Robert L. Devaney

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Robert L. Devaney

| image = Robert L Devaney 1973 (re-scanned C, portioned).jpg

| image_size =

| image_upright =

| alt =

| caption = Devaney in 1973

| birth_date = {{birth date and age |1948|4|9|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality =

| fields = {{Tree list}}

| workplaces = Northwestern University
Tufts University
Boston University

| alma_mater = College of the Holy Cross (BA)
{{nowrap|University of California, Berkeley}} (PhD)

| thesis_title = Reversible diffeomorphisms and flows

| thesis_url = https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/10rhv18/alma991075871509706532

| thesis_year = 1973

| doctoral_advisor = Stephen Smale

| doctoral_students =

| known_for =

| awards =

| module = {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes

| office1 = President of the
Mathematical Association of America

|term_start1 = 2013

|term_end1 = 2015

|president1 =

|predecessor1 = Paul M. Zorn

|successor1 = Francis Su

}}

Robert Luke Devaney (born 1948) is an American mathematician. He is the Feld Family Professor of Teaching Excellence at Boston University, and served as the president of the Mathematical Association of America from 2013 to 2015. His research involves dynamical systems and fractals.{{citation|url=http://www.bu.edu/today/2010/cas-names-first-feld-family-professor/|title=CAS Names First Feld Family Professor: Robert Devaney makes fractals crackle, starting in high school|journal=BU Today|publisher=Boston University|first=Rich|last=Barlow|date=February 18, 2000}}.

Early life and career

Devaney was born on April 9, 1948, in Lawrence, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |title=Robert Devaney {{!}} Curriculum Vitae |url=https://math.bu.edu/people/bob/vita.pdf |access-date=December 2, 2023 |website=Mathematics Department |publisher=Boston University}} He grew up in Methuen, Massachusetts.

Devaney graduated in 1969 from the College of the Holy Cross,{{citation|title=Brief vita: Robert L. Devaney|url=http://math.bu.edu/people/bob/brief-vita.html|accessdate=2015-09-28}}.

and earned his Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of California, Berkeley, under the supervision of Stephen Smale.

{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Devaney |first=Robert Luke |date=June 1973 |title=Reversible diffeomorphisms and flows |chapter= |publisher= |docket= |oclc=21927116 |hdl= |url=https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/10rhv18/alma991075871509706532 |access-date=}}

{{mathgenealogy|id=6810}} From 1974 to 1976, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University. Before joining the faculty at Boston University, he taught at Tufts University, Northwestern University, and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mathematical activities

Devaney is known for formulating a simple and widely used definition of chaotic systems, one that does not need advanced concepts such as measure theory.{{citation|title=Chaos: A Mathematical Introduction|volume=18|series=Australian Mathematical Society Lecture Series|first1=John|last1=Banks|first2=Valentina|last2=Dragan|first3=Arthur|last3=Jones|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2003|isbn=9780521531047|page=viii|bibcode=2003cmi..book.....B|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4RWUtBO_FSkC&pg=PR8|quote=Although there are several competing definitions of chaos, we concentrate here on the one given by Robert Devaney, which avoids the use of measure theory and uses only elementary notions from analysis.}} In his 1989 book An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems, Devaney defined a system to be chaotic if it has sensitive dependence on initial conditions, it is topologically transitive (for any two open sets, some points from one set will eventually hit the other set), and its periodic orbits form a dense set.{{citation|title=Modeling Complex Systems|series=Graduate Texts in Physics|first=Nino|last=Boccara|edition=2nd|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2010|isbn=9781441965622|page=180|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boUorPmcbKMC&pg=PA180}}. Later, it was observed that this definition is redundant: sensitive dependence on initial conditions follows automatically as a mathematical consequence of the other two properties.{{citation

| last1 = Banks | first1 = J.

| last2 = Brooks | first2 = J.

| last3 = Cairns | first3 = G.

| last4 = Davis | first4 = G.

| last5 = Stacey | first5 = P.

| doi = 10.2307/2324899

| issue = 4

| journal = The American Mathematical Monthly

| mr = 1157223

| pages = 332–334

| title = On Devaney's definition of chaos

| volume = 99

| year = 1992| jstor = 2324899

}}.

Devaney hairs, a fractal structure in certain Julia sets, are named after Devaney, who was the first to investigate them.{{citation

| last1 = Rempe | first1 = Lasse

| last2 = Rippon | first2 = Philip J.

| last3 = Stallard | first3 = Gwyneth M. | author3-link = Gwyneth Stallard

| doi = 10.1080/10236190903282824

| issue = 5–6

| journal = Journal of Difference Equations and Applications

| mr = 2675603

| pages = 739–762

| title = Are Devaney hairs fast escaping?

| volume = 16

| year = 2010| arxiv = 0904.1403| s2cid = 14414411

}}.

