About the Author
Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, and a well-known scientist. He is widely regarded as the most impor-
tant innovator in technical computing today, as well as one of the world's most original research scientists.
Born in London in 1959, he was educated at Eton, Oxford and Caltech. He published his first scientific paper at the age
of fifteen, and had received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech by the age of twenty. Wolfram's early scientific
work was mainly in high-energy physics, quantum field theory and cosmology, and included several now-classic
results. Having started to use computers in 1973, Wolfram rapidly became a leader in the emerging field of scientific
computing, and in 1979 he began the construction of SMP—the first modern computer algebra system—which he
released commercially in 1981.
In recognition of his early work in physics and computing, Wolfram became in 1981 the youngest recipient of a
MacArthur Prize Fellowship. Late in 1981, Wolfram then set out on an ambitious new direction in science: to develop
a general theory of complexity in nature. Wolfram's key idea was to use computer experiments to study the behavior of
simple computer programs known as cellular automata. And in 1982 he made the first in a series of startling discover-
ies about the origins of complexity. The publication of Wolfram's papers on cellular automata led to a major shift in
scientific thinking, and laid the groundwork for a new field of science that Wolfram named “complex systems
research”.
Through the mid-1980s, Wolfram continued his work on complexity, discovering a number of fundamental connec-
tions between computation and nature, and inventing such concepts as computational irreducibility. Wolfram's work
led to a wide range of applications—and provided the main scientific foundations for the popular movements known as
complexity theory and artificial life. Wolfram himself used his ideas to develop a new randomness generation system
and a new approach to computational fluid dynamics—both of which are now in widespread use.
Following his scientific work on complex systems research, Wolfram in 1986 founded the first research center and first
ournal in the field. Then, after a highly successful career in academia—first at Caltech, then at the Institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton, and finally as Professor of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science at the University
of Illinois—Wolfram launched Wolfram Research, Inc.
Wolfram began the development of Mathematica in late 1986. The first version of Mathematica was released on June
23, 1988, and was immediately hailed as a major advance in computing. In the years that followed, the popularity of
Mathematica grew rapidly, and Wolfram Research became established as a world leader in the software industry,
widely recognized for excellence in both technology and business. Wolfram has been president and CEO of Wolfram
Research since its inception, and continues to be personally responsible for the overall design of its core technology.
Following the release of Mathematica Version 2 in 1991, Wolfram began to divide his time between Mathematica
development and scientific research. Building on his work from the mid-1980s, and now with Mathematica as a tool,
Wolfram made a rapid succession of major new discoveries. By the mid-1990s his discoveries led him to develop a
fundamentally new conceptual framework, which he then spent the remainder of the 1990s applying not only to new
kinds of questions, but also to many existing foundational problems in physics, biology, computer science, mathematics
and several other fields.
After more than ten years of highly concentrated work, Wolfram finally described his achievements in his 1200-page
book A New Kind of Science. Released on May 14, 2002, the book was widely acclaimed and immediately became a
bestseller. Its publication has been seen as initiating a paradigm shift of historic importance in science.
In addition to leading Wolfram Research to break new ground with innovative technology, Wolfram is now developing
a series of research and educational initiatives in the science he has created.
Other books by Stephen Wolfram:
è Cellular Automata and Complexity: Collected Papers (1993)
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