Freedom and Evolution

Adrian Bejan was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal for “Thermodynamics and constructal theory, which predicts natural design and its evolution in engineering, scientific, and social systems”.  He earned all his degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: B.S. (1971, Honors Course), M.S. (1972, Honors Course), and Ph.D. (1975). He was a Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, at the University of California, Berkeley (1976-1978). At Duke University, he is the J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor since 1989.  He authored over 30 books, including The Physics of Life (2016) and 650 peer-refereed journal articles, and was awarded 18 honorary doctorates from universities in 11 countries. Professor Adrian Bejan’s impact on thermal sciences is highlighted by his original methods of theory, modeling, analysis and design that today are associated with his name: life and evolution as physics, constructal law, entropy generation minimization, scale analysis, heatlines, temperature-heat (T-Q) drawings, and many more. He has received the highest international awards for thermal sciences, and is a member of the Academy of Europe.

• Preface.- Nature and power.- Economies of scale.- Hierarchy.- Inequality.- Social organization and innovation.- Complexity.- Discipline.- Diversity.- Evolution.- Diminishing returns.- Science and freedom.- Acknowledgements.