Edward Norton Lorenz (May 23, 1917 – April 16, 2008) was an American mathematician and meteorologist renowned as the founder of modern chaos theory. He established the theoretical basis for weather and climate predictability and made foundational contributions to computer-aided atmospheric physics and meteorology
. Lorenz discovered the phenomenon of deterministic chaos in the early 1960s while working on weather prediction models at MIT, where he was a faculty member from 1955 until his retirement in 1988. His work showed that small differences in initial conditions in a dynamic system like the atmosphere could lead to vastly different outcomes, a concept popularly known as the "butterfly effect"—the idea that the flap of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the world could influence weather patterns elsewhere days later
. He earned degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard University before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps as a weather forecaster during World War II. After the war, he completed graduate studies at MIT, where he earned a master’s and a doctorate in meteorology and later became a professor and department head
. Lorenz’s groundbreaking work earned him prestigious awards such as the 1983 Crafoord Prize and the 1991 Kyoto Prize. His research revolutionized the understanding of nonlinear systems and profoundly influenced many scientific fields beyond meteorology
. In addition to his scientific achievements, Lorenz was known for his humility, love of nature, and dedication to scholarship. He passed away in 2008 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 90
