Harry Swinney Explained

Harry Swinney
Birth Name:	Harry Leonard Swinney
Birth Date:	10 April 1939
Birth Place:	Opelousas, Louisiana, U.S.
Field:	Physics
Doctoral Advisor:	Herman Z. Cummins
Known For:	Chaos, pattern formation, and fluid dynamics experiments

Harry Leonard Swinney (born April 10, 1939) is an American physicist noted for his contributions to the field of nonlinear dynamics.

Personal life

Harry Leonard Swinney was born in Opelousas, Louisiana, on April 10, 1939. His parents were Leonard R. Swinney and Ethel Bertheaud Swinney. In 1967 Harry Swinney married Gloria T. Luyas, and in 1978 they had a son, Brent Luyas Swinney. Brent died of cancer in 1995 and Gloria died of cancer in 1997. Harry Swinney married Lizabeth Kelley on August 12, 2000.

Education

Swinney attended elementary school in Austin, Texas, and in 1957 graduated from Homer Louisiana High School. In 1961 he was awarded a B.S. with honors in physics by Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), where he was inspired by his physics professor and research mentor, Jack H. Taylor. In 1968 he was awarded a Ph.D. in physics by Johns Hopkins University; his advisor was Herman Z. Cummins.

Career

Swinney was an assistant professor of physics at New York University (1971–73) and was associate professor and then professor at the City College of the City University of New York (1973–78). Since 1978 Swinney has been on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is now Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair of Physics and director of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics.

Honors

Swinney is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1992) and a fellow of the American Physical Society (1977), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1999), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (2009). He was awarded the American Physical Society Fluid Dynamics Prize (1995), the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Jürgen Moser Prize (2007), the European Geosciences Union Richardson Medal (2012), and the Boltzmann Medal (2013) of the Commission on Statistical Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. He was a Guggenheim Fellow (1983–84) and he was inducted into The Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars (1984). He was awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Rhodes College (2002), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2008), and the University of Buenos Aires (2010).

Research contributions

Swinney conducts research on instabilities, chaos, and pattern formation in diverse systems, including fluid, chemical, and granular media. Swinney together with his students, postdocs, and other collaborators have:

• determined the decay rate of order parameter fluctuations for fluids near the critical point ^{[1] [2]}
• observed a transition to chaos—deterministic yet nonperiodic behavior—in experiments on a fluid flow ^{[3] [4] [5]}
• characterized chaos from time series data by computing the largest Lyapunov exponent (rate of loss of predictability) ^[6] and the mutual information (general dependence of two variables) ^[7]
• discovered multiple transitions to different patterns of fluid flow between concentric independently rotating cylinders ^[8]
• designed a laboratory experiment that yielded a stable vortex for conditions mimicking those on Jupiter.^[9] This result provides a plausible explanation of the stability of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, which was first observed by Robert Hooke in 1664.
• observed the emergence of a spatial pattern in a chemical system,^[10] as predicted in 1952 by Alan Turing
• determined the scaling of power dissipated in strongly turbulent flow between concentric rotating cylinders ^{[11] [12]}
• observed anomalous diffusion and Lévy flights in a fluid flow ^[13]
• discovered localized structures, dubbed "oscillons", in an oscillating granular layer;^[14] oscillons were subsequently found in many dynamical systems. The granular experiments also investigated various extended spatial patterns,^[15] shock waves,^[16] and fluctuations.^[17]
• observed resonant pattern formation with frequency locking in chemical systems ^{[18] [19]}
• found fractal cascades of waves on the edges of leaves, flowers, and garbage bags ^{[20] [21]}
• found a resonance in internal wave boundary currents generated by tidal flow on a slope; this resonance apparently selects the angle (typically three degrees) of the continental slopes of the oceans ^[22]
• discovered a new protein, Slf, which is produced by neighboring colonies of Paenibacillus dendritiformis bacteria.^[23] Slf is lethal to bacteria near the edge of a colony that faces another P. dendritiformis colony.^[24]
• found that fluctuations in the number N of bacteria swimming in a volume varied as N^(3/4), in contrast to the N^(1/2) scaling of fluctuations for systems in thermodynamic equilibrium ^[25]

Other

Swinney, together with Rajarshi Roy and Kenneth Showalter, founded a two-week Hands-On Research School for early career scientists from developing countries: handsonresearch.org. The schools, sponsored by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, are described in a 3-minute video here.

