Armin Fuchs

Professor Dr Armin Fuchs (1959-2019)

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Dr. Armin Fuchs in the early hours of Saturday morning. Armin had valiantly struggled to overcome cancer which ultimately, and suddenly, took his life this past weekend. Dr. Fuchs was Professor in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and Department of Physics. His passing is a great loss for both programs. Those of us who knew him well to be a gentleman, a good friend and a very talented scientist and teacher will miss him dearly.

Armin completed his PhD work with Professor Dr. Herman Haken, the well-known father of Laser Theory, at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Synergetics, at the University of Stuttgart. From 1991 -1994, Armin was a post-doctoral fellow in the Center working with Professor J.A. Scott Kelso in applying his knowledge in Synergetics and Dynamical Systems to bring new insight to understanding human brain function. He returned to Stuttgart as a faculty member for one year before joining FAU’s PhD Program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences (of which he became Graduate Coordinator) and the Physics Department in 1995 as Assistant Professor rising through the ranks to Full Professor in 2017. Over the past 25 years, Armin has taught hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students who considered him an outstanding teacher. He was indeed a gifted teacher who could take a student with little mathematical background and successfully introduce them to the mathematical concepts, methods and tools of nonlinear dynamics. His approach was exemplified in his textbook Nonlinear Dynamics in Complex Systems: Theory and Applications for the Life-, Neuro- and Natural Sciences, published by Springer in 2013 which has already become a classic in the field. His work with FAU graduate students helped shape the minds and careers of scientists and educators now employed around the world who hold prominent positions in academia and the private sector. With his students and collaborators, Armin conducted seminal research in the application of the concepts of Synergetics and the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems to the behavioral sciences, biology and medicine, especially, the macroscopic modeling of the spatiotemporal dynamics of human EEG and MEG. In addition, he performed detailed analysis of concussion in college age football players using Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging data obtained at the University MRI facility directed by Dr Fred Steinberg.

Professor Dr. Armin Fuchs will indeed be missed, although his legacy lives on in his many publications, his research and his students. Our condolences and thoughts are with his family and his friends.

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