Jürgen Kurths
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Jürgen Kurths (born 11 March 1953 in
Arendsee Arendsee () is a town in the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is named after the lake Arendsee (lake), Arendsee, located north of the town. Geography The municipality is located in the Altmark region and on the southern bank o ...
/Altmark) is a German physicist and mathematician. He is senior advisor in the research department Complexity Sciences of the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, ) is a German government-funded research institute addressing crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts, and sustainable development. Ranked among the to ...
, a Professor of
Nonlinear Dynamics In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear 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, mathem ...
at the Institute of Physics at the
Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick W ...
, Berlin, and a 6th-century chair for Complex Systems Biology at the Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology at Kings College, Aberdeen University (UK). His research is mainly concerned with nonlinear physics and complex systems sciences and their applications to challenging problems in Earth system, physiology,
systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological system ...
and engineering.


Biography

Kurths studied mathematics at the
University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...
and was awarded his PhD in 1983 at the GDR Academy of Sciences, followed by his installation in 1991 in theoretical physics at the University of Rostock. In 1991, in a special program of the Max-Planck-Society, he was selected as one of a few scientists from East Germany to become a director of a new working group and he has formed an internationally well-known group on nonlinear dynamics. In 1994 he got a full-chair on theoretical physics/nonlinear dynamics at the University of Potsdam. There he was also Dean of the Science Faculty (1996–1999), and established as the founding director the Interdisciplinary Centre for Dynamics of Complex Systems (1994–2008). He was the founding director of the Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam. In 2008, he was called to re-create the research domain Transdisciplinary Concepts at PIK and to bring complex systems perspectives into Earth system research and has become a Professor of Nonlinear Dynamics at the Institute of Physics at the Humboldt University, Berlin, and in 2009 a 6th-century chair for Complex Systems Biology at the Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology at Kings College, Aberdeen University. Since 2021, he is senior advisor at the PIK.


Research impact

From time series analysis and its application to solar and stellar activity phenomena, his interest was drawn in the 1980s to complex systems and nonlinearity or chaos theory. Kurths has been noted especially for his seminal contributions to new synchronization phenomena, recurrence, coherence resonance, measures of complexity and causality as well as dynamics and stability of complex networks. This is what later led him to do research on the basics of complex systems theory as well as applications to the Earth system, the human brain, the cardio-respiratory system and other systems which are characterised by a high degree of complexity and nonlinearity. Kurths maintains a large network of scientific collaborators and he has had more than 60 PhD students from about 20 countries, 30 of whom now have tenured positions in various countries. He published more 1200 articles (as of October 2022) and eight books. He is currently on the editorial board of more than 10 scientific journals, among them ''
Chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Science, technology, and astronomy * '' Chaos: Making a New Science'', a 1987 book by James Gleick * Chaos (company), a Bulgarian rendering and simulation software company * ''Chaos'' (genus), a genus of amoebae * ...
'', ''
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences'' is a fortnightly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the Royal Society. It publishes original research and review content in a w ...
'', '' PLOS One'', ''
European Journal of Physics The ''European Journal of Physics'' is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal dedicated to maintaining and improving the standard of physics education in higher education. The journal, published since 1980, is now published by IOP Publishing on beha ...
'', ''J. Nonlinear Science'' and ''Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics'' and of the Springer Series ''Complexity''.


International scientific activities

Kurths has been a leader in many international scientific activities, including the presidency of the EGU Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences Division (2000–2005). His efforts to promote international collaboration led him to organise several large projects in the EU and DFG and to become the speaker of an International Research Training Group on complex networks (DFG and Brazil) since 2011.


Prizes and awards

Jürgen Kurths is an elected fellow of the
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...
(1999). He received an Alexander von Humboldt research award from
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR; IAST: ''vaigyanik tathā audyogik anusandhāna pariṣada'') is a research and development (R&D) organisation in India to promote scientific, industrial and economic growth. Headquarter ...
(CSIR) (
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
) in 2005. He has become a member of the
Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...
in 2010 and of the
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts () is an academic institution in North Macedonia. History The Academy of Sciences and Arts was established by the Socialist Republic of Macedonia's assembly on 23 February 1967 as the highest scientifi ...
in 2012 and was bestowed with a Dr. honoris causa from the
Lobachevsky University Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky (; , ; – ) was a Russian mathematician and geometer, known primarily for his work on hyperbolic geometry, otherwise known as Lobachevskian geometry, and also for his fundamental study on Dirichlet integrals, kn ...
in
Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...
in 2008 and one from the Chernishevsky University,
Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...
. He is honorary professor at the
University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, northeastern Germany. The university is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace o ...
and guest professor at the
Southeast University Southeast University (SEU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. Its precursor, ...
in Nanjing. He was awarded the
Lewis Fry Richardson Medal Lewis Fry Richardson, FRS (11 October 1881 – 30 September 1953) was an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist, and pacifist who pioneered modern mathematical techniques of weather forecasting, and the application of si ...
of the
European Geosciences Union The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is a non-profit international union in the fields of Earth, planetary, and space sciences whose vision is to "realise a sustainable and just future for humanity and for the planet". The organisation has headq ...
in 2013.


Kurths's seminal papers (selection)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


References


External links


Kurths – Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurths, Jurgen 1953 births 20th-century German physicists Living people 21st-century German physicists