External links

• Homepage of H.L. Swinney at the University of Texas at Austin
• List of H.L. Swinney's students and postdocs
• Current research

Notes and References

1. Swinney . H. L. . Cummins . Herman Z. . Thermal Diffusivity of CO₂ in the Critical Region . Physical Review . American Physical Society (APS) . 171 . 1 . 1968-07-05 . 0031-899X . 10.1103/physrev.171.152 . 152–160. 1968PhRv..171..152S .
2. Swinney . Harry L. . Henry . Donald L. . Dynamics of Fluids near the Critical Point: Decay Rate of Order-Parameter Fluctuations . Physical Review A . American Physical Society (APS) . 8 . 5 . 1973-11-01 . 0556-2791 . 10.1103/physreva.8.2586 . 2586–2617. 1973PhRvA...8.2586S .
3. Gollub . J. P. . Swinney . Harry L. . Onset of Turbulence in a Rotating Fluid . Physical Review Letters . American Physical Society (APS) . 35 . 14 . 1975-10-06 . 0031-9007 . 10.1103/physrevlett.35.927 . 927–930. 1975PhRvL..35..927G .
4. Fenstermacher . P. R. . Swinney . Harry L. . Gollub . J. P. . Dynamical instabilities and the transition to chaotic Taylor vortex flow . Journal of Fluid Mechanics . Cambridge University Press (CUP) . 94 . 1 . 1979-09-11 . 0022-1120 . 10.1017/s0022112079000963 . 103–128. 1979JFM....94..103F . 14359747 .
5. Brandstater . A. . Swinney . Harry L. . Strange attractors in weakly turbulent Couette-Taylor flow . Physical Review A . American Physical Society (APS) . 35 . 5 . 1987-03-01 . 0556-2791 . 10.1103/physreva.35.2207 . 2207–2220. 9898397 . 1987PhRvA..35.2207B .
6. Wolf . Alan . Swift . Jack B. . Swinney . Harry L. . Vastano . John A. . Determining Lyapunov exponents from a time series . Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena . Elsevier BV . 16 . 3 . 1985 . 0167-2789 . 10.1016/0167-2789(85)90011-9 . 285–317. 1985PhyD...16..285W . 14411384 .
7. Fraser . Andrew M. . Swinney . Harry L. . Independent coordinates for strange attractors from mutual information . Physical Review A . American Physical Society (APS) . 33 . 2 . 1986-02-01 . 0556-2791 . 10.1103/physreva.33.1134 . 1134–1140. 9896728 . 1986PhRvA..33.1134F .
8. Andereck . C. David . C. David Andereck . Liu . S. S. . Swinney . Harry L. . Flow regimes in a circular Couette system with independently rotating cylinders . Journal of Fluid Mechanics . Cambridge University Press (CUP) . 164 . 1986 . 0022-1120 . 10.1017/s0022112086002513 . 155–183. 1986JFM...164..155A . 122768769 .
9. Sommeria . Jöel . Meyers . Steven D. . Swinney . Harry L. . Laboratory simulation of Jupiter's Great Red Spot . Nature . Springer Science and Business Media LLC . 331 . 6158 . 1988 . 0028-0836 . 10.1038/331689a0 . 689–693. 1988Natur.331..689S . 39201626 .
10. Ouyang . Q. . Swinney . Harry L. . Transition from a uniform state to hexagonal and striped Turing patterns . Nature . Springer Science and Business Media LLC . 352 . 6336 . 1991 . 0028-0836 . 10.1038/352610a0 . 610–612. 1991Natur.352..610O . 4316122 .
11. Lathrop . Daniel P. . Fineberg . Jay . Swinney . Harry L. . Transition to shear-driven turbulence in Couette-Taylor flow . Physical Review A . American Physical Society (APS) . 46 . 10 . 1992-11-01 . 1050-2947 . 10.1103/physreva.46.6390 . 6390–6405. 9907951 . 1992PhRvA..46.6390L .
12. Lewis . Gregory S. . Swinney . Harry L. . Velocity structure functions, scaling, and transitions in high-Reynolds-number Couette-Taylor flow . Physical Review E . American Physical Society (APS) . 59 . 5 . 1999-05-01 . 1063-651X . 10.1103/physreve.59.5457 . 5457–5467. 11969525 . 1999PhRvE..59.5457L .
13. Solomon . T. H. . Weeks . Eric R. . Swinney . Harry L. . Observation of anomalous diffusion and Lévy flights in a two-dimensional rotating flow . Physical Review Letters . American Physical Society (APS) . 71 . 24 . 1993-12-13 . 0031-9007 . 10.1103/physrevlett.71.3975 . 3975–3978. 10055122 . 1993PhRvL..71.3975S .
