Alfred James Lotka
Alfred James Lotka (March 2, 1880 - December 5, 1949) was an American mathematician, chemist, and statistician of Austrian origin, known for his contributions to population dynamics and mathematical biology. He is best known for developing the Lotka-Volterra model, a set of differential equations that describe the interactions between predators and prey in ecological systems. He also formulated Lotka’s law in informetrics, which describes the distribution of scientific productivity among authors. His work laid the groundwork for quantitative analysis in both ecology and bibliometrics.
Quotes
- What we seek is not an ‘empirical rule’, but a law of nature that brooks no exceptions.
- In organic evolution, trigger action, such as a ‘stimulus’, in the form of a very small dose of external energy, e.g. to the eye or sensor organ, which acts merely as a ‘trigger’ or ‘key’ to release energy supplied by a separate source, such as in the pulling of the trigger of a gun, plays an important role, for trigger action presupposes a fund of free energy ready to be released.
- The examination, and, where need be, revision of our fundamental premises is a task of a wholly different order from that of rearing upon these premises a structure of logical argumentation. It is a task that often demands the efforts of giant intellects, of men of altogether unusual independence of thought. Most of us are held back by our preconceived, intuitive judgments, which, blindly entertained, blind us also against the recognition of possible alternatives.