George Sugihara
Encyclopedia
George Sugihara is a theoretical biologist who has worked across a wide variety of fields, including landscape ecology
, algebraic topology
, algal physiology and paleoecology
, neurobiology, atmospheric science, fisheries science
, and quantitative finance. He is the inaugural holder of the McQuown Chair in Natural Science at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
.
Most of his early work was motivated exclusively by pure science, and the later work more by pragmatic utility and environmental concerns. Nearly all of it is based on extracting information from observational data (turning data into information). His initial work on fisheries as complex, chaotic systems led to work on financial networks and prediction of chaotic systems.
He is one of 18 members of the National Academies Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications, and was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank
. He helped found Prediction Company (sold to UBS) and Quantitative Advisors LLC. He has been a consultant to the Bank of England
, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
, and to The Federal Reserve System
on questions of international security: systemic risk in the financial sector.
Other notable research relates some of his early work on topology and assembly in ecological systems to recent work on social systems and work on generic early warning signs of critical transitions that apply across many apparently different classes of systems.
He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, Imperial College London, Kyoto University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He held the John Dove Isaacs
Chair in Natural Philosophy from 1990 to 1995, and was a visiting fellow at Merton College, Oxford University, in 2002. He is recipient of several national and international awards, and is currently a member of the National Academy of Sciences
Board on Mathematical Sciences and its Applications, a National Research Council
advisory board that advises government agencies and guides the nation’s mathematics agenda to better serve national needs.
, nonlinear dynamics, food web
structure, species abundance patterns, conservation biology
, biological control, empirical climate modelling, fisheries forecasting, and the design and implementation of derivatives markets for fisheries.
One of his most interdisciplinary contributions involves the work he developed with Robert May
concerning methods for forecasting nonlinear and chaotic systems. This took him into the arena of investment banking, where he took a five-year leave from academe to become Managing Director for Deutsche Bank
. There he made a successful application of these theoretical methods to forecast erratic market behavior.
Landscape ecology
Landscape ecology is the science of studying and improving relationships between urban development and ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems...
, algebraic topology
Algebraic topology
Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics which uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify up to homotopy equivalence.Although algebraic topology...
, algal physiology and paleoecology
Paleoecology
Paleoecology uses data from fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past. It involves the study of fossil organisms and their associated remains, including their life cycle, living interactions, natural environment, and manner of death and burial to reconstruct the...
, neurobiology, atmospheric science, fisheries science
Fisheries science
Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of oceanography, marine biology, marine conservation, ecology, population dynamics, economics and management to attempt to provide an integrated...
, and quantitative finance. He is the inaugural holder of the McQuown Chair in Natural Science at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and earth science research, graduate training, and public service in the world...
.
Most of his early work was motivated exclusively by pure science, and the later work more by pragmatic utility and environmental concerns. Nearly all of it is based on extracting information from observational data (turning data into information). His initial work on fisheries as complex, chaotic systems led to work on financial networks and prediction of chaotic systems.
He is one of 18 members of the National Academies Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications, and was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
. He helped found Prediction Company (sold to UBS) and Quantitative Advisors LLC. He has been a consultant to the Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks of the United States. It is located at 33 Liberty Street, New York, NY. It is responsible for the Second District of the Federal Reserve System, which encompasses New York state, the 12 northern counties of New Jersey,...
, and to The Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907...
on questions of international security: systemic risk in the financial sector.
Other notable research relates some of his early work on topology and assembly in ecological systems to recent work on social systems and work on generic early warning signs of critical transitions that apply across many apparently different classes of systems.
Biography
- 1973 B.S. University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
- 1980 M.S. in biology PrincetonPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
- 1983 Ph.D. in mathematical biology PrincetonPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
- 1983 Wigner Prize Fellow at Oak Ridge National LaboratoryOak Ridge National LaboratoryOak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by UT-Battelle. ORNL is the DOE's largest science and energy laboratory. ORNL is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville...
and concurrently associate professor of Mathematics at the University of Tennessee - 1986 Joins Scripps Institution of OceanographyScripps Institution of OceanographyScripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, is one of the oldest and largest centers for ocean and earth science research, graduate training, and public service in the world...
