The Edward Norton Lorenz Tecumseh Station
Edward Norton Lorenz (1917 – 1998) was a close friend of Margret and H.A. Rey — Ed, Margret and Hans all summered in New Hampshire and lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts during most of the year. The Lorenz Tecumseh Station was established and is maintained to recognize this friendship and honor Ed’s contribution to meteorology and mathematics.
In conjunction with a research transect on Mount Tecumseh, the Lorenz Tecumseh Station is contributing to important environmental monitoring that will help researchers better measure the local impact of climate change.
Remembering Edward Norton Lorenz
by Nat Scrimshaw
Edward Norton Lorenz passed on April 16, 2008. I was fortunate enough to visit with him a few days before he died. He was his usual humble and good humored self. Earlier in the week I had spoken to him on the phone. Knowing he was facing his last days, he said me, “Well, you can’t live forever.”
Ed seemed to be the sort who just might live forever. In August 2006, on the 74th anniversy of his finding a cave on the date of the 1932 eclipse, I scurried to keep up with Ed as we bushwacked up the Welch ledges looking for the cave (we found it). As many of us do, Ed loved to hike Welch and Dickey mountains, and meeting him on the trail was a common sight.
Ours was friendship that comes from both a shared love — of walking on and off trail — and a bond extending over multiple generations and shared family. Two years before his death I began talking to Ed about putting a weather station on Mount Tecumseh as a token recognition of his tremendous contribution to meteorology and mathematics. Ed did not like to call attention to himself, but I could tell he was pleased. In the Fall of 2008 a weather station was erected on Mountain Tecumseh in Ed’s honor. Those with a careful eye will recognize a version of the “Lorenz Attractor” in the Rey Foundation logo and in the clouds in the Rey Foundation website header.
Internationally, Ed is best known for coining the phrase the “butterfly effect” (sensitive dependency on initial conditions) and being the “father” of Chaos Theory.
We miss Ed. I especially miss our bushwhacks together. I think of him when ever I see clouds in the sky that seem to swirl in the form of the Lorenz Attractor.
Selected links on Ed’s passing:
