Derek Abbott (3 May 1960, in South Kensington, London, UK) is a physicist and electronic engineer. He is a Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is notable for leading theoretical work in the development of Parrondo's paradox, contributions to the field of stochastic resonance, and experimental contributions to T-ray imaging.

Early years

In the period 1963-1965 Abbott attended the famous Norland College pre-school, Chislehurst, Kent, UK, as a boarder. Then during 1965-1967 he attended Oakfield School, Dulwich, UK. In 1968, he attended the École de Ferney-Voltaire, France, and the École Seminaire de Collonges-sous-Salève, France. In 1969 he did a stint at Philadelphia High School, U.S., and Bassett House School, London, UK. In the 1969-1971 period, he was a boarder at Copthorne Preparatory School, Sussex, UK. During 1971-1978 he attended Holland Park School, London, UK.

Career

In 1978, he began work at GEC Hirst Research Centre, Wembley, UK, performing research in the area of CCD and microchip design for imaging systems. Whilst working, he graduated in 1982 with a BSc in Physics from Loughborough University of Technology, where his key intellectual influence was Nicholas J. Phillips. In 1986, at the time when the mysterious GEC deaths started, he began work as a microchip designer at Austek Microsystems in Adelaide, Australia. In 1987, he joined the University of Adelaide completing his PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering in 1995 under Kamran Eshrahian and Bruce R. Davies. He is currently a full professor in the same department.

Selected publications

• G. P. Harmer and D. Abbott, "Losing strategies can win by Parrondo's paradox," Nature (London), Vol. 402, No. 6764 p. 864, Dec. 1999.
• J. M. R. Parrondo, G. P. Harmer and D. Abbott, "New paradoxical games based on Brownian ratchets," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 85, No. 24, pp. 5226-5229, Dec. 2000.
• G. P. Harmer, D. Abbott, "Parrondo's paradox," Statistical Science, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 206-213, May 1999.
• G. P. Harmer and D. Abbott, "A review of Parrondo's paradox," Fluctuation and Noise Letters, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. R71-R107, Jun 2002.
• S. Mickan, D. Abbott, J. Munch, X.-C. Zhang and T. van Doorn, "Analysis of system trade-offs for terahertz imaging," Microelectronics Journal, Vol. 31, No. 7, pp. 503-514, Jul. 2000.
• A. P. Flitney and D. Abbott, "Quantum version of the Monty Hall problem," Physical Review A, Vol. 65, Art. No. 062318, 2002.
• G. P. Harmer, B. R. Davis, and D. Abbott "A review of stochastic resonance: circuits and measurement," IEEE Trans. Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 299-309, Apr. 2002.
• A. P. Flitney, J. Ng, and D. Abbott, "Quantum Parrondo's games," Physica A, Vol. 314, pp. 35-42, 2002.
• D. Abbott, P. C. W. Davies, and C. R. Shalizi, "Order from disorder: the role of noise in creative processes," Fluctuation and Noise Letters, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. C1-C12, 2002.
• D. Abbott, B. R. Davis, N. J. Phillips, and K. Eshraghian, "Simple derivation of the thermal noise formula using window-limited Fourier transforms," IEEE Trans. Education, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 1-13, 1996.

Honours and awards

• Stephen Cole the Elder Prize (1999)
• Fellow of the Institute of Physics (Life) (2001)
• Tall Poppy Award for Science (2004)
• SA Great Award for Science & Technology (2004)
• Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2005)

Erdős number

Abbott's Erdős number is 4. His path to Erdős is as follows:

• E. S. Key, M. M. Kłosek, and D. Abbott, "On Parrondo's paradox: how to construct unfair games by composing fair games," ANZIAM J., 47, no. 4, pp. 495-511, (2006).
• M. M. Kłosek, B.J. Matkowsky, Z. Schuss, "First-order dynamics driven by rapid Markovian jumps," SIAM J. Appl. Math., 49, no. 6, pp. 1811-1833, (1989).
• R. O. Davies and Z. Schuss, "A proof that Henstock's integral includes Lebesgue's," J. London Math. Soc., 2, pp. 561-562, (1970).
• R.O. Davies and P. Erdös, "Splitting almost-disjoint collections of sets into subcollections admitting almost-transversals," Colloq. Math. Soc. Janos Bolyai, 10, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 307-322, (1975).

