Arthur Winfree

Arthur Winfree was Regents Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona from 1989 to 2002. He earned a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1965 and a Ph.D. in Biology from Princeton University in 1970, studying circadian rhythms in fruit flies under Colin Pittendrigh. His career began as Assistant Professor in the Program in Theoretical Biology at the University of Chicago from 1969 to 1972. He then served as Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Purdue University from 1972 to 1979, advancing to Professor there until 1986. At Arizona, he was also affiliated with the Program in Applied Mathematics. Winfree received a National Institutes of Health Research Development Award from 1973 to 1978.

Winfree specialized in theoretical biology, focusing on mathematical models of biological rhythms, phase resetting and synchronization of circadian clocks, spiral and scroll waves in excitable media like the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, and phase singularities in cardiac arrhythmias. Key early works include 'Biological rhythms and the behavior of populations of coupled oscillators' (Journal of Theoretical Biology, 1967), 'Spiral waves of chemical activity' (Science, 1972), and demonstrations of scroll rings (1974). He authored influential books: The Geometry of Biological Time (Springer, 1980; second edition 2001), The Timing of Biological Clocks (Scientific American Library, 1986), and When Time Breaks Down: The Three-Dimensional Dynamics of Electrochemical Waves and Cardiac Arrhythmias (Princeton University Press, 1987). Later contributions addressed scroll wave stability, knotted vortices, and optical tomography of chemical waves. His research profoundly shaped chronobiology, nonlinear dynamics, and understandings of ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death. Major honors include Guggenheim Fellowship (1982), MacArthur Fellowship (1984-1989), Einthoven Award (1989), AMS-SIAM Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics (2000, shared with Alexandre Chorin), and Aisenstadt Chair Lecturer (2001).