William Ditto, PhD

Professor of Physics

Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, Dr. Ditto received his B.S. in Physics from UCLA and Ph.D. in Physics from Clemson University.  Upon completion of his Ph.D., he started out his research career working for the Department of the Navy in Washington, DC where he and his collaborators were the first to demonstrate the control of chaotic systems.  This work became a featured cover article for Science News and continues to attract much attention. Dr. Ditto, during his two years as an assistant professor at the College of Wooster and his six years in the Department of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology, became internationally recognized for his application of chaos control to heart arrhythmias and seizures, and epilepsy in the brain.  While at Georgia Tech, Dr. Ditto was awarded the prestigious Office of Naval Research young investigator award as well as one of Georgia Tech’s highest college-wide achievement awards. In 1999 Dr. Ditto became a founding faculty member of the newly formed Emory/Georgia Tech Department of Biomedical Engineering where he contributed towards their mercurial rise to national prominence.

Dr. Ditto is also internationally known for the development of a new type of computer based on nonlinear dynamics and chaos.  This work lays the foundation for the construction of living and chaotic computers. This and other discoveries have resulted in the forming of three companies, Control Dynamics Inc., ChaoLogix, Inc, and Chaos Neuromorphics, LLC.
Author of numerous patents and over 100 publications (including articles in Nature, Science, and Scientific American), Dr. Ditto’s research is frequently featured in articles in the national and international press.  Such exposure has included news features in Science News, Time Magazine, Scientific American, Business Week, and the Washington Post as well as interviews with National Public Radio and features on CNN, BBC, and the Discover channel. In recognition of his research achievements, Dr. Ditto has recently been named a fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and most recently a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He most recently formed the Nonlinear Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to explore the intersection of Chaos, Nonlinear Dynamics, and Artificial Intelligence.