Alfred lotka and vito volterra

American mathematician (–)

Alfred James Lotka (March 2, &#;– December 5, ) was a Polish-American mathematician, physical chemist, and statistician, famous for his work in population dynamics and energetics. A biophysicist, Lotka is best known for his proposal of the predator–prey model, developed simultaneously but independently of Vito Volterra.

Alfred lotka y vito volterra biography wikipedia Lotka proposed the theory that the Darwinian concept of natural selection could be quantified as a physical law. Among people born in , Alfred J. Since , the English Wikipedia page of Alfred J. Roberts Carroll W.

The Lotka–Volterra model is still the basis of many models used in the analysis of population dynamics in ecology.

Life

Lotka was born in Lwów, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine)^[1] to Polish-American parents.^[2] His parents, Jacques and Marie (Doebely) Lotka, were US nationals.^[3] He gained his in at the University of Birmingham, England,^[1] he did graduate work in –02 at Leipzig University,^[1] received an M.A.

in at Cornell University^[1] and a at Birmingham University in ^[1]

Occupations

In , he married Romola Beattie. They had no children.

He died in Red Bank, New Jersey.^[4]

Work

Further information: Lotka-Volterra equations

Although he is today known mainly for the Lotka–Volterra equations used in ecology, Lotka was a bio-mathematician and a bio-statistician, who sought to apply the principles of the physical sciences to biological sciences as well.

Vito volterra ciampino Doten William S. Navigation menu Personal tools Log in Request account. Elements of physical biology [ edit ]. In ecosystem ecology, H.

His main interest was demography, which possibly influenced his professional choice as a statistician at Metropolitan Life Insurance.

One of Lotka's earliest publications, in , proposed a solution to Ronald Ross's second malaria model. In , he published a thorough five-part analysis and extension of both Ross's malaria models.

The fourth part in the series, co-authored by F. R. Sharpe, modeled the time lag for pathogen incubation. Lotka published Elements of Physical Biology in , one of the first books on mathematical biology after D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form. He is also known for his energetics perspective on evolution. Lotka proposed that natural selection was, at its root, a struggle among organisms for available energy; Lotka's principle states that organisms that survive and prosper are those that capture and use energy more efficiently than their competitors.

Lotka extended his energetics framework to human society. In particular, he suggested that the shift in reliance from solar energy to nonrenewable energy would pose unique and fundamental challenges to society. These theories made Lotka an important forerunner to the development of biophysical economics and ecological economics, advanced by Frederick Soddy, Howard Odum and others.^[5]

Elements of physical biology

While at Johns Hopkins, Lotka completed his book Elements of Physical Biology (), in which he extended the work of Pierre François Verhulst.

His first book summarizes his previous work and organizes his ideas of unity and universality of physical laws, making his works accessible to other scientists. Although the book covered a large number of topics, from energetics of evolution (see below) to the physical nature of consciousness, the author is primarily known today for the Lotka–Volterra equation of population dynamics.

Lotka-volterra model example

Lotka-volterra model pdf

Lotka-volterra predator-prey model

Lotka-volterra

Lotka-volterra model notes

Energetics of evolution

His earlier work was centered on energetics and applications of thermodynamics in life sciences.

Lotka proposed the theory that the Darwinian concept of natural selection could be quantified as a physical law. The law that he proposed was that the selective principle of evolution was one which favoured the maximum useful energy flow transformation.

The general systems ecologist Howard T. Odum later applied Lotka's proposal as a central guiding feature of his work in ecosystem ecology. Odum called Lotka's law the maximum power principle.

Demography and public health

Lotka's work in mathematical demography began in with the publication of articles in the journal Science and American Journal of Science.

Alfred lotka y vito volterra biography images He recognized that species competing for a common food supply would form another category, but he devoted relatively little attention to competitive interactions and published only one later article on the topic 8. Bibliometrics [ edit ]. Stephan Frederick Mosteller Geoffrey H. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

He published several dozen articles on the subject over more than two decades, culminating with Théorie Analytique des Associations Biologiques (Analytical Theory of Biological Associations). The page Part 1, titled Principes, was published in ; the page Part 2, titled Analyse demographique avec application particuliere a l'espece humaine, was published in ; both by Hermann & Cie, Paris.

Bibliometrics

Within the field of bibliometrics, particularly that part devoted to studying scientific publications, Lotka is noted for contributing "Lotka's law". The law, which Lotka discovered, relates to the productivity of scientists. As noted by W. G. Poitier in "The Lotka distribution is based on an inverse square law where the number of authors writing n papers is 1/n² of the number of authors writing one paper.

Each subject area can have associated with it an exponent representing its specific rate of author productivity." Lotka's work sparked additional inquiries, eventually seminally contributing to the field of scientometrics—the scientific study of scientific publications.

He teamed up with Louis Israel Dublin, another statistician at Metropolitan Life, to write three books on demography and public health: The Money Value of a Man (), Length of Life (), and Twenty-five Years of Health Progress ().

Vito volterra liceo: Download as PDF Printable version. Ecologists normally thought in terms of entire food chains, which might have five stages, as the means of controlling populations: each species at a higher level was thought to control the species lower down the chain. Each subject area can have associated with it an exponent representing its specific rate of author productivity. Pearl contacted Lotka, started communicating his articles to PNAS, and eventually invited him to Johns Hopkins for an extended stay so that he could gather his ideas into a book.

Honors

See also

Publications

• A. J. Lotka () "Elements of Physical Biology" reprinted by Dover in as Elements of Mathematical Biology.
• Lotka, A. J. () Théorie Analytique des Associations Biologiques translated in as Analytical Theory of Biological Populations.

  New York: Plenum Press.

• Lotka, A. J. (). Lotka on population study, ecology, and evolution. Population and Development Review, 15(3), –
• Lotka, A. J. (). Analytical theory of biological populations. New York: Plenum Press

Articles, a selection^[6]

• Lotka, A. J. ().

  Relation between birth rates and death rates. Science, –

• Sharpe, F. R. & Lotka, A. J. (). A problem in age distribution. Philosophical Magazine, –
• A. J. Lotka () Quantitative studies in epidemiology. Nature, –
• Lotka, A. J. (). A contribution to quantitive epidemiology. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 9: p.&#;
• A.

  J. Lotka (a) "Contribution to the energetics of evolution". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 8: pp.&#;–

• A. J. Lotka (b) "Natural selection as a physical principle". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 8, pp.&#;–
• A. J. Lotka () "Contribution to the analysis of malaria epidemiology". The American Journal of Hygiene, 3: 1–
• Loth, A.

  J. () "The Frequency Distribution of Scientific Productivity". Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 16()–

About Lotka

References

External links