Scientific genealogy

Abbott's scientific genealogy via his primary doctoral advisor runs as follows:

• 1774, MA, University of Cambridge, John Cranke
• 1782, MA, University of Cambridge, Thomas Jones
• 1811, MA, University of Cambridge, Adam Sedgwick
• 1830, MA, University of Cambridge, William Hopkins
• 1857, MA, University of Cambridge, Edward John Routh
• 1868, MA, University of Cambridge, John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh)
• 1883, MA, University of Cambridge, Joseph John Thomson
• 1903, MA, University of Cambridge, John Sealy Edward Townsend
• 1923, DPhil, University of Oxford, Victor Albert Bailey
• 1948, MSc, University of Sydney, Ronald Ernest Aitchison
• 1964, PhD, University of Sydney, Peter Harold Cole
• 1980, PhD, University of Adelaide, Kamran Eshraghian
• 1995, PhD, University of Adelaide, Derek Abbott

Miscellaneous

• In 1999, Cosma R. Shalizi, at the Santa Fe Institute, made a bet that if Abbott included the name "Monica Lewinsky" in a published scientific journal article he would pay for one beer. Abbott successfully met the challenge, in a paper on game theory, published in Chaos, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 705-714, 2001.
• In the late 1990s, Abbott wore two watches, one on each wrist. When asked why, he would reply, "It is a way of identifying the best students—to check their powers of observation."
• In the 1990s, during undergraduate lectures, if a student raised a hand and spotted a mistake in the lecture material, Abbott would open his wallet and give the student the lowest coin or note that he happened to be carrying. On occasion, if he forgot to bring coins, he had to part with a high denomination. Around 1998, he also adopted the same prize money approach for the "most perceptive question" asked in a lecture
• Abbott once remarked that "research is 90% marketing and 10% research."
• He attended Oakfield School at the same time as the singer Kim Wilde.
• He attended Copthorne Preparatory School at the same time as the deputy editor of Private Eye, Francis Wheen.
• At Holland Park School, the singer Yazz was one of his classmates.
• At Holland Park School he was taught English Literature by the comedian Mike Walling and music by the saxophonist of Roxy Music, Andy Mackay.
• In the early 1970s he lived next door to Cat Stevens' drummer Gerry Conway in Holland Park, London.

See also

• Parrondo's paradox
• J. M. R. Parrondo

External links

• Derek Abbott's homepage
• Mathematics genealogy project: Abbott's scientific genealogy
• Fellow of the IEEE citation
• Abbott's Fellow IEEE biography
• 2004 Tall Poppy Award citation
• 2005 Eureka Prize People's Choice Award for Science list of finalists
• Abbott's COSnet profile
• Nanotechnology network profile
• Teaching philosophy

References

• Who's Who in South Australia, Ed. Suzannah Pearce, Publ: Crown Content Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, 2007, p. 1, ISBN 1-74095-142-5

Derek Abbott (3 May 1960, in South Kensington, London, UK) is a physicist and electronic engineer. He is a Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is notable for leading theoretical work in the development of Parrondo's paradox, contributions to the field of stochastic resonance, and experimental contributions to T-ray imaging.

Early years

In the period 1963-1965 Abbott attended the famous Norland College pre-school, Chislehurst, Kent, UK, as a boarder. Then during 1965-1967 he attended Oakfield School, Dulwich, UK. In 1968, he attended the École de Ferney-Voltaire, France, and the École Seminaire de Collonges-sous-Salève, France. In 1969 he did a stint at Philadelphia High School, U.S., and Bassett House School, London, UK. In the 1969-1971 period, he was a boarder at Copthorne Preparatory School, Sussex, UK. During 1971-1978 he attended Holland Park School, London, UK.

Career

In 1978, he began work at GEC Hirst Research Centre, Wembley, UK, performing research in the area of CCD and microchip design for imaging systems. Whilst working, he graduated in 1982 with a BSc in Physics from Loughborough University of Technology, where his key intellectual influence was Nicholas J. Phillips. In 1986, at the time when the mysterious GEC deaths started, he began work as a microchip designer at Austek Microsystems in Adelaide, Australia. In 1987, he joined the University of Adelaide completing his PhD in Electrical & Electronic Engineering in 1995 under Kamran Eshrahian and Bruce R. Davies. He is currently a full professor in the same department.

Selected publications

• G. P. Harmer and D. Abbott, "Losing strategies can win by Parrondo's paradox," Nature (London), Vol. 402, No. 6764 p. 864, Dec. 1999.
• J. M. R. Parrondo, G. P. Harmer and D. Abbott, "New paradoxical games based on Brownian ratchets," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 85, No. 24, pp. 5226-5229, Dec. 2000.
• G. P. Harmer, D. Abbott, "Parrondo's paradox," Statistical Science, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 206-213, May 1999.
• G. P. Harmer and D. Abbott, "A review of Parrondo's paradox," Fluctuation and Noise Letters, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. R71-R107, Jun 2002.
• S. Mickan, D. Abbott, J. Munch, X.-C. Zhang and T. van Doorn, "Analysis of system trade-offs for terahertz imaging," Microelectronics Journal, Vol. 31, No. 7, pp. 503-514, Jul. 2000.
• A. P. Flitney and D. Abbott, "Quantum version of the Monty Hall problem," Physical Review A, Vol. 65, Art. No. 062318, 2002.
• G. P. Harmer, B. R. Davis, and D. Abbott "A review of stochastic resonance: circuits and measurement," IEEE Trans. Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 299-309, Apr. 2002.
• A. P. Flitney, J. Ng, and D. Abbott, "Quantum Parrondo's games," Physica A, Vol. 314, pp. 35-42, 2002.
• D. Abbott, P. C. W. Davies, and C. R. Shalizi, "Order from disorder: the role of noise in creative processes," Fluctuation and Noise Letters, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. C1-C12, 2002.
• D. Abbott, B. R. Davis, N. J. Phillips, and K. Eshraghian, "Simple derivation of the thermal noise formula using window-limited Fourier transforms," IEEE Trans. Education, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 1-13, 1996.

