Alfred J. Lotka

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Alfred J. Lotka
Lwów, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine)
Died5 December 1949(1949-12-05) (aged 69)
Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Known forThe Lotka–Volterra equations
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics

Alfred James Lotka (March 2, 1880 – December 5, 1949) was a Polish-American

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

Life

Lotka was born in

Birmingham University in 1912.[1]

Occupations

In 1935, he married Romola Beattie. They had no children.

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

Work

Further information:
Lotka-Volterra equations
predator
and prey.

Although he is today known mainly for the Lotka–Volterra equations used in

Metropolitan Life Insurance
.

One of Lotka's earliest publications, in 1912, proposed a solution to

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 (1925), in which he extended the work of

Lotka–Volterra equation
of population dynamics.

Energetics of evolution

His earlier work was centered on energetics and applications of

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 1907 with the publication of articles in the journal Science and American Journal of Science. 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 45-page Part 1, titled Principes, was published in 1934; the 149-page Part 2, titled Analyse demographique avec application particuliere a l'espece humaine, was published in 1939; 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 1981: "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 (1930), Length of Life (1936), and Twenty-five Years of Health Progress (1937).

Honors

See also

Publications

  • A. J. Lotka (1925) "Elements of Physical Biology" reprinted by Dover in 1956 as Elements of Mathematical Biology.
  • Lotka, A. J. (1939) Théorie Analytique des Associations Biologiques translated in 1998 as Analytical Theory of Biological Populations. New York: Plenum Press.
  • Lotka, A. J. (1989). Lotka on population study, ecology, and evolution. Population and Development Review, 15(3), 539–550.
  • Lotka, A. J. (1998). Analytical theory of biological populations. New York: Plenum Press
Articles, a selection[6]
  • Lotka, A. J. (1907). Relation between birth rates and death rates. Science, 26: 121–130.
  • Sharpe, F. R. & Lotka, A. J. (1911). A problem in age distribution. Philosophical Magazine, 21: 435–438.
  • A. J. Lotka (1912) Quantitative studies in epidemiology. Nature, 88: 497–498.
  • Lotka, A. J. (1919). A contribution to quantitive epidemiology. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, 9: p. 73.
  • A. J. Lotka (1922a) "Contribution to the energetics of evolution". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 8: pp. 147–51.
  • A. J. Lotka (1922b) "Natural selection as a physical principle". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 8, pp. 151–54.
  • A. J. Lotka (1923) "Contribution to the analysis of malaria epidemiology". The American Journal of Hygiene, 3: 1–121.
  • Loth, A. J. (1926) "The Frequency Distribution of Scientific Productivity". Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 16(1926):317–323.
About Lotka

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Smith, Charles. "Lotka, Alfred James (United States 1880-1949)". Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  2. doi:10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00342
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-4757-9176-1
    .
  4. ^ "Alfred J Lotka papers, MC032, page 35". Princeton University. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  5. ^ Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2008. "Lotka, Alfred James". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 15, 2006; Last revised December 1, 2008; Retrieved August 3, 2009.
  6. ^ The Dover volume contains a list of Lotka's technical papers.

External links

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