Leon O. Chua
Encyclopedia
Leon Ong Chua (ˈtʃwɑː; ; born June 28, 1936) is an IEEE Fellow and a professor in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department at the University of California, Berkeley
, which he joined in 1971. Considered to be the "father of nonlinear circuit theory and cellular neural network
s", he is also the inventor and namesake of Chua's circuit
and was the first to conceive the theories behind, and postulate the existence of, the solid-state
memristor
. Thirty-seven years after he predicted its existence, a working solid-state memristor was created by a team led by R. Stanley Williams
at Hewlett Packard.
, Chua and his fraternal twin sister grew up as members of the Chinese ethnic minority
community in the Philippines under the reign of the Empire of Japan
during World War II
. He earned his BSEE degree from Mapúa Institute of Technology
in the Philippines in 1959, then emigrated to the United States
on a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, where he earned an MSEE degree in 1961. He then earned a Ph.D from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1964. His PhD thesis was entitled Nonlinear Network Analysis—The Parametric Approach. Over the ensuing years, he has received eight honorary doctorates.
Chua has four daughters; the eldest, Amy Chua
(a Professor of Law at Yale University
.), Michelle, Katrin (a professor at Stanford University
), and Cynthia (Cindy).
from 1964-1970 before joining Berkeley in 1971. His current research interests include cellular neural/nonlinear networks, nonlinear circuits and systems, nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation theory
, and chaos theory
. He is also the Editor of The International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, which he joined in 1971. Considered to be the "father of nonlinear circuit theory and cellular neural network
Cellular neural network
Cellular neural networks are a parallel computing paradigm similar to neural networks, with the difference that communication is allowed between neighbouring units only...
s", he is also the inventor and namesake of Chua's circuit
Chua's circuit
Chua's circuit is a simple electronic circuit that exhibits classic chaos theory behavior. It was introduced in 1983 by Leon O. Chua, who was a visitor at Waseda University in Japan at that time...
and was the first to conceive the theories behind, and postulate the existence of, the solid-state
Solid state (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
memristor
Memristor
Memristor is a passive two-terminal electrical component envisioned by Leon Chua as a fundamental non-linear circuit element relating charge and magnetic flux linkage...
. Thirty-seven years after he predicted its existence, a working solid-state memristor was created by a team led by R. Stanley Williams
R. Stanley Williams
Richard Stanley Williams is research scientist in the field of nanotechnology and a Senior Fellow and the founding director of the Quantum Science Research laboratory at HP. He has over 57 patents, with 40 more patents pending...
at Hewlett Packard.
Early life and education
A Chinese AmericanChinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
, Chua and his fraternal twin sister grew up as members of the Chinese ethnic minority
Chinese Filipino
A Chinese Filipino derived from two words: "Tsino" and "Pinoy" ) is a Philippine national of Chinese ethnicity but born/raised in the Philippines....
community in the Philippines under the reign of the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He earned his BSEE degree from Mapúa Institute of Technology
Mapúa Institute of Technology
Mapúa Institute of Technology is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila and in Makati....
in the Philippines in 1959, then emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, where he earned an MSEE degree in 1961. He then earned a Ph.D from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1964. His PhD thesis was entitled Nonlinear Network Analysis—The Parametric Approach. Over the ensuing years, he has received eight honorary doctorates.
Chua has four daughters; the eldest, Amy Chua
Amy Chua
Amy L. Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She joined the Yale faculty in 2001 after teaching at Duke Law School. Prior to starting her teaching career, she was a corporate law associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton...
(a Professor of Law at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.), Michelle, Katrin (a professor at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
), and Cynthia (Cindy).
Career
Chua was a member of the faculty at Purdue UniversityPurdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
from 1964-1970 before joining Berkeley in 1971. His current research interests include cellular neural/nonlinear networks, nonlinear circuits and systems, nonlinear dynamics, bifurcation theory
Bifurcation theory
Bifurcation theory is the mathematical study of changes in the qualitative or topological structure of a given family, such as the integral curves of a family of vector fields, and the solutions of a family of differential equations...
, and chaos theory
Chaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
. He is also the Editor of The International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos.
Awards and honors
- Doctor Honoris Causa from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneÉcole polytechnique fédérale de LausanneThe École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.The school was founded by the Swiss Federal Government with the stated mission to:...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
(1983) - Honorary Doctorate from the University of TokushimaUniversity of TokushimaThe is a national university in the city of Tokushima, Japan, with seven graduate schools and five undergraduate faculties. The university was founded in 1949, by merging six separate national educational facilities into one.-Overview:...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(1984) - Honorary Doctorate from the Technische Universität Dresden, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1992) - Doctor Honoris Causa from the Technical University of Budapest, HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(1994) - Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Santiago de CompostelaUniversity of Santiago de CompostelaThe Royal University of Santiago de Compostela - USC is a public university located in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. A second campus is located in Lugo, Galicia....
, SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(1995) - Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of FrankfurtUniversity of FrankfurtUniversity of Frankfurt may refer to:*Goethe University Frankfurt, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany*Viadrina European University, in Frankfurt , Germany...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1996) - Doctor Honoris Causa from the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of IaşiGheorghe Asachi Technical University of IasiThe Gheorghe Asachi Technical University is a public university located in Iaşi, Romania. It has the oldest tradition in Romania in engineering education and is second ranked among the technical institutions of higher education, and the fifth among all universities in Romania, in the national...
, RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
(1997) - Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of CataniaUniversity of CataniaThe University of Catania is a university located in Catania, Italy, and founded in 1434. It is the oldest university in Sicily, the 13th oldest in Italy and the 29th oldest university in the world...
, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(2000) - IEEE Browder J. Thompson Memorial Prize Award (1967)
- IEEE Guillemin-Cauer Award (1972, 1985, 1989)
- IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Award (1973), for the paper "Memristor: The Missing Circuit Element" in IEEE TRANSACTIONS on Circuit Theory, September 1971
- IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award (2000)
- IEEE Gustav Robert Kirchhoff AwardIEEE Gustav Robert Kirchhoff AwardThe IEEE Gustav Robert Kirchhoff Award is a Technical Field Award established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 2003. This award is presented for outstanding contributions to the fundamentals of any aspect of electronic circuits and systems that has a long-term significance or impact.The award may...
(2005), For seminal contributions to the foundation of nonlinear circuit theory, and for inventing Chua's Circuit and Cellular Networks, each spawning a new research area. - M. E. Van Valkenburg Award (1995 and 1998)
- IEEE Circuits and Systems SocietyIEEE Circuits and Systems SocietyThe IEEE Circuits and Systems Society is a society of the IEEE. It is also known by the acronym IEEE CASS. In the hierarchy of IEEE, the Circuits and Systems Society is one of close to 40 technical societies organized under the IEEE's Technical Activities Board.From the , the field of interest of...
Vitold BelevitchVitold BelevitchVitold Belevitch was a Belgian mathematician and electrical engineer of Russian extraction who produced some important work in the field of electrical network theory. Born to parents fleeing the Bolsheviks, he settled in Belgium where he worked on early computer construction projects...
Award (2007), For seminal contributions to nonlinear circuit theory, the first mathematically proven physical implementation of Chaos (Chua circuit), the local activity principle as the root of complexity, the cellular neural/nonlinear network principle and basic theory, and the qualitative theory of complexity in 1D cellular automata. - 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship