INDIANAPOLIS – IUPUI professor of mathematical sciences Michal Misiurewicz has been elected a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This honor recognizes Misiurewicz’s lifetime achievements in mathematics, including proving some basic results in one-dimensional dynamics.
This distinction is “a clear indication of our great appreciation and of (Misiurewicz’s) leading position in science, as well as of (his) significant contribution to the development of scientific cooperation with Poland,” stated Polish Academy of Sciences president Jerzy Duszyński.
His work continues in a relatively new area of mathematics of Dynamical Systems and Ergodic Theory, investigating the evolution in time of various kinds of systems. These systems may be used to describe phenomena from sciences such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, meteorology, biology and medicine. Misiurewicz’s specialty is in low-dimensional systems. An example of how these systems can be used include with the notion of chaos, which explains the impossibility of exact weather prediction, and suggests the statistical approach.
Misiurewicz is most known for proving existence of invariant measures (this is what enables mathematicians to use statistical methods) in some class of one-dimensional systems. Those systems are now called "Misiurewicz maps." The name leaked to complex dynamics, so there also are "Misiurewicz points" in the Mandelbrot set.
“Michal has made significant contributions to this field for many years, and it is great to see his work recognized with this well-deserved honor," said Jeffrey X. Watt, chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences.
Misiurewicz’s membership to the Polish Academy of Sciences in a lifetime appointment. The organization will honor him at an awards ceremony later this year.
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