Alfred James Lotka: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:46, 29 August 2025

Alfred James Lotka (1880-1949) was an American mathematician.

Life

Alfred James Lotka was born to Polish-American parents in Lwów, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) on March 2, 1880. He gained his B.Sc. in 1901 at the University of Birmingham, England, did graduate work in 1901–02 at Leipzig University, received an M.A. in 1909 at Cornell University, and a D.Sc. at Birmingham University in 1912.

Lotka worked as a statistician for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, in New York from 1924 until his retirement in 1948. He died December 5, 1949 in Red Bank, NJ.

Contributions

Lotka is best-known for the Lotka–Volterra equations predicting linked oscillations in populations of predator and prey and for his studies of human population stability. He contributed widely to physical biology, the energetics of evolution, demography and public health, and bibliometrics.

Lotka's Law

An application of Zipf's law describing the frequency of publication (productivity) of authors in any given field. Lotka's law models the productivity (i.e. frequency of publication) of scientists. The distribution is based on an inverse square law where the number of authors writing n papers is l/n2 of the number of authors writing one paper. Each subject area can have associated with it an exponent representing its specific rate of author productivity. Lotka's law is one of the traditional major components of bibliometrics along with obsolescence and Bradford's law of scattering.

Publication

Lotka, Alfred J. (1926). "The frequency distribution of scientific productivity". Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 16 (12): 317–324.

Papers

Princeton University Library, Stokes Library - Wallace Hall. Collected papers of Lotka. 1881-1949. 15.8 linear ft.; 34 cartons.

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+[[File:Alfred J. Lotka.jpg|alt=Alfred J. Lotka|thumb|Alfred J. Lotka]]
+'''Alfred James Lotka''' (1880-1949) was an American mathematician.
-ADDRESS:
+== Life ==
+Alfred James Lotka was born to Polish-American parents in Lwów, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) on March 2, 1880.  He gained his B.Sc. in 1901 at the University of Birmingham, England, did graduate work in 1901–02 at Leipzig University, received an M.A. in 1909 at Cornell University, and a D.Sc. at Birmingham University in 1912.
-E-MAIL:
+Lotka worked as a statistician for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, in New York from 1924 until his retirement in 1948. He died December 5, 1949 in Red Bank, NJ.
-WORKED AT:	See a good biographical sketch and selected bibliography of writings in Wikipedia at: <nowiki>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka</nowiki>  This excerpt describes his influence in bibliometrics: "Within the field of bibliometrics, particularly that part devoted to studying scientific publications, Lotka is noted for contributing "Lotka's law." The law which Lotka discovered relates to the productivity of scientists. As noted by W.G. Poitier in 1981: "The Lotka distribution is based on an inverse square law where the number of authors writing n papers is l/n2 of the number of authors writing one paper. Each subject area can have associated with it an exponent representing its specific rate of author productivity." Lotka's work sparked additional inquiries, eventually seminally contributing to the field of scientometrics�the scientific study of scientific publications."
+== Contributions ==
+Lotka is best-known for the Lotka–Volterra equations predicting linked oscillations in populations of predator and prey and for his studies of human population stability. He contributed widely to physical biology, the energetics of evolution, demography and public health, and bibliometrics.
-AWARDS:
+=== Lotka's Law ===
+An application of Zipf's law describing the frequency of publication (productivity) of authors in any given field. Lotka's law models the productivity (i.e. frequency of publication) of scientists. The distribution is based on an inverse square law where the number of authors writing n papers is l/n2 of the number of authors writing one paper. Each subject area can have associated with it an exponent representing its specific rate of author productivity. Lotka's law is one of the traditional major components of bibliometrics along with obsolescence and [[S. C. Bradford|Bradford's]] law of scattering.
-OFFICES:	Royal Economic Society of Population Association(?) Pres. 1938-39; Fellow American Statistical Association Pres. 1942.
+== Publication ==
+*Lotka, Alfred J. (1926). "The frequency distribution of scientific productivity". ''Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences''. 16 (12): 317–324.
-PAPERS AT:
+== Further reading ==
+Biography:
+*"Alfred J. Lotka." ''Wikipedia'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_J._Lotka]
+*Haaga, J. ''Alfred Lotka, Mathematical Demographer.'' Population Reference Bureau, March 2000. [https://web.archive.org/web/20170820153122/http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2000/AlfredLotkaMathematicalDemographer.aspx]
+Lotka's Law:
+*"Lotka's law." ''Wikipedia'' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka%27s_law]
-LOCATION #1	Princeton University Library, Mudd Manuscripts Library
+== Papers ==
+Princeton University Library, Stokes Library - Wallace Hall. Collected papers of Lotka. 1881-1949. 15.8 linear ft.; 34 cartons.
-PAPERS DATES:	1881-1949
-SIZE:	15.8 linear ft.; 34 cartons
-INCLUDES:	Professional papers
-FINDING AID:	See the Princeton library catalog record for details
-SOURCE:	NUCMC, MS 61-1069, p. 440.