- 1990 UC San Diego John Dove IsaacsJohn Dove IsaacsJohn Dove Isaacs was a Renaissance man – a world-renowned scientist, engineer, teacher, naturalist, fisherman, author, inventor, and more.He became Full Professor at the University of California, San Diego, which honored him posthumously by creating the John Dove Isaacs Chair in Natural...
Chair at Scripps Oceanography - 1996 professor of biological oceanography in the Physical Oceanography Research Division at Scripps
- 1997-2002 Leave of absence to work in Deutsche BankDeutsche BankDeutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
on quantitative finance becoming a Managing Director - 2007 McQuown Chair in Natural Science at Scripps
He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, Imperial College London, Kyoto University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He held the John Dove Isaacs
John Dove Isaacs
John Dove Isaacs was a Renaissance man – a world-renowned scientist, engineer, teacher, naturalist, fisherman, author, inventor, and more.He became Full Professor at the University of California, San Diego, which honored him posthumously by creating the John Dove Isaacs Chair in Natural...
Chair in Natural Philosophy from 1990 to 1995, and was a visiting fellow at Merton College, Oxford University, in 2002. He is recipient of several national and international awards, and is currently a member of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
Board on Mathematical Sciences and its Applications, a National Research Council
United States National Research Council
The National Research Council of the USA is the working arm of the United States National Academies, carrying out most of the studies done in their names.The National Academies include:* National Academy of Sciences...
advisory board that advises government agencies and guides the nation’s mathematics agenda to better serve national needs.
Research interests
His research interests include complexity theoryComputational complexity theory
Computational complexity theory is a branch of the theory of computation in theoretical computer science and mathematics that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty, and relating those classes to each other...
, nonlinear dynamics, food web
Food web
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...
structure, species abundance patterns, conservation biology
Conservation biology
Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...
, biological control, empirical climate modelling, fisheries forecasting, and the design and implementation of derivatives markets for fisheries.
One of his most interdisciplinary contributions involves the work he developed with Robert May
Robert May, Baron May of Oxford
Robert McCredie May, Baron May of Oxford, OM, AC, PRS is an Australian scientist who has been Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government, President of the Royal Society, and a Professor at Sydney and Princeton. He now holds joint professorships at Oxford, and Imperial College London...
concerning methods for forecasting nonlinear and chaotic systems. This took him into the arena of investment banking, where he took a five-year leave from academe to become Managing Director for Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
. There he made a successful application of these theoretical methods to forecast erratic market behavior.
Awards and honors
Sugihara is also the recipient of various international awards. Recently he was a Visiting Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford and is currently appointed to the National Academies Board on Mathematical Sciences and its ApplicationsSelected publications
- 1984. Graph theory, homology and food webs. Proc. Symp. Applied Mathematics, American Mathematical Society: 83-101.
- 1989. Sugihara, G., K. Schoenly and A. Trombla. Scale invariance in food web properties. Science245: 48-52.
- 1990. Nonlinear forecasting as a way of distinguishing chaos from measurement error in time series. Nature: 344:734-741.
- 1993. Fractals: A User's Guide to the Natural Sciences, : OUPOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 217p. - 1995. From out of the blue. Nature: 378:559-560.
- 1999. Episodic fluctuations in larval supply. Science: 283:1528-1530.
- 1999. Residual delay maps unveil global patterns of atmospheric nonlinearity and produce improved local forecasts. PNAS: 96:14,210-14,215.
- 2003. Sugihara, G., L.F. Bersier, S.L. Pimm, T.R. Southwood, and R.M.May. A correspondence between two classical notions of community structure. PNAS 100 (9): 5246-5251.
- 2005. Hsieh CH, Glaser SM, Lucas AJ, Sugihara G (2005a) Distinguishing random environmental fluctuations from ecological catastrophes for the North Pacific Ocean. Nature 435: 336-340.
- 2006. Hsieh CH, CS Reiss, JR Hunter, JR Beddington, RM May, and G. Sugihara, Fishing elevates variability in the abundance of exploited species. Nature 443: 859-862.
- 2006. Southwood, TR, R.M. May, G. Sugihara 2006. Some observations on related ecological exponents. PNAS Vol 103 (18): 6931-6933.