Predrag Cvitanović

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Predrag Cvitanović is a theoretical physicist recognized for his work in nonlinear dynamics and chaos. He introduced cycle expansions, a method that uses repeating patterns of chaotic systems—periodic orbits—to approximate their behavior in a controlled, systematic way. This approach helps explain and quantify chaotic dynamics in a range of fields, from atomic physics to neurophysiology and fluid turbulence.

He earned a Bachelor of Science from MIT in 1969 and a PhD from Cornell University in 1973. Before joining Georgia Tech, he directed the Center for Chaos and Turbulence Studies at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Cvitanović is a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, a corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and has received the Danish Physical Society’s Research Prize. In 2009 he won the Humboldt Prize for work in turbulence theory and he currently holds the Glen P. Robinson Chair in Nonlinear Science at Georgia Tech. He is also known for the Feigenbaum-Cvitanović functional equation.