In science, Grégoire Nicolis (1940-) is a Greek-born Belgian physicist noted for the coauthoring of a number of books and articles with Belgian chemist Ilya Prigogine, in reference to human or biological evolutionary applications of Bénard cells type Prigoginean thermodynamics, i.e. a far-from-equilibrium interpretation of self organization in human systems. [1] Nicolis’ latest work has been on the application of nonequilibrium thermodynamics in complexity theory and its argued application to “human systems”. [2]
Education
Nicolis studied engineering at the Technical University of Athens. In 1965, Nicolis completed his PhD in physics at the University of Brussels (Bussels school of thermodynamics) under Prigogine, his doctorial advisor, with the thesis “Some Aspects of Transport Phenomena in Non-Uniform Systems” (Quelques aspects des phénomènes de transport dans les systèmes non-uniformes). [3] Soon thereafter, Nicolis became professor of theoretical physical chemistry at the University of Brussels.
References
1. (a) Nicolis, Grégoire and Prigogine, Ilya. Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations (esp. ch. 18). Wiley.
(b) Nicolis, Grégoire and Prigogine, Ilya. (1989). Exploring Complexity - an Introduction (esp. sect. “Self-Organization in Human Systems”, pgs. 238-42). New York: Freeman and Co.
(c) Prigogine, Ilya, Nicolis, Grégoire, and Babloyants, Agnes. (1972). "Thermodynamics of Evolution," Physics Today. Vol. 25, Nov. pg. 25.
2. Nicolis, Grégoire and Nicolis, Catherine. (2007). Foundations of Complex Systems: Nonlinear Dynamic Statistical Physics Information and Prediction. Publisher.
3. Grégoire Nicolis – Mathematics Genealogy Project.