Honours and awards

• Stephen Cole the Elder Prize (1999)
• Fellow of the Institute of Physics (Life) (2001)
• Tall Poppy Award for Science (2004)
• SA Great Award for Science & Technology (2004)
• Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2005)

Erdős number

Abbott's Erdős number is 4. His path to Erdős is as follows:

• E. S. Key, M. M. Kłosek, and D. Abbott, "On Parrondo's paradox: how to construct unfair games by composing fair games," ANZIAM J., 47, no. 4, pp. 495-511, (2006).
• M. M. Kłosek, B.J. Matkowsky, Z. Schuss, "First-order dynamics driven by rapid Markovian jumps," SIAM J. Appl. Math., 49, no. 6, pp. 1811-1833, (1989).
• R. O. Davies and Z. Schuss, "A proof that Henstock's integral includes Lebesgue's," J. London Math. Soc., 2, pp. 561-562, (1970).
• R.O. Davies and P. Erdös, "Splitting almost-disjoint collections of sets into subcollections admitting almost-transversals," Colloq. Math. Soc. Janos Bolyai, 10, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 307-322, (1975).

Scientific genealogy

Abbott's scientific genealogy via his primary doctoral advisor runs as follows:

• 1774, MA, University of Cambridge, John Cranke
• 1782, MA, University of Cambridge, Thomas Jones
• 1811, MA, University of Cambridge, Adam Sedgwick
• 1830, MA, University of Cambridge, William Hopkins
• 1857, MA, University of Cambridge, Edward John Routh
• 1868, MA, University of Cambridge, John William Strutt (Lord Rayleigh)
• 1883, MA, University of Cambridge, Joseph John Thomson
• 1903, MA, University of Cambridge, John Sealy Edward Townsend
• 1923, DPhil, University of Oxford, Victor Albert Bailey
• 1948, MSc, University of Sydney, Ronald Ernest Aitchison
• 1964, PhD, University of Sydney, Peter Harold Cole
• 1980, PhD, University of Adelaide, Kamran Eshraghian
• 1995, PhD, University of Adelaide, Derek Abbott

Miscellaneous

• In 1999, Cosma R. Shalizi, at the Santa Fe Institute, made a bet that if Abbott included the name "Monica Lewinsky" in a published scientific journal article he would pay for one beer. Abbott successfully met the challenge, in a paper on game theory, published in Chaos, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 705-714, 2001.
• In the late 1990s, Abbott wore two watches, one on each wrist. When asked why, he would reply, "It is a way of identifying the best students—to check their powers of observation."
• In the 1990s, during undergraduate lectures, if a student raised a hand and spotted a mistake in the lecture material, Abbott would open his wallet and give the student the lowest coin or note that he happened to be carrying. On occasion, if he forgot to bring coins, he had to part with a high denomination. Around 1998, he also adopted the same prize money approach for the "most perceptive question" asked in a lecture
• Abbott once remarked that "research is 90% marketing and 10% research."
• He attended Oakfield School at the same time as the singer Kim Wilde.
• He attended Copthorne Preparatory School at the same time as the deputy editor of Private Eye, Francis Wheen.
• At Holland Park School, the singer Yazz was one of his classmates.
• At Holland Park School he was taught English Literature by the comedian Mike Walling and music by the saxophonist of Roxy Music, Andy Mackay.
• In the early 1970s he lived next door to Cat Stevens' drummer Gerry Conway in Holland Park, London.

See also

• Parrondo's paradox
• J. M. R. Parrondo

External links

• Derek Abbott's homepage
• Mathematics genealogy project: Abbott's scientific genealogy
• Fellow of the IEEE citation
• Abbott's Fellow IEEE biography
• 2004 Tall Poppy Award citation
• 2005 Eureka Prize People's Choice Award for Science list of finalists
• Abbott's COSnet profile
• Nanotechnology network profile
• Teaching philosophy

References

• Who's Who in South Australia, Ed. Suzannah Pearce, Publ: Crown Content Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia, 2007, p. 1, ISBN 1-74095-142-5