Recently I stumbled upon a paper published last year by James McWilliams, "A Perspective on the Legacy of Edward Lorenz". The paper discusses what McWilliams considers to be Lorenz's four most important ideas:
- Available potential energy in the atmospheric general circulation;
- The Lorenz model's chaotic dynamics and strange attractor;
- The limits of weather predictability; and
- The "slow manifold".
My own thesis research directly applies versions of the first two of these ideas, so I owe a lot to him. I had the privilege of meeting Prof. Lorenz when he was well in his late 80s. The occasion was an annual meeting of the American Meterological Society in San Diego, in January 2004. A symposium in Lorenz's honor was held, and he gave the final presentation of the symposium. Earlier in the day, a poster session was included in the festivities, and he graciously visited the posters. My mentor and I first encountered him there. We introduced ourselves and shook his hand, but otherwise exchanged very few words with him. We also spoke briefly with him after his presentation at the end of the symposium. One of his biographers described him as "reticent" and that is consistent with my brief experience with him.
Not being part of an elite institution, I do not often meet major figures in the history of science. My brief encounter with Lorenz was one such instance. Here is a picture of the cover of the symposium booklet.
Reference
J. C. McWilliams, 2019: A perspective on the legacy of Edward Lorenz. Earth and Space Science, 6 (3): 336-350.
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