Andrew Michael Odlyzko (Andrzej Odłyżko) (born 23 July 1949) is a Polish- American mathematician and a former head of the University of Minnesota's Digital Technology Center and of the

Minnesota Supercomputing Institute The Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI) in Minneapolis, Minnesota is a core research facility of the University of Minnesota that provides hardware and software resources, as well as technical user support, to faculty and researchers at the un ...

. He began his career in 1975 at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he stayed for 26 years before joining the University of Minnesota in 2001.

Work in mathematics

Odlyzko received his B.S. and M.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975. In the field of mathematics he has published extensively on

analytic number theory In mathematics, analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis to solve problems about the integers. It is often said to have begun with Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet's 1837 introduction of Diric ...

computational number theory In mathematics and computer science, computational number theory, also known as algorithmic number theory, is the study of computational methods for investigating and solving problems in number theory and arithmetic geometry, including algorithms ...

, cryptography, algorithms and

computational complexity In computer science, the computational complexity or simply complexity of an algorithm is the amount of resources required to run it. Particular focus is given to computation time (generally measured by the number of needed elementary operations) ...

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

, probability, and

error-correcting code In computing, telecommunication, information theory, and coding theory, an error correction code, sometimes error correcting code, (ECC) is used for controlling errors in data over unreliable or noisy communication channels. The central idea is ...

s. In the early 1970s, he was a co-author (with D. Kahaner and Gian-Carlo Rota) of one of the founding papers of the modern

umbral calculus In mathematics before the 1970s, the term umbral calculus referred to the surprising similarity between seemingly unrelated polynomial equations and certain "shadowy" techniques used to "prove" them. These techniques were introduced by John Bliss ...

. In 1985 he and Herman te Riele disproved the Mertens conjecture. In mathematics, he is probably known best for his work on the

Riemann zeta function The Riemann zeta function or Euler–Riemann zeta function, denoted by the Greek letter (zeta), is a mathematical function of a complex variable defined as \zeta(s) = \sum_^\infty \frac = \frac + \frac + \frac + \cdots for \operatorname(s) > ...

, which led to the invention of improved algorithms, including the Odlyzko–Schönhage algorithm, and large-scale computations, which stimulated extensive research on connections between the zeta function and random matrix theory. As a direct collaborator of

Paul Erdős Paul Erdős ( hu, Erdős Pál ; 26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996) was a Hungarian mathematician. He was one of the most prolific mathematicians and producers of mathematical conjectures of the 20th century. pursued and proposed problems in ...

, he has Erdős number 1.

Work on electronic communication

More recently, he has worked on communication networks,

electronic publishing Electronic publishing (also referred to as publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, Online magazine, digital magazines, and the development of digital library, digital libraries and catalo ...

, economics of security and

electronic commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

. In 1998, he and Kerry Coffman were the first to show that one of the great inspirations for the Internet bubble, the myth of "Internet traffic doubling every 100 days," was false. In the paper "Content is Not King", published in '' First Monday'' in January 2001, he argues that # the

entertainment industry Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have dev ...

is a small industry compared with other industries, notably the telecommunications industry; # people are more interested in communication than entertainment; # and therefore that entertainment "content" is not the killer app for the Internet. In 2012, he became a fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research and in 2013 of the American Mathematical Society.

Network value

In the paper "Metcalfe's Law is Wrong","Metcalfe's Law is Wrong"
Bob Briscoe, Andrew Odlyzko, and Benjamin Tilly, July 2006 IEEE Spectrum. Andrew Odlyzko argues that the incremental value of adding one person to a network of ''n'' people is approximately the ''n''th harmonic number, so the total value of the network is approximately ''n'' * log(''n)''. Since this curves upward (unlike

Sarnoff's law David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio broadcasting, radio and television. Throughout most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capaciti ...

), it implies that Metcalfe's conclusion – that there is a critical mass in networks, leading to a network effect – is qualitatively correct. But since this linearithmic function does not grow as rapidly as Metcalfe's law, it implies that many of the quantitative expectations based on Metcalfe's law were excessively optimistic. For example, by Metcalfe, if a hypothetical network of 100,000 members has a value of $1M, doubling its membership would increase its value 4X (200,000²/100,000²). However Odlyzko predicts its value would only slightly more than double: 2e5*log(2e5)/(1e5*log(1e5). Empirical tests, in part stimulated by this criticism, strongly support Metcalfe's law.

Financial History

In recent years, Odlyzko has published multiple papers on the financial history of bubbles, particularly the South Sea and English railway episodes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, respectively.

References

External links