge, Massachusetts
Nationality British
Fields Mathematician
Institutions Wolfram Research
Alma mater Oxford University, Caltech
Known for Creator of Mathematica
Author of A New Kind of Science
Notable awards MacArthur Fellowship

Stephen Wolfram (born August 29, 1959 in London) is a British physicist, mathematician and businessman known for his work in theoretical particle physics, cellular automata, complexity theory, and computer algebra, and is the creator of the computer program Mathematica.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Stephen Wolfram's parents were Jewish refugees who immigrated to England in 1933. [1] [2] Wolfram's father, Hugo Wolfram, was a novelist, and his mother, Sybil Wolfram, was a professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford. Wolfram was educated at Eton public school. Often described as a child prodigy, he published an article on particle physics at age 16[3] and entered Oxford University (St John's College) at age 17. He wrote a widely cited paper on heavy quark production at age 17. [2]

He received his Ph.D. in particle physics from Caltech at age 20[4] and joined the faculty there. He became highly interested in cellular automata at age 21. [2] His work with Geoffrey Fox on the theory of the strong interaction is still used today in experimental particle physics.[5]

Stephen Wolfram was in 1987 founding editor of the journal Complex systems.

[edit] Work

[edit] Symbolic Manipulation Program

Wolfram led the development of the computer algebra system SMP (Symbolic Manipulation Program: SMP was essentially Version Zero of Mathematica) in the Caltech physics department during 1979–1981, but a dispute with the administration over the intellectual property rights regarding SMP -- patents/copyrights and faculty involvement in commercial ventures -– eventually caused him to resign from Caltech.[6] SMP was further developed and marketed commercially by Inference Corp. of Los Angeles during the period 1983–1988.

In 1981, Wolfram was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 1983, he left for the School of Natural Sciences of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he studied cellular automata, mainly with computer simulations. In the middle 1980s Wolfram worked on simulations of physical processes (such as turbulent fluid flow) with cellular automata on the Connection Machine alongside Richard Feynman.[7]

[edit] Mathematica

Main article: Mathematica

In 1986 Wolfram left the Institute for Advanced Study for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he founded their Center for Complex Systems Research and started to develop the computer algebra system Mathematica, which was first released in 1988, when he left academia. In 1987 he co-founded a company called Wolfram Research which continues to develop and market the program.[2]. Stephen Wolfram is currently the majority shareholder.

[edit] A New Kind of Science

Main article: A New Kind of Science

From 1992 to 2002, Wolfram worked on his controversial book A New Kind of Science (NKS), which presents an empirical study of very simple computational systems. Additionally, it argued that for fundamental reasons these types of systems, rather than traditional mathematics, are needed to model and understand complexity in nature.

Since the release of the NKS book in 2002, Wolfram has split his time between developing Mathematica and encouraging people to get involved with NKS by giving talks, holding NKS conferences, and starting an NKS summer school.

[edit] The simplest universal Turing machine

In the NKS book, Wolfram claimed to have found the simplest known Universal Turing machine, the one with 2 states and 5 colors. Because it was known that no machine with 2 states and 2 colors can be universal, Wolfram afterwards made an empirical investigation of 2,985,984 possible 2,3 Turing machines and from among these candidates he selected one that he had an intuition might indeed be the simplest universal Turing machine.

A US$25,000 prize[8] was announced to be awarded to the first person or group who would provide a formal proof that that particular candidate is universal or that it is not. Alex Smith, a 20-year-old undergraduate from Birmingham, UK, claimed to have proven the universality of Wolfram's 2,3 Turing machine and was awarded the prize.[9] Computer scientist Vaughan Pratt later claimed to have found an error in the reasoning of the proof.[10] Wolfram Research and Alex Smith disputed Pratt's claim on the same discussion group.[11][12][13]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jüdische Schriftsteller in Westfalen: Hugo Wolfram, <http://www.juedischeliteraturwestfalen.de/index.php?valex=101&vArticle=1&author_id=00000308&id=1> 
  2. ^ a b c d Stephen Wolfram, <http://www.nndb.com/people/325/000022259/> 
  3. ^ Hadronic Electrons?. Note that the SPIRES date of April 1975 refers to the date the preprint was received, not the date of journal publication.
  4. ^ Thesis listing: Some Topics In Theoretical High-Energy Physics
  5. ^ See A Model for Parton Showers in QCD and Observables for the Analysis of Event Shapes in e+ e- Annihilation and Other Processes
  6. ^ Kolata, Gina. "Caltech Torn by Dispute Over Software," Science, 27 May 1983 (Vol. 220, No. 4600) issue, pgs. 932-934.
  7. ^ W. Daniel Hillis (1989-02). Richard Feynman and The Connection Machine. Physics Today. Retrieved on 3 November 2006.
  8. ^ The Prize Anouncement; Looking for the formal proof.
  9. ^ The Prize Is Won; The Simplest Universal Turing Machine Is Proved. The October 24 entry at Wolfram Research's blog announcing the news.
  10. ^ Argument against the proof claimed in the FOM list.
  11. ^ Stephen Wolfram reply in the FOM list.
  12. ^ Todd Rowland reply to Vaughan Pratt in the FOM list.
  13. ^ Alex Smith reply to Vaughan Pratt in the FOM list.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Wolfram, Stephen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION British mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH London, England, UK
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH