From Chemical Oscillations to Applications of Nonlinear Dynamics: Dedicated to Richard J. Field on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday

Professor Richard J. Field is a physical chemist whose major research interest is nonlinear dynamics. He was introduced to the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction (BZR) as a postdoc by its 1968 demonstration at a University of Oregon seminar. Field, Kőrös and Noyes (FKN) elucidated in 1972 the puzzling chemical mechanism of the BZR in one of the historically most highly cited (~1600) papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In 1974 Field and Noyes reduced the complex FKN mechanism to its underlying dynamic structure (~1200 citations in Journal of Chemical Physics), making the connection between BZR experiment and nonlinear dynamics. They also clarified in another 1974 publication the BZR traveling waves. Dick has continued his work on the BZR and other nonlinear systems including atmospheric, climatic, and psychological dynamics. He recently provided a review of the appearance of chaos in the BZR. His most recent contribution (in the May 2021 issue of Chaos) details some remarkable features of oscillations in the photochemically driven, ruthenium catalyzed BZR.

Guest Editors: Jason A.C. Gallas, Harold M. Hastings, and Oliver Steinbock