Peter Turchin

Infobox Scientist


image_width = 150px
name = Peter Turchin
birth_date = 1957
birth_place = Moscow
residence = flagicon|USAUSA
nationality = flagicon|Russia Russia
death_date =
death_place =
field = Population dynamics, historical dynamics
work_institutions = University of Connecticut
alma_mater = New York University
known_for = contributions to population biology and historical dynamics
prizes =
religion =
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Peter Turchin is a specialist in population dynamics and mathematical modeling of historical dynamics ("cliodynamics").

Personal data

He was born in Moscow in 1957.

In 1975 he entered the School of Biology of the Moscow State University and studied there till 1977, when his father, the Soviet dissident scientist Valentin Turchin, was extradited from the USSR. He got his B.A. in biology from the New York University (cum laude) in 1980. He got his Ph.D. in zoology in 1985 from Duke University.

Positions

Peter Turchin is a professor at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology as well as in the Department of Mathematics.

Interests and Achievements

Peter Turchin has made contributions to population biology and historical dynamics. He is one of the founders of the theory of cliodynamics, the new scientific discipline related to cliometrics. It investigates dynamic processes in history. His ideas contributed to social cycle theory through the development of the mathematical models of long-term ("secular") sociodemographic cycles. He has also suggested a novel mathematical expression of the sociological theory of Ibn Khaldun.

His publications include:

Turchin, P., et al., eds. 2007. [http://edurss.ru/cgi-bin/db.pl?cp=&page=Book&id=53185&lang=en&blang=en&list=Found History & Mathematics: Historical Dynamics and Development of Complex Societies.] Moscow: KomKniga. ISBN 5484010020

Turchin, P. 2007. Modeling Periodic Waves of Integration in the Afroeurasian World System. "Globalization as an Evolutionary Process: Modeling Global Change". Ed. by George Modelski, Tessaleno Devezas, and William R. Thompson. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415773614

Turchin, P. 2006. "War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations." New York: Pi Press.

Turchin, P. 2006. Population Density and Warfare: A Reconsideration. Social Evolution & History 5(2): 121–158 (with Andrey Korotayev).

Turchin, P. 2003. "Historical Dynamics: Why States Rise and Fall." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Turchin, P. 2003. "Complex Population Dynamics: a Theoretical/Empirical Synthesis." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Turchin, P. 1998. "Quantitative Analysis of Movement: measuring and modeling population redistribution in plants and animals." Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.

References

* [http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/people/turchin/ Peter Turchin's Web Page]
* [http://www.sott.net/articles/show/161508-Transforming-history-into-science-Arise-cliodynamics- Arise Cliodynamics]
* [http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/War_and_Peace_and_War:_The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Empires War and Peace and War at InterSci Complexity wiki]
* [http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Historical_Dynamics:_Why_States_Rise_and_Fall Historical Dynamics at InterSci Complexity wiki]