Bülent Atalay is a Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

-American author, scientist, and artist.
Born in Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

, Turkey in 1940, Atalay is the author of the best selling book, Math and the Mona Lisa: the Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci, initially published in English by Smithsonian Books in 2004, and subsequently in eleven foreign languages. His new book, Leonardo’s Universe: the Renaissance World of Leonardo da Vinci, coauthored with Keith Wamsley, was released by National Geographic Books in late 2008, and immediately listed among Encyclopedia Britannica Blog's "Ten Must-Have Reference Books from 2008."

A theoretical nuclear physicist, he is the author of numerous technical articles in physics. He has been a professor of physics for four decades at the University of Mary Washington

University of Mary Washington

The University of Mary Washington is a public, coeducational liberal arts college located in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA. Founded in 1908 by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a normal school, during much of the twentieth century it was part of the University of Virginia, until...

, an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia

University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study

Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...

, Princeton

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...

. He lectures around the world on his expertise in the "A-subjects" —art, archeology, astrophysics and atomic physics... while claiming little knowledge in the "B-subjects" — business, banking, biology...

An artist, his works have been exhibited in one-man shows in London and Washington D.C., and his books of lithographs — “Lands of Washington: Impressions Ink” and “Oxford and the English Countryside: Impressions of Ink” — were both published by Eton House in the 1970s, but are no longer in print.

Books

• B. Atalay and K. Wamsley Leonardo's Universe: The Renaissance World of Leonardo da Vinci (National Geographic Books, 2009)
• B. Atalay, Math and the Mona Lisa: the Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci (Smithsonian Books, 2004)
• B. Atalay, Oxford and the English Countryside: Impressions in Ink (Eton House, 1974)
• B. Atalay, Lands of Washington: Impressions in Ink (Eton House, 1972)

A Selection of Technical Papers

• B. Atalay, Organizing Chair and Editor; Yuval Ne'eman, Honorary Chair. Committee II: "Symmetry in Its Various Aspects: Search for Order in the Universe I " International Conference on the Unity of the Science XXI. Washington, DC (1997). Paragon House Publishing Co. Multiple Authors.
• B. Atalay, Organizing Chair and Editor, Committee I: "Symmetry in Its Various Aspects: Search for Order in the Universe II." International Conference on the Unity of the Science XXII, Seoul, Korea (2000). Paragon House Publishing Co. Multiple Authors.
• B. Atalay, Ed. M. Alonso, "Mathematical Model for the Origin of Life: The Emergence of Self-Replicating Molecular Systems." Organization and Change in Complex Systems, Paragon House Publishing Co. (1990). Multiple Authors.
• B. Atalay, A. Mann and V. Privman, "United-Atom Projected Perturbation Theory for Homonuclear Diatomic Molecule," Phys. Lett., 65A, 193 (1978).
• B. Atalay, A. Mann, "On the Characterization of Symmetry-Adapted Perturbation Theories," Phys. Lett. A66, 433 (1978).
• B. Atalay, A. Mann, A. Zelicoff, "Perturbation Theory for Projected States in the Pairing Force Model, III. The Problem of Spurious States, Nucl. Phys. A295, 204 (1978).
• B. Atalay, A. Mann, "Realization of the Transformation Operator in the Jansen-Byers Brown Perturbation Theory for Exchange Interactions," Chem Phys. Lett. 45, 487 (1977).
• B. Atalay, A. Mann, "Simple Non-Hermitian Choices for the Standardization Operator in Projected Perturbation Theory," Phys. Lett. 60A, 269 (1977).
• B. Atalay, A. Mann, "A Note on the Jeziorski-Piela Perturbation Theory," Acta Physica Polonica, A51, 275 (1977).
• B. Atalay, A. Mann, "Perturbation Theory for Projected States in the Pairing Force Model, II. The Problem of Convergence," Nucl. Phys. A238, 70 (1975).
• B. Atalay, D. M. Brink, A. Mann, "Perturbation Theory for Projected States in the Pairing Force Model," Nucl. Phys. A218, 461 (1974).
• B. Atalay, D. Brink, A. Mann, "A Product Form for Projection Operations," Phys. Lett. 46B, 145 (1973).
• B. Atalay, Sir R.E. Peierls, A. Mann "Perturbation Theory for Projected States: II. Convergence Criteria and a Soluble Model," Proc. Roy. Soc. A335, 251 (1973).
• B. Atalay, L. W. Chaio-Yap, "Intermediate Coupling Scheme Applied to the Odd-Mass Isotopes of Indium," Phys. Rev. 5C, 369 (1972).

External links

• Bülent Atalay's website