Evolution of catastrophe theory and its founders

The program of catastrophe theory has been formulated by Thom. The fundamental theorems of elementary catastrophe theory have been proven by Thom, Mather and Arnol d. A large contribution to this theory has been carried in by Zeeman, who also found many practical applications of the theory. Arnol d and Berry have demonstrated the existence of a close relationship between elementary catastrophe theory and optics and found numerous uses for this relationship. 

Catastrophe theory is not yet a closed area and it has been continuously evolved, finding new applications. It should be mentioned that a trend of unification of streams of catastrophe theory and other theories of non-linear 

The program of catastrophe theory has been formulated in the Thom s book Structural Stability and Morphogenesis. The philosophical, mathematical and experimental incentives to the program of catastrophe theory may be found there. On the position of catastrophe theory among methods of investigation of stability of solutions of non-linear equations (models) one may learn from a book by Thompson. Stewart s and Zeeman s papers on the perspectives of the development of generalized catastrophe theory are also worth study. 

The references pertaining to chemical reactions will be given in Chapters 5 and 6. An exception, apart from a paper by Swinney, is the cited article by Winfree, describing the history of the Belousov-Zhabotinskii oscillatory reaction. The remaining references deal with philosophical problems. 

What is computation , in Mathematics Today. Twelve Informal Essays, L.A. Steen (Ed.), Springer-Verlag, New York-Heidelberg-Berlin, 1979. 

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