14. Umbanhowar . Paul B. . Melo . Francisco . Swinney . Harry L. . Localized excitations in a vertically vibrated granular layer . Nature . Springer Science and Business Media LLC . 382 . 6594 . 1996 . 0028-0836 . 10.1038/382793a0 . 793–796. 1996Natur.382..793U . 4338010 .
15. Melo . Francisco . Umbanhowar . Paul B. . Swinney . Harry L. . Hexagons, Kinks, and Disorder in Oscillated Granular Layers . Physical Review Letters . American Physical Society (APS) . 75 . 21 . 1995-11-20 . 0031-9007 . 10.1103/physrevlett.75.3838 . 3838–3841. 10059744 . patt-sol/9507003 . 1995PhRvL..75.3838M . 30000930 .
16. Rericha . Erin C. . Bizon . Chris . Shattuck . Mark D. . Swinney . Harry L. . Shocks in Supersonic Sand . Physical Review Letters . American Physical Society (APS) . 88 . 1 . 2001-12-17 . 0031-9007 . 10.1103/physrevlett.88.014302 . 014302. 11800951 . cond-mat/0104474 . 2001PhRvL..88a4302R . 16876943 .
17. Schröter . Matthias . Goldman . Daniel I. . Swinney . Harry L. . Stationary state volume fluctuations in a granular medium . Physical Review E . American Physical Society (APS) . 71 . 3 . 2005-03-30 . 1539-3755 . 10.1103/physreve.71.030301 . 030301(R). 15903397 . cond-mat/0501264 . 2005PhRvE..71c0301S . 8469315 .
18. Petrov . Valery . Ouyang . Qi . Swinney . Harry L. . Resonant pattern formation in achemical system . Nature . Springer Science and Business Media LLC . 388 . 6643 . 1997 . 0028-0836 . 10.1038/41732 . 655–657. 1997Natur.388..655P . 4394770 . free .
19. Masel/ko . J. . Swinney . Harry L. . Complex periodic oscillations and Farey arithmetic in the Belousov–Zhabotinskii reaction . The Journal of Chemical Physics . AIP Publishing . 85 . 11 . 1986 . 0021-9606 . 10.1063/1.451473 . 6430–6441. 1986JChPh..85.6430M .
20. Sharon . Eran . Roman . Benoît . Marder . Michael . Shin . Gyu-Seung . Swinney . Harry L. . Buckling cascades in free sheets . Nature . Springer Science and Business Media LLC . 419 . 6907 . 2002 . 0028-0836 . 10.1038/419579a . 579. 12374967 . 10533/173399 . 4419167 . free .
21. Sharon . Eran . Marder . Michael . Swinney . Harry . Leaves, Flowers and Garbage Bags: Making Waves . American Scientist . Sigma Xi . 92 . 3 . 2004 . 0003-0996 . 10.1511/2004.47.932 . 254–261. 27858394.
22. Zhang . H. P. . King . B. . Swinney . Harry L. . Resonant Generation of Internal Waves on a Model Continental Slope . Physical Review Letters . American Physical Society (APS) . 100 . 24 . 2008-06-20 . 0031-9007 . 10.1103/physrevlett.100.244504 . 244504. 18643589 . 2008PhRvL.100x4504Z .
23. Be'er . A. . Zhang . H. P. . Florin . E.-L. . Payne . S. M. . Ben-Jacob . E. . Swinney . H. L. . Deadly competition between sibling bacterial colonies . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 106 . 2 . 2009-01-07 . 0027-8424 . 2626719. 10.1073/pnas.0811816106 . 428–433. 19129489 . 2009PNAS..106..428B . free.
24. Be'er . A. . Ariel . G. . Kalisman . O. . Helman . Y. . Sirota-Madi . A. . Zhang . H. P. . Florin . E.- L. . Payne . S. M. . Ben-Jacob . E. . Swinney . H. L. . 5. Lethal protein produced in response to competition between sibling bacterial colonies . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 107 . 14 . 2010-03-22 . 0027-8424 . 10.1073/pnas.1001062107 . 6258–6263. 20308591 . 2851949 . 2010PNAS..107.6258B . free.
25. Zhang . H. P. . Be'er . A. . Florin . E.- L. . Swinney . H. L. . Collective motion and density fluctuations in bacterial colonies . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 107 . 31 . 2010-07-19 . 0027-8424 . 2922251. 10.1073/pnas.1001651107 . 13626–13630. 20643957 . 2010PNAS..10713626Z . free.