Order in Chaos
Klaus Hasselmann, Syukuro Manabe and Giorgio Parisi have significantly shaped our understanding of complex systems. For this they now receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Physicists like ordered structures: planets that orbit evenly around their central star or atoms that form crystals in regular patterns. But many processes on earth and in the universe simply have too many parts and factors working together to be described with reasonably simple models. If one simulates such so-called complex systems, the smallest changes in the initial situation can lead to completely different developments. With enough perseverance and the necessary mathematical tools, however, regularities and a certain predictability can also be elicited from them.
This year's three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics have succeeded. The theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi and the two climate researchers Klaus Hasselmann and Syukuro Manabe are being honored for their "groundbreaking discoveries on complex systems", as the Nobel Prize Committee announced on October 5, 2021 in Stockholm. The Italian Parisi has developed mathematical solutions for a large number of problems in the field of complex materials. The German Hasselmann and the Japanese Manabe have contributed with models to better understand and predict the climate system and global warming …
