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Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
 
 
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Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, born Nicolae Georgescu (Constanta
Constanta

Constanta is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located on the Black Sea coast. Constan?a is part of the group of four equal size cities which ranks after Bucharest, Romania's capital, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Ia?i....
, Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
, 4 February 1906 – Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
, Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, 30 October 1994) was a Romanian mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
, statistician
Statistician

Statisticians work with theoretical and applied statistics in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it....
 and economist
Economist

An economist is an expert in the social science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy....
, best known for his 1971 magnum opus The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, which situated the view that the second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in Thermodynamic equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium....
, i.e., that usable "free energy" tends to disperse or become lost in the form of "bound energy", governs economic processes. He is also considered "one of the key intellectual progenitors of ecological economics".






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Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, born Nicolae Georgescu (Constanta
Constanta

Constanta is the oldest living city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located on the Black Sea coast. Constan?a is part of the group of four equal size cities which ranks after Bucharest, Romania's capital, Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca and Ia?i....
, Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
, 4 February 1906 – Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
, Tennessee
Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States United States. In 1796, it became the sixteenth state to join the United States....
, 30 October 1994) was a Romanian mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
, statistician
Statistician

Statisticians work with theoretical and applied statistics in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it....
 and economist
Economist

An economist is an expert in the social science of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy....
, best known for his 1971 magnum opus The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, which situated the view that the second law of thermodynamics
Second law of thermodynamics

The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in Thermodynamic equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium....
, i.e., that usable "free energy" tends to disperse or become lost in the form of "bound energy", governs economic processes. He is also considered "one of the key intellectual progenitors of ecological economics".

Biography

He studied mathematics at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest

The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava College into the current University of Bucharest....
, graduating in 1926. After winning a scholarship, he went on to study at the University of Paris
University of Paris

The historic University of Paris first appeared in the 12th century. In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous university . The university is often referred to as the Sorbonne or La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution founded about 1257 by Robert de Sorbon....
, where his interests turned towards statistics and economics. He received a Ph.D.
Ph.D.

Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip...
 degree in 1930, for a thesis on latent cyclical components in time series
Time series

In statistics, signal processing, and many other fields, a time series is a sequence of data points, measured typically at successive times, spaced at time intervals....
. Another scholarship allowed him to pursue his studies for two years at the University College
University College London

University College London is a university institution and constituent college of the University of London based primarily in London, England, United Kingdom....
 in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 with Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson

Karl Pearson Fellow of the Royal Society established the disciplineof mathematical statistics.In 1911 he founded the world's first university statistics department at University College London....
. In 1932, Georgescu-Roegen returned to Romania, and became Professor of Statistics at the University of Bucharest. He held this position until 1946. He was a professor at Vanderbilt University from 1950 to 1976.

Georgescu-Roegen introduced into economics
Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
, inter alia, the concept of entropy
Entropy

In many branches of science, entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system. The concept of entropy is particularly notable as it is applied across physics, information theory and mathematics....
 from thermodynamics
Thermodynamics

In physics, thermodynamics is the study of the conversion of heat energy into different forms of energy ; different energy conversions into heat energy; and its relation to macroscopic variables such as temperature, pressure, and volume....
 (as distinguished from the mechanistic foundation of neoclassical economics drawn from Newtonian physics) and did foundational work which later developed into evolutionary economics
Evolutionary economics

Evolutionary economics is a heterodox economics school of economics thought that is inspired by evolutionary biology. Much like mainstream economics, it stresses complex interdependencies, competition, growth, structural change, and resource constraints but differs in the approaches which are used to analyze these phenomena....
. His work contributed significantly to bioeconomics
Bioeconomics

Bioeconomics is the study of the dynamics of living resources using Economics models. It is an attempt apply the methods of environmental economics and ecological economics to empirical biology....
 and to ecological economics
Ecological economics

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of academic research that aims to address the interdependence of human economies and natural ecosystems....
.

He was a protégé of the renowned economist Joseph Schumpeter
Joseph Schumpeter

Joseph Alois Schumpeter was an economist and political scientist born in Moravia, then Austria-Hungary, now Czech Republic. He popularized the term "creative destruction" in economics....
. His own protégés included foundational ecological economist Herman E. Daly.

See also

  • Thermoeconomics
    Thermoeconomics

    Thermoeconomics is the name given to a type of heterodox economics economic theory that attempts to explicitly apply the laws of thermodynamicss of thermodynamics to economics....


Selected writings

  • “Utility”, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1968). Macmillan: New York.
  • Energy and Economic Myths : Institutional and Analytical Economic Essays (1976). Pergamon Press: New York.
  • The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971). Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  • “Afterword”, in J. Rifkin and T. Howard, Entropy: A New World View
    Entropy: A New World View

    Entropy: A New World View is a non-fiction book by Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard, with an Afterword by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. First published by The Viking Press, New York in 1980 ....
     (1971). The Viking Press: New York.


External links