Al Scott Prize & Lecture

The Program in Applied Mathematics at the University of Arizona is pleased to announce the establishment of the Al Scott Prize and Lecture to remember our late colleague Alwyn C. Scott (1931 - 2006) and his pioneering contributions to the field of nonlinear science.

Al Scott, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, obtained a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1961. During the early 1970's his research interests led to important contributions to the then emerging field of soliton mathematics and nonlinear wave propagation. He became one of the leading figures in the new field of nonlinear science and a founding editor of Physica D, the first journal devoted to the study of nonlinear phenomena. He was very interested in the role of nonlinear dynamics in modeling biological systems and, in particular, its applications to neuroscience. In addition to many scholarly papers on a wide variety of topics he wrote several books on neuroscience and nonlinear science, and was the editor of the comprehensive Encyclopedia of Nonlinear Science published in 2005.

He joined the faculty of the Mathematics Department at the University of Arizona in 1984 and became a member of the University’s Program in Applied Mathematics. He retired from the University in 2000. His many contributions to the life of both the Program in Applied Mathematics and the Department of Mathematics were characterized by a civilized and good humored approach to academic life. He was particularly encouraging of graduate students and it is this characteristic that is the basis for the Al Scott Prize and Lecture. The annually awarded prize will be made to a senior student in the Program in Applied Mathematics and will consist of a cash prize and the opportunity to give one of the Applied Mathematics Colloquia -- a prestigous weekly event normally reserved for talks by prominent researchers on the national scene in applied mathematics. We believe that the opportunity for a graduate student to give a named lecture in this colloquium series would have greatly appealed to Al.

Lectures

March 28, 2008
Julia Arciero
Program in Applied Mathematics
The University of Arizona

Theoretical Model of Metabolic Blood-flow Regulation