STEPHEN WOLFRAM

Remember that dictionary on physics you wrote when you were 12? No? Sorry, that was Stephen Wolfram. In Champaign-Urbana, we’re a bit proud of Stephen, founder of our local Wolfram Research, maker of Mathematica and creator Wolfram Alpha, the engine that makes Apple’s Siri, well, smart.

Known for his TED conference presentations, Stephen Wolfram has been cited by more than 30,000 publications. Take our word for it. That’s a pretty big deal. His book “A New Kind of Science”, which presents an empirical study of simple computational systems, has sparked a dialogue within many of the major scientific areas.