Joel E. Keizer (31 August, 1942 - 16 May, 1999) was an American

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

and university professor. He is principally known for his work in non-equilibrium thermodynamics and mathematical modelling of cellular phenomena, in particular human production of

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

Canonical theory

Canonical theory is a molecular theory developed by Keizer and coworkers which claims to explain many physical, chemical, and biological processes in an unified and canonical way. Ronald F. Fox and Keizer showed the application of the canonical theory to chaos. Keizer used the canonical form for the first formulation of statistical

thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, Work (thermodynamics), work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed b ...

valid in far from equilibrium regimes, where the Onsager reciprocal relations and the

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

formula for the fluctuations do not work. Keizer also provided fluctuating generalizations of the

Boltzmann equation The Boltzmann equation or Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) describes the statistical behaviour of a thermodynamic system not in a state of equilibrium; it was devised by Ludwig Boltzmann in 1872.Encyclopaedia of Physics (2nd Edition), R. G ...

and of hydrodynamics (fluctuating hydrodynamics). The applications of his work to

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

are the reason that he was considered as one of the pioneers in the field of

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and Computer simulation, computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer sci ...

. Cosma Shalizi wrote:

Chapter five applies the canonical theory to various chemical and electrochemical processes. There is a detailed comparison of a model based on the formalism to actual experimental data for a calcium-regulated
potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...
channel in muscle cells, yielding remarkably close agreement (especially since the channel is really just a single molecule!)... Keizer was, until his premature death in May, 1999, an active and talented scientist who played a significant role not merely in the development of the formal structure of far from equilibrium thermodynamics, but also in its application to experiment, especially in biology. Unlike a number of others who have attempted such cross-overs, he made it work.

Besides the unification of disparate topics as chemical reactions, hydrodynamics, or heat transport in solids, the canonical theory has been applied to solving the problems of traditional disciplines as

statistical mechanics In physics, statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. Sometimes called statistical physics or statistical thermodynamics, its applicati ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keizer, Joel 1942 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American biologists University of Oregon alumni University of California, Davis people