Floris Takens | |
|---|---|
 Floris Takens at theUniversity of Warwick in 1980 (photo fromMathematical Research Institute of Oberwolfach) | |
| Born | (1940-11-12)12 November 1940 |
| Died | 20 June 2010(2010-06-20) (aged 69) |
| Alma mater | University of Amsterdam |
| Known for | Takens's theorem |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Doctoral advisor | Nicolaas Kuiper |
Floris Takens (12 November 1940 – 20 June 2010)[1] was a Dutchmathematician known for contributions to the theory ofchaotic dynamical systems.
Together withDavid Ruelle, he predicted thatfluid turbulence could develop through astrange attractor, a term they coined, as opposed to the then-prevailing theory ofaccretion of modes. The prediction was later confirmed byexperiment[citation needed]. Takens also established the result now known as theTakens's theorem, which shows how to reconstruct a dynamical system from an observedtime-series. He was the first to show how chaotic attractors could be learned by neural networks.
Takens was born inZaandam in theNetherlands. He attended schools inThe Hague and in Zaandam before serving in the Dutch army for one year (1960–1961). At theUniversity of Amsterdam, he concluded his undergraduate and graduate studies. He was granted a doctorate in mathematics in 1969 under the supervision ofNicolaas Kuiper for his thesisThe minimal number of critical points of a function on a compact manifold and theLusternik–Schnirelmann category.
After his graduate work, Takens spent a year at theInstitut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, inBures-sur-Yvette, near Paris, where he worked withDavid Ruelle,René Thom, andJacob Palis. His friendship with Palis took him many times to theInstituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada (IMPA) inRio de Janeiro, Brazil. Their collaboration produced several joint publications.
Takens was a professor at theUniversity of Groningen, inGroningen, the Netherlands, from 1972 until he retired from teaching in 1999.[2]
Takens was a member of:
