Dr. Richard J. Field
Department of Chemistry, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812
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Richard J. Field was born in Attleboro, MA in 1941. He received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1963, his Master of Science from the College of the Holy Cross in 1964, and his doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Rhode Island in 1968. From 1968 to 1974 he was a research associate with Professor Richard M. Noyes at the University of Oregon. After a year working at the Carnegie-Mellon Radiation Laboratory, Professor Field joined the faculty of the University of Montana Department of Chemistry in 1975 where he held the position of Department Chair from 1990-95, and he is now a Professor Emeritus. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame (1980) and at Universtat Wurzburg, Germany (1985-86), and he has been a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Physical Chemistry (1989-95) and International Journal of Chemical Kinetics (1997-2003).
During his time at the University of Oregon, Professor Field became interested in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. In 1974, he and Professor Richard Noyes devised the Oregonator (Orygunator): the simplest realistic model of the chemical dynamics of the oscillatory BZ reaction. The Oregonator is composed of five coupled elementary chemical stoichiometries obtained by reduction of the complex chemical mechanism of the BZ reaction and is referred to as the Field, Koros, Noyes mechanism. Reduction is accomplished by application of standard methods of chemical kinetics.
Although Professor Field is a chemical kineticist and as such is interested in any chemical system not at equilibrium, his major interests are in the area of oscillating chemical reactions, which serve as excellent examples of the remarkable behavior of systems maintained far from equilibrium and governed by nonlinear dynamic laws. From this work, he has developed an interest in atmospheric and climate dynamics as well as mathematical biology, in particular the mechanisms by which living organisms organize and evolve. Some current work involves nonlinear dynamics in psychology. For more information, visit http://www.umt.edu/chemistry/faculty/field.htm
Scholarpedia articles:
- Oregonator. Scholarpedia, 2(5):1386. (2007).
- Chemical reaction kinetics. unfinished.
(Author profile by Jian Liu)
