Ilya Prigogine was a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical chemist whose research provided a way to think about complex systems and the behavior of matter on the atomic and molecular scale. He explored the concept of dissipative structures, or systems that are inherently unstable, yet capable of self-organization. Prigogine's work also introduced the concept of order-from-chaos, which suggests that even in the midst of randomness, patterns and organization can emerge in non-equilibrium states. These principles have since been applied to nearly every field of study.

See also: emergence, evolution, phase change, self-organization, antifragile