Let me publish here my letter to Predrag Cvitanovic months ago (see below for the exact date). Unfortunately, I got no reply. Either the email address was wrong or the letter did not get the attention it wanted. But then again, there could be some other reasons.
Hope the post below will get the attention it wants. (In short, papansin. Hahaha)
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Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 00:32:04 -0800 (PST)
From: K Gargar
To: predrag.cvitanovic@physics.gatech.edu
Subject: Nonlinear Dynamics research in a Third World
Dear Prof. Cvitanovic,
I have been studying Nonlinear Dynamics (ND) since my senior undergraduate time (1999). I read your book Chaos: Classical and Quantum from time to time but have not moved beyond chapter 1 since I interspersed the activity with my formal work and other non-academic activities. I also find your book not very easy to follow compared to Strogatz' Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos which I have read 3 years ago at University of the Philippines but I reached until chapter 3 only. Next week I will begin my studies on Strogatz' book since it is only recently that I got hold again of the book. This does not mean however that I will stop reading your book. In fact, I am studying three materials right now: third is that of Abraham and Marsden's Foundation of Mechanics which is highly rigorous in mathematics.
2 years ago, I organized a study group at my previous school (http://www.mpsc.ph). Three of us met 2 hours a week to study another book (Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos by Thompson and Stewart) which is the only available ND book in that school. We maintain a blog (http://ndgroup.blogspot.com) where post our progress reports, some related news and info, and other relevant materials. The ND meetings continued until just last month. I transfered residence then. Right now, I regularly attended the weekly meeting of Theoretical Physics Group at the National Institute of Physics (http://www.nip.upd.edu.ph) where I got my MS Physics degree last October 2002.
My purpose in writing to you is to solicit for your advise on an open problem which I am going to work out. I plan to report my progress in the weekly meeting. Although I have an MS Physics degree, I think I can handle problems for an undergraduate in your university.
By the way, a friend of mine who has just started his PhD Physics program last August 2005 at GATech has refered me to Dr. Schatz when I asked him for an expert in ND. However, when he mentioned that a certain Cvitanovic is also working at GATech on ND, I am very happy to hear that and I chose to write you instead. I thought you were in Denmark. My friend is Ian Caesar Vicente. Actually, he only knew of ND when he met Dr. Schatz there and he was a bit regretful that he was not aware of the very interesting field of ND. He is now working on Condensed Matter physics. I told him about you and your book.
Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to hearing your advise.
Respectfully,
Kim Gargar
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
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2 comments:
Hmmm... Predrag gets hundreds of e-mails. You might want to try sending it to him again because it probably just went under the radar.
Keep in mind as well that 12/7 is just before finals at Georgia Tech, so that is an especially bad time to try to track down somebody like that.
Predrag does maintain a courtesy membership at NBI, but he has been at Georgia Tech for many years.
Yes, his book can be confusing, but comparing it to Strogatz's book isn't fair. They are meant for extremely different levels of students. (Strogatz's book is the one I always recommend for people learning about nonlinear dynamics for the first time, and Predrag's book is both on a more specific set of topics and more appropriate for graduate students.)
As for what Predrag would recommend studying, I would check out his list of open/incomplete problems on the chaosbook website. Among the type of stuff he's done, I'd love to see people building on his chaotic cycling by extending the methodology to the CGL equation, but that's quite a tall order.
Are you kidding me? DO you really think that:
1. This is a GOOD school of Physics?
2. Do you really think that this guy is not an asshole, and has an ego that itself can not fits in Bobby Dood Stadium
Sure, after the second line, he dismissed your mail. Try someone that is (in fact) a good profesional and also a good human been. And please that can not be obviously in School of Physics at Gatech
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