A mathematician and a philosopher at the University of California, Davis, have been awarded prestigious 2001 Guggenheim Fellowships. One will spend the next year developing a new theory of control systems, and the other will provide a new interpretation of Aristotle's treatment of his fundamental principle of metaphysics. Arthur Krener, a professor of mathematics, and Michael Wedin, a professor of philosophy, join 201 other artists, scholars and scientists nationwide and in Canada receiving the awards. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation's fellowship program provides recipients with the opportunity to freely pursue their work in the manner they choose for six to 12 months. Fellows in the annual competition are selected on the basis of distinguished past achievements and exceptional promise for future accomplishments. More than $6 million was awarded this year to fund the fellowships. The Guggenheim Fellowship is expected to average more than $34,000 per fellow. Art Krener, professor of mathematics, was awarded a fellowship for his work on "Normal forms and bifurcation of control systems." Control systems are widespread in the modern world, for example allowing us to steer cars, fly airplanes and run factory assembly lines. Bifurcations are "forks in the road" where a system suddenly changes from one state to another, such as an engine stalling when the fuel supply is reduced. "Art is one of the giants of the field," said Alan Laub, former dean of engineering at UC Davis. Krener's groundbreaking research had brought this technology to the point where it could be used by design engineers, Laub said. Krener will use the award for travel and to begin work on a new theory to explain bifurcation in complex control systems. The idea grew out of a research project on jet engines sponsored by the U.S. Air Force and involving collaborators at several campuses and institutes. "I realized that this work had wider applicability, and that we needed a general theory," said Krener. He expects to spend several years working out the new theory. Krener has worked at UC Davis since 1971, after completing his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley. He has been a visiting scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and at UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, and a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and of the American Mathematics Society. Wedin, who also joined the UC Davis faculty in 1971, expects to spend most of next academic year at UC Davis writing a book on Aristotle's treatment of his fundamental principle of metaphysics. As part of the project, he also hopes to visit scholars of ancient and classical philosophy and manuscript libraries in Oxford, England, and Paris, France. A scholar whose main focus has been the philosophy of Aristotle, a Greek philosopher of 4th century B.C., Wedin has also written about the early philosophy of Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher from the early 20th century. Wedin's books include "Mind and Imagination in Aristotle" (Yale University Press, 1989) and "Aristotle's Theory of Substance: The 'Categories' and 'Metaphysics' Zeta" (Oxford University Press, 2000). Twice, in 1995-96 and now in 2001-02, Wedin has been honored as a UC President's Research Fellow in the Humanities. The award includes a $33,000 stipend and a year's leave to work on scholarly projects. Wedin hopes to solve a centuries-old misconception about Aristotle. In his book "Metaphysics," the ancient philosopher lays out the basis for a science that explains the nature of fundamental reality. In examining Aristotle's argument for the highest principle of reality, namely the principle of non-contradiction, scholars have claimed he makes a number of logical and historical errors in the course of defending his principle and criticizing his predecessors. "Most people throw up their hands at this," Wedin says. "What I am doing is providing solution to the scandal of logic and scandal of scholarship." More information about the Guggenheim Foundation and its fellowship program may be found at the Web site: .