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Prigogine was born in Moscow, Russia and studied chemistry at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium. In 1959, he was appointed director of the International Solvay Institute in Brussels, Belgium. He was later appointed Regental Professor and Ashbel Smith Professor of Physics and Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States, where in 1967 he co-founded what is now called the Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems.
Prigogine is known best for his work on dissipative structures concentrated on thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium. His work in this field led to pioneering research in self-organizing systems, as well as philosphic inquiries into the role of time in the natural sciences. His work is seen by many as a bridge between natural sciences and the social sciences.
In his later years, his work concentrated on mathematical role of determinism in nonlinear systems on both the classical and quantum level. He proposed the use of a complex Hilbert space in quantum mechanics as one possible method of achieving irreversibility in quantum systems.
Prigogine was a member of numerous scientific organizations and he received awards, prizes and more than 50 honorary degrees. In 1989, he was awarded the title of Viscount by the King of Belgium. He was the author of scientific articles and books.
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