Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003) was a Belgian chemist and thermodynamicist known for his "far-from-equilibrium" thermodynamic dissipative structure theory, according to which biological life is argued to have self-assembled from inorganic non-life through the non-equilbrium thermodynamic processes of fluctuations and bifurcations. Progogine's theory is seeded with and influenced by philosophy; as such, his theories are often found in writings on philosophical thermodynamics. [1] Progogine was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in chemistry for this theory. [2]

Prigogine's most popular work is the 1984 book Order Out of Chaos, in which he presented his dissipative structures theory in an easy to understand language, stiched with a number of philosophical conjectures and anthropomorphic chemical-molecular analogies and phraseologies.

Many currently use Progogine's dissipative structure theory as a cornerstone in theories concerning evolution and human life.

A competing classical thermodynamics biological evolution theory is the hierarchical thermodynamics theory, developed in 1977 by Russian physical chemist Georgi Gladyshev. Gladyshev's theory was stimulated into development (the year Prigogine won the Nobel prize) owing to personal convictions that Progogine's theory was illogical when applied to the process of biological evolution. Gladyshev sent Prigogine a copy of his theory (Preprint, Chernogolovka, Institute of Chem. Phys. Academy of Science of USSR, 1977, p. 46.), but Prigogine rejected it.

References
1. Earley, Joseph E. (2006). "Philosophy and the Statistical Mechanics of Ilya Prigogine" (PDF), Foundations of Chemistry. 8, 271-283.
2. Prigogine, Ilya. (1977). "Time, Structure, and Fluctuations", Nobel Lecture (in chemistry), Dec 08

Further reading
● Prigogine, Ilya, Nicolis, Gregoire and Babloyants, Agnes. (1972). "Thermodynamics of Evolution," Physics Today. Vol. 25, Nov. pg. 25.
● Prigogine, Ilya. (1973). "Can Thermodynamics Explain Biological Order", Impact of Science on Society, Vol. XXIII, No. 3, pg. 169.
● Lipkowski, Mil. (1979). "The Social Thermodynamics of Ilya Prigogine." Chemical and Engineering News, April 16.
● Prigogine, Ilya. (1972). "Thermodynamics and Evolution". Physics Today, Nov. 25.

External links
● Ilya Prigogine – Cosma Shalizi, self-organization researcher, Carnegie Mellon University.
● Self- organization - Cosma Shalizi, self-organization researcher, Carnegie Mellon University.