Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Lorenz Receives 1991 Kyoto Prize

FOURTH AT MIT
Lorenz to Receive
1991 Kyoto Prize
Professor Edward N. Lorenz, a meteorologist renowned for his work in the 
dynamics of atmospheric circulations and the first to recognize what is 
now called chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather 
systems, has won the 1991 Kyoto Prize for basic sciences in the field of 
earth and planetary sciences. 
He is the fourth member of the MIT faculty to become a Kyoto Laureate.
The annual awards, which in prestige and monetary value have been 
likened to the Nobel prizes, are given by The Inamori Foundation of 
Japan in three categories--the basic sciences, advanced technology and 
the creative arts. Each of the prizes this year, which will be presented 
in Kyoto, Japan, in November, is worth approximately $300,000.
The other 1991 recipients are Professor Michael Szwarc of the University 
of Southern California's Hydrocarbon Research Institute, for advanced 
technology, and Peter S. P. Brook, director of the International Center 
for Theater Creations in Paris, France, in the field of theater and 
cinema.
The Kyoto prizes have been awarded since 1984 to recognize outstanding 
contemporary intellectual and artistic achievements. They are made 
possible by an endowment from Kazuo Inamori, chairman of the Kyocera 
Corporation.
Previous MIT faculty winners were Claude E. Shannon (1984) for his 
pioneering work in information theory; Morris Cohen (1987) for his 
contributions to metallurgical science; and Noam A. Chomsky (1988) for 
his revolutionary theories on the nature of language.
Dr. Lorenz, professor emeritus of meteorology and a senior lecturer in 
the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, was cited 
by the Kyoto prize committee for establishing "the theoretical basis of 
weather and climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-
aided atmospheric physics and meteorology." The committee added that 
Professor Lorenz "made his boldest scientific achievement in discovering 
'deterministic chaos,' a principle which has profoundly influenced a 
wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic 
changes in mankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton."
It was in the early 1960s, in the course of his work on weather systems, 
that Dr. Lorenz found he was getting chaotic results from some of his 
calculations. Convinced that these inconsistencies were not caused by 
faulty data or computer errors, he began to study chaos itself. 
His early insights, published in his 1963 paper, Deterministic 
Nonperiodic Flow, marked the beginning of a new field of study. Some 
scientists have since asserted that the 20th century will be remembered 
for three scientific revolutions--relativity, quantum mechanics, and 
chaos. 
The study of the rules of chaotic disorder is making an impact not only 
on the field of mathematics but in virtually every branch of science--
biological, physical and social. In terms of the atmosphere, it has led 
to the conclusion that it may be fundamentally impossible to predict 
weather beyond two or three weeks with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
Born in West Hartford, Conn., in 1917, Dr. Lorenz received the AB in 
mathematics from Dartmouth College in 1938, the AM in mathematics from 
Harvard University in 1940, the SM in meteorology from MIT in 1943 and 
the ScD in meteorology in 1948. It was while serving as a weather 
forecaster for the US Army Air Corps in World War II that he decided to 
do graduate work in meteorology at MIT.
Dr. Lorenz was a member of the staff of what was then MIT's Department 
of Meteorology from 1948 to 1955, when he was appointed to the faculty 
as an assistant professor. He was promoted to professor in 1962 and was 
head of the department from 1977 to 1981. He became an emeritus 
professor in 1987.
During leaves of absence from MIT, he held research or teaching 
positions at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., the Department 
of Meteorology at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Det 
Norske Meteorologiske Insitutt in Oslo, Norway, and the National Center 
for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
His publications include the book The Nature and Theory of the General 
Circulation of the Atmosphere, published by the World Meteorological 
Organization at Geneva in 1967.
Dr. Lorenz, who was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975, 
has won numerous awards, honors and honorary degrees. In 1983, he and 
former MIT Professor Henry M. Stommel were jointly awarded the $50,000 
Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a prize 
established to recognize fields not eligible for Nobel Prizes.
His other honors include the Elliott Cresson Medal from the Franklin 
Institute in 1989, the Symons Memorial Gold Medal of the Royal 
Meteorological Society in 1973, the Rossby Research Medal of the 
American Meteorological Society in 1969 and the Society's Meisinger 
Award in 1963.
In addition, he has been elected as a foreign member of both the British 
Royal Society and the Soviet Union's USSR Academy of Sciences.