Abstract
We present a brief, idiosyncratic overview of the past quarter century of progress in nonlinear chemical dynamics and discuss what we view as the most exciting recent developments and some challenges and likely areas of progress in the next 25 years.
Chemical systems display a remarkable range of nonlinear phenomena in time and space. These include temporal oscillations, multistability and chaos as well as stationary (Turing) spatial patterns, and a variety of traveling and standing waves. Chaos was founded soon after a series of developments that turned nonlinear chemical dynamics from a field whose subject matter consisted largely of a set of unconnected, often serendipitous observations to one in which one could hope to understand and even design phenomena whose existence was previously viewed with skepticism by much of the scientific community.During the past twenty-five years, experimental and theoretical chemists have learned much about the properties and mechanisms associated with these strange and beautiful patterns, and they have begun to link their understanding with discoveries in biology, physics, engineering, and other fields. There remain many challenges for those who seek to weave together chemical reactions, transport phenomena, and external forces in new and exciting ways.