Theo Geisel (born 24 August 1948 in

Limburg an der Lahn Limburg an der Lahn (officially abbreviated ''Limburg a. d. Lahn'') is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Limburg lies in western Hessen between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn. The to ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

) is a German

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. Geisel is a director at the

Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization The Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany, is a research institute for investigations of complex non-equilibrium systems, particularly in physics and biology. Its founding history goes back to Ludwig Pran ...

and professor of theoretical physics at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. His research is primarily concerned with the behavior of

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication s ...

ranging from theoretical investigations in

quantum chaos Quantum chaos is a branch of physics which studies how chaos theory, chaotic classical dynamical systems can be described in terms of quantum theory. The primary question that quantum chaos seeks to answer is: "What is the relationship betwee ...

nonlinear 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 ...

phenomena occurring in the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

Biography

Geisel studied physics in Frankfurt and Regensburg. After graduating from the

University of Regensburg The University of Regensburg (german: link=no, Universität Regensburg) is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on 18 ...

in 1975, he worked as Post-Doc at the

Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research The Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung'') was founded in 1969 and is one of the 82 Max Planck Institutes of the Max Planck Society. It is located on a campus in Stuttgart, togeth ...

in Stuttgart (1976–77) and at the

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from Sta ...

(1978–79). In 1980, he returned to Regensburg as assistant professor. During 1983-87 he worked as a Heisenberg fellow, later he became professor for theoretical physics at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

(1988–89) and the University of Frankfurt (1989–96). During this time, he was awarded the prestigious

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...

. Since 1996, he has been professor for theoretical physics at the

and Director of the

. He is chairperson of the

Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Bernstein is a common surname in the German language, meaning "amber" (literally "burn stone"). The name is used by both Germans and Jews, although it is most common among people of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. The German pronunciation is , but in E ...

(BCCN) Göttingen which he founded in 2005. Since 2013, Theo Geisel is member of the Göttingen Academy of Science, the oldest continually existing such institution in Germany.

Personal life

Geisel is also a classical and jazz musician and performs regularly on flute and saxophone. He has recorded a jazz album with the band August Stockinger's Flohzirkus.

Main areas of research

Theo Geisel is known for fundamental research on nonlinear and stochastic dynamics with applications in a broad range of complex living and non-living systems. He is leading in transferring methods between fields, including randomly appearing motion known in chaos theory to solid state physics, pattern formation theory established for fluids to the analysis of neural circuits, the discovery of new mathematical objects called unstable attractors in neuronal models and recently concepts from the physics of nano-structures to the predictability of tsunami waves. *

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 ...

Computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to u ...

*Forecast of

epidemics An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious d ...

* Lévy walks (

anomalous diffusion Anomalous diffusion is a diffusion process with a non-linear relationship between the mean squared displacement (MSD), \langle r^(\tau )\rangle , and time. This behavior is in stark contrast to Brownian motion, the typical diffusion process descri ...

) *Dynamics of

neuronal network A neural circuit is a population of neurons interconnected by synapses to carry out a specific function when activated. Neural circuits interconnect to one another to form large scale brain networks. Biological neural networks have inspired the ...

s *Development of

cortical map Cortical maps are collections (areas) of minicolumns in the brain cortex that have been identified as performing a specific information processing function (texture maps, color maps, contour maps, etc.). Cortical maps Cortical organization, espe ...

s *

Neural synchronization Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. Neural tissue can generate oscillation, oscillatory activity in many ways, driven either by mechanisms within individual ne ...

Quantum chaos Quantum chaos is a branch of physics which studies how chaos theory, chaotic classical dynamical systems can be described in terms of quantum theory. The primary question that quantum chaos seeks to answer is: "What is the relationship betwee ...

*Semiconductor

nanostructures A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structures. Nanostructural detail is microstructure at nanoscale. In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimensi ...

Awards and fellowships

* Heisenberg Fellow of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

(German Research Foundation) 1983 *

1994 *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 k ...

2008 * Gentner-Kastler Prize 2009

Editorial boards

Physical Review Letters ''Physical Review Letters'' (''PRL''), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. As also confirmed by various measurement standards, which include the ''Journa ...

(Divisional Associate Editor for Biological Physics) *Chaos - Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (

American Institute of Physics The American Institute of Physics (AIP) promotes science and the profession of physics, publishes physics journals, and produces publications for scientific and engineering societies. The AIP is made up of various member societies. Its corpora ...

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Geisel, Theo 1948 births Living people People from Limburg an der Lahn 20th-century German physicists Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners Max Planck Society people Academic staff of the University of Göttingen University of Regensburg alumni Theoretical physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society 21st-century German physicists Max Planck Institute directors