The magazine of the european research area European Commission Copenhagen, a missed chance?

PORTRAIT

Stephen Wolfram 

“Explaining an idea, then 

polishing it to make it as 

clear as possible, is an 

excellent path to better 

understanding.”

© St

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eu No. 63 | APRIL 2010 

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entitled Complex Systems Journal. “By putting 

these different elements in place, I hoped to 

encourage other researchers to follow this 

avenue of research. But the response from the 

scientific community was too slow to satisfy 

my curiosity.” 

The frustrated Wolfram left the academic 

world to devote himself fully to computer pro-

gramming. “The aim was to build research 

infrastructure and a tool that would allow me 

to continue my work on complex systems 

alone.” In 1987, Wolfram founded the firm 

Wolfram Research. One year later he brought 

to market the Mathematica software, which 

was capable of carrying out a wide range of 

mathematical operations. 

The company was a huge success. Today 

Mathematica has more than two million users 

in 90 countries, Wolfram Research generates 

annual turnover of USD 50 million and has 

more than 300 employees on its payroll. In 

changing hats from researcher to businessman, 

Stephen Wolfram became a millionaire. Initially 

this was poorly received by the academic 

world. “Twenty years ago the software used in 

laboratories was free. It was therefore seen as 

deeply shocking to ask for money for an 

application used for advanced R&D, an activ-

ity largely confined to universities. Nowadays 

attitudes have changed radically.”

Hacker of the universal code?

During the 1990s the world of research 

forgot about Stephen Wolfram, but he had not 

given up on his research. At night he shut 

himself up in his laboratory to pursue his 

research into complex systems. Armed with 

a computer, he tirelessly tested different cellu-

lar automata in order to identify those that best 

reproduced the structures found in nature. This 

led to the discovery of cellular automata capa-

ble of generating the structure of ice and of 

certain leaves. Ten years later he published 

A New Kind of Science, in which he describes 

his research results and then, chapter by chap-

ter, demonstrates to what extent his theory 

challenges the bases of the various scientific 

disciplines. 

He deliberately chose not to follow the 

traditional path of publishing his theory in 

a  scientific review. “I wanted my research to 

be accessible to the widest possible audience. 

This approach also allowed me to test my the-

ory. Explaining an idea, then polishing it to 

make it as clear as possible, is an excellent path 

to better understanding.” 

 After applying his efforts to computer 

modelling of mathematics and the world, 

Wolfram took on the sphere of knowledge. 

In 2009, he launched Wolfram Alpha, a search 

engine capable of providing all the information 

concerning a given subject in response to a writ-

ten request. “It has always been important 

for me not to hide the fundamental research 

questions raised during the development 

of a technology; in other words to adopt an 

integrated approach. Wolfram Alpha is a project 

that is particularly close to my heart precisely 

because it reflects this integrated vision of 

knowledge.”

As a businessman and researcher, the two 

hats he wears make Wolfram both fascinating 

and disconcerting. “Most people with the 

financial resources fund research indirectly, 

through a foundation for example. Some peo-

ple are frightened at the idea of financing fun-

damental research while at the same time 

contributing personally… although they are 

unable to say why!”