Itamar Procaccia (( he, איתמר פרוקצ'יה); born September 29, 1949, in Tel Aviv) is an Israeli physicist and chemist who has made contributions to areas in

statistical physics Statistical physics is a branch of physics that evolved from a foundation of statistical mechanics, which uses methods of probability theory and statistics, and particularly the mathematical tools for dealing with large populations and approxim ...

nonlinear dynamics In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

, soft matter, and

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

. Procaccia studied chemistry at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

with and obtained a bachelor's degree in 1973 and obtained a doctorate in theoretical chemistry in 1976. From 1977 to 1979, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. Since 1979 he has been at the Weizmann Institute, where he became a professor in 1985. With Peter Grassberger, he introduced the

correlation dimension In chaos theory, the correlation dimension (denoted by ''ν'') is a measure of the dimensionality of the space occupied by a set of random points, often referred to as a type of fractal dimension. For example, if we have a set of random points on t ...

as a measure of

fractal dimension In mathematics, more specifically in fractal geometry, a fractal dimension is a ratio providing a statistical index of complexity comparing how detail in a pattern (strictly speaking, a fractal pattern) changes with the scale at which it is me ...

in 1983 (often referred to as the Grassberger–Procaccia algorithm).Grassberger ''Grassberger-Procaccia Algorithmus'', Scholarpedia
/ref> He has held guest appointments at the City University of New York, the

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics. It is located in Bures-sur-Yvette, jus ...

, Nordita, the

Isaac Newton Institute The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and its many applications at the University of Cambridge. It is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathema ...

, Rockefeller University, the

École normale supérieure de Lyon The École normale supérieure de Lyon (also known as ENS de Lyon, ENSL or Normale Sup' Lyon) is a French grande école located in the city of Lyon. It is one of the four prestigious écoles normales supérieures in France. The school is ...

, and

the University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

, among others. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physic ...

and a member of the Leopoldina and the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

. In 2009 he received the Israel Prize for physics. In 2017 he received the EPS Statistical and Nonlinear Physics Prize.

Selected publications

* Peter Grassberger, Itamar Procacci
Measuring the Strangeness of Strange Attractors
''Physica D'', 9, (1983), 189–208 * Peter Grassberger, Itamar Procacci
Characterization of strange attractors
Physical Review Letters, 50, (1983), 346–349 * Thomas C. Halsey, Mogens H. Jensen, Leo P. Kadanoff, Itamar Procaccia, and Boris I. Shraiman
"Fractal measures and their singularities: The characterization of strange sets"
Physics A, 33 1141 (1986)

References

External links

Itamar Procaccia's home page at the Weizmann Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Procaccia, Itamar 1949 births Living people Israeli physicists Israeli chemists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israel Prize in physics recipients Academic staff of Weizmann Institute of Science Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the Institute of Physics Weizmann Prize recipients