Leonid Bunimovich

Who is Leonid Bunimovich?

Leonid Bunimovich is a Russian mathematician, residing in the U.S., who specializes in dynamical systems. L. Bunimovich is known for his discovery of a new mechanism of chaos in Dynamical systems, which is called mechanism of defocusing. The most famous class of chaotic dynamical systems of this type Dynamical billiards are focusing chaotic billiards. More recently he introduced so called Bunimovich mushrooms, which are visual examples of billiards with mixed regular and chaotic dynamics. He received his bachelor's degree in 1967 and doctorate in 1973 from the University of Moscow. His thesis advisor was Yakov G. Sinai. In 1986 he was awarded Doctor of Sciences degree in "Theoretical and Mathematical Physics". Bunimovich is Regents' Professor of Mathematics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has studied numerous topics in pure and applied dynamical systems, including billiards, pattern formation, networks, and other topics.