As well as research and teaching in mathematics, Devaney's mathematical activities have included organizing one-day immersion programs in mathematics for thousands of Boston-area high school students, and consulting on the mathematics behind media productions including the 2008 film 21 and the 1993 play Arcadia. He was president of the Mathematical Association of America from 2013 to 2015.{{citation|url=http://www.maa.org/about-maa/governance/maa-presidents/robert-l-devaney|title=Robert L. Devaney|department=About MAA: Governance|publisher=Mathematical Association of America|accessdate=2015-09-28}}.

Awards and honors

In 1995, Devaney won the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished University Teaching of the Mathematical Association of America.{{citation|url=http://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/teaching-awards/haimo-award-distinguished-teaching/list-of-recipients|title=Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award – List of Recipients|publisher=Mathematical Association of America|accessdate=2015-09-28}}.

In 2002 Devaney won the National Science Foundation Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars.{{citation|url=http://math.bu.edu/bobnsfaward.html|title=BU professor wins NSF teaching award|publisher=Boston University|date=February 2007|accessdate=2015-09-28}}.

He was named the inaugural Feld Professor in 2010.

In 2008, a conference in honor of Devaney's 60th birthday was held in Tossa de Mar, Spain. The papers from the conference were published in a special issue of the Journal of Difference Equations and Applications in 2010, also honoring Devaney.{{citation

| last = Keen | first = Linda | authorlink = Linda Keen

| doi = 10.1080/10236190903260838

| issue = 5–6

| journal = Journal of Difference Equations and Applications

| pages = 407–409

| title = Introduction to the Robert Devaney special issue

| volume = 16

| year = 2010| s2cid = 121692691 }}.

In 2012 he became one of the inaugural fellows of the American Mathematical Society.{{citation|url=https://www.ams.org/profession/fellows-list|title=List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society|publisher=American Mathematical Society|accessdate=2015-09-28}}

Selected publications

;Books

Devaney is the author of books on fractals and dynamical systems including:

An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems (Benjamin/Cummings 1986; 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, 1989; reprinted by Westview Press, 2003)Review of An introduction to chaotic dynamical systems by Richard C. Churchill (1987), {{MR|0811850}}.Review of An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems by Philip Holmes (1987), SIAM Review 29 (4): 654–658, {{JSTOR|2031218}}.{{cite journal|last=Eckmann|first=Jean-Pierre|title=Review of An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems by Robert L. Devaney|journal=Physics Today|volume=40|issue=7|year=1987|page=72|issn=0031-9228|doi=10.1063/1.2820117|url=http://digitale-objekte.hbz-nrw.de/storage2/2021/12/17/file_8/9103225.pdf }}
The Science of Fractal Images (with Barnsley, Mandelbrot, Peitgen, Saupe, and Voss, Springer-Verlag, 1988)Review of The Science of Fractal Images by P. D. F. Ion (1992), {{MR|0952853}}.
Chaos, Fractals, and Dynamics: Computer Experiments in Mathematics (Addison-Wesley, 1990)Review of Chaos, Fractals, and Dynamics by Thomas Scavo (1991), The College Mathematics Journal 22 (1): 82–84, {{doi|10.2307/2686745}}.
A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems: Theory and Experiment (Addison-Wesley, 1992)Review of A First Course in Chaotic Dynamical Systems by Frederick R. Marotto (1994), {{MR|1202237}}.
Fractals: A Tool Kit of Dynamics Activities (with J. Choate and A. Foster, Key Curriculum Press, 1999)
Iteration: A Tool Kit of Dynamics Activities (with J. Choate and A. Foster, Key Curriculum Press, 1999)
Chaos: A Tool Kit of Dynamics Activities (with J. Choate, Key Curriculum Press, 2000)
The Mandelbrot and Julia Sets: A Tool Kit of Dynamics Activities (Key Curriculum Press, 2000)
Differential Equations (with P. Blanchard and G. R. Hall, 3rd ed., Brooks/Cole, 2005)
Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and an Introduction to Chaos (with Morris Hirsch and Stephen Smale, 2nd ed., Academic Press, 2004; 3rd ed., Academic Press, 2013)Review of Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and an Introduction to Chaos by Michael Hurley (2005), {{MR|2144536}}.