W.D. McCormick
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics
		wdm@chaos.ph.utexas.edu (512)-471-7413 Office: RLM 14.210
		Research Interests: Nonlinear dynamics Waves and complex dynamics in chemical reaction-diffusion systems Experimental condensed matter physics	Publications

Experience: Professor University of Texas at Austin (1990-) Associate Professor University of Texas at Austin (1968-1990) Assistant Professor University of Washington, Seattle (1962-68) Research Associate Frascati National Laboratory (1960-61) Research Associate University of Padua, Italy (1959-60) Education: Ph.D (physics) Duke University (1959) B.S (physics) California Institute of Technology (1953)

Research: McCormick conducts research on instabilities, chaos and pattern formation in chemical systems. Experiments with J. C. Roux and H. L. Swinney in the early 1980s on well-controlled oscillating chemical reactions demonstrated the existence of deterministic chaos and other complex dynamical phenomena which are now known to be typical of nonlinear systems far from equilibrium. Characteristic sequences of periodic and chaotic states were found in such systems, the bifurcations between them were studied and the chaotic states (strange attractors) were described by such measures as Lyapunov exponents and dimensionality. Recent experiments by McCormick and his collaborators have concentrated on pattern formation in complex chemical systems. Important advances have been made in the design of chemical reactors suitable for studying spatial structures, including the invention of several types of diffusion reactors capable of sustaining spatio-temporal patterns for indefinite periods of time. McCormick and his collaborators hold patents on two such reactors. Affiliations: Center for Nonlinear Dynamics Department of Physics