George Herbert Weiss

George H. Weiss (February 19, 1930 – February 14, 2017)[1] was an American applied mathematician and physicist at the National Institutes of Health, known for his work on random walks. He did his undergraduate studies at the City College of New York and Columbia University, graduating in 1951, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1958.[2]

George Herbert Weiss
Born(1930-02-19)February 19, 1930
DiedFebruary 14, 2017(2017-02-14) (aged 86)
Silver Spring, Maryland
NationalityAmerican
Known forContinuous-time random walk
Spouse(s)Delia Weiss
Children3
Scientific career
FieldsMathematician
InstitutionsNational Institutes of Health
Websitemscl.cit.nih.gov/homepages/ghw/

Awards

In 1967, Weiss and Marvin Zelen shared the Washington Academy of Sciences award for their contributions in Mathematics. Established in 1939, this award recognizes noteworthy accomplishments by young scientists (40 years of age and under). In May 2010, the NIH held a symposium entitled "Random Walks in Biology and Beyond", in honor of Weiss's 80th birthday and recent retirement. In July 2010, at the Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics, Weiss was awarded the Leopoldo García-Colín-Scherer Medal. This medal has been established in 2001 and awarded every three years to recognize outstanding international scientists for their contributions to the development of science.

Research

Main contributions of Weiss are in the theory of random walks, in particular, the development of the Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW). The original article that introduced CTRW [3] has been cited more than 2000 times, and this work found applications in many different fields. In the summer of 2017, the European Physical Journal B (Condensed Matter and Complex Systems) is planning to publish a Special Issue: "Continuous Time Random Walk: fifty years on", which celebrates 50 years since the appearance of this seminal paper. The submissions to this issue are accepted until 31 May 2017 (EPJB). Weiss himself has made many significant contributions in applying the CTRW framework in the areas of optical imaging,[4][5][6][7][8][9] financial market theory,[10] and other fields. In recent years, his research in optical imaging was focusing on the application of CTRW in the case of the spatially anisotropic optical properties.[11][12][13]

Weiss also used the renewal theory techniques to analyze the traffic flow, aiming to understand the problems of traffic delay and congestion. Besides his contributions in applications of CTRW to optical imaging, made also significant contributions in general medical research,[14] and has worked extensively on crystalline lattices and their properties.[15]

Family

George H. Weiss was married to Delia Weiss (née Orgel; a sister of chemist Leslie Orgel). They have three children and nine grandchildren. He lived in Silver Spring, Maryland until his death.

Selected publications
Books
  • Maradudin, A. A.; Montroll, E. W.; Weiss, G. H. (1963), Theory of Lattice Dynamics in the Harmonic Approximation, Solid State Physics, Academic Press, MR 0154684.
  • Weiss, George H. (1994), Aspects and Applications of the Random Walk, Random Materials and Processes, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, ISBN 0-444-81606-2, MR 1280031.
  • Shmueli, Uri; Weiss, George H. (1995), Introduction to Crystallographic Statistics, International Union of Crystallography Book Series, 6, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198559269.
Research articles

References
  1. "GEORGE WEISS: Notice of Death". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  2. Havlin, Shlomo; Nossal, Ralph; Shlesinger, Michael (1991), "George Herbert Weiss", Journal of Statistical Physics, 65 (5–6): 837–838, Bibcode:1991JSP....65..837H, doi:10.1007/BF01049583, S2CID 120298694.
  3. Montroll, Elliott W.; Weiss, George H. (1965). "Random Walks on Lattices. II". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 6 (2): 167. Bibcode:1965JMP.....6..167M. doi:10.1063/1.1704269.
  4. Bonner, R. F.; Nossal, R.; Havlin, S.; Weiss, G. H. (1 March 1987). "Model for photon migration in turbid biological media". Journal of the Optical Society of America A. 4 (3): 423–32. Bibcode:1987JOSAA...4..423B. doi:10.1364/JOSAA.4.000423. PMID 3572576.
  5. Nossal, R., Kiefer, J., Weiss, G. H., Bonner, R., Taitelbaum, H., & Havlin, S. (1988). Photon migration in layered media. Applied Optics, 27(16), 3382-3391.
  6. Taitelbaum, H., Havlin, S., & Weiss, G. H. (1989). Approximate theory of photon migration in a two-layer medium. Applied Optics, 28(12), 2245-2249.
  7. Gandjbakhche, A. H., & Weiss, G. H. (1995). V: Random Walk and Diffusion-Like Models of Photon Migration in Turbid Media. Progress in optics, 34, 333-402.
  8. Weiss, G. H., Porrà, J. M., & Masoliver, J. (1998). The continuous-time random walk description of photon motion in an isotropic medium. Optics communications, 146(1), 268-276.
  9. Chernomordik, V., Gandjbakhche, A. H., Hassan, M., Pajevic, S., & Weiss, G. H. (2010). A CTRW-based model of time-resolved fluorescence lifetime imaging in a turbid medium. Optics communications, 283(23), 4832-4839.
  10. Masoliver, Jaume; Montero, Miquel; Perelló, Josep; Weiss, George H. (December 2006). "The continuous time random walk formalism in financial markets". Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 61 (4): 577–598. arXiv:physics/0611138. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2004.07.015. S2CID 14201578.
  11. Dagdug, Leonardo, George H. Weiss, and Amir H. Gandjbakhche. "Effects of anisotropic optical properties on photon migration in structured tissues." Physics in Medicine and Biology 48.10 (2003): 1361.
  12. Dudko, O. K., Weiss, G. H., Chernomordik, V., & Gandjbakhche, A. H. (2004). Photon migration in turbid media with anisotropic optical properties. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 49(17), 3979
  13. Chernomordik, V., Gandjbakhche, A. H., Weiss, G. H., & Dagdug, L. (2010). Effects of anisotropy of the turbid media on the photon penetration depth. Journal of Modern Optics, 57(20), 2048-2053.
  14. Caveness, William F.; Meirowsky, Arnold M.; Rish, Berkeley L.; Mohr, Jay P.; Kistler, J. Philip; Dillon, J. Daniel; Weiss, George H. (May 1979). "The nature of posttraumatic epilepsy". Journal of Neurosurgery. 50 (5): 545–553. doi:10.3171/jns.1979.50.5.0545. PMID 107289.
  15. Weiss, G. H.; Maradudin, A. A. (1962). "The Baker-Hausdorff Formula and a Problem in Crystal Physics". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 3 (4): 771. Bibcode:1962JMP.....3..771W. doi:10.1063/1.1724280.
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