Jack L. Wisdom
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Primary Section: 16, Geophysics Secondary Section: 12, Astronomy Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2008)
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Biosketch
Jack Wisdom is Professor of Planetary Science at MIT. He is known primarily for his investigations of the dynamics of the solar system and its subsystems. He was among the first to apply the methods of modern Hamiltonian dynamical systems theory to solar system problems. With colleagues, he has found that the motion of the planets in our solar system is chaotic, as is the tilt of the spin axis of Mars. Many other systems in the solar exhibit chaotic behavior. He has developed numerical tools that are in widespread use in planetary dynamics. Jack Wisdom was born in Lubbock, Texas. He studied physics at Rice University and then physics in graduate school at Caltech. He has been a professor at MIT since 1984.
Research Interests
Jack Wisdom continues to study a variety of problems in planetary dynamics. Recent investigations have studied the dynamical history of the Earth-Moon system, and the tidal evolution of the satellite systems of the outer planets.
