Nicolas Rashevsky (November 9, 1899 – January 16, 1972) was an American

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

who was one of the pioneers of

mathematical biology Mathematical and theoretical biology, or biomathematics, is a branch of biology which employs theoretical analysis, mathematical models and abstractions of living organisms to investigate the principles that govern the structure, development ...

, and is also considered the father of mathematical biophysics and theoretical biology. Robert Rosen ''Essays on Life'' (2004) Evelyn Fox Keller ''Making Sense of Life'' pp. 82-89

Academic career

He studied

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

at the St. Vladimir Imperial University of Kyiv. He left Ukraine after the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

, emigrating first to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, then to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and finally to the US in 1924. In USA he worked at first for the Westinghouse Research Labs in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

where he focused on the theoretical physics modeling of the cell division and the mathematics of cell fission. He was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1934 and went to the University of Chicago to take up the appointment of assistant professor in the department of physiology. In 1938, inspired by reading

On Growth and Form ''On Growth and Form'' is a book by the Scottish mathematical biology, mathematical biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948). The book is long – 793 pages in the first edition of 1917, 1116 pages in the second edition of 1942. The ...

(1917) by

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson CB FRS FRSE (2 May 1860 – 21 June 1948) was a Scottish biologist, mathematician and classics scholar. He was a pioneer of mathematical and theoretical biology, travelled on expeditions to the Bering Strait ...

, he made his first major contribution by publishing his first book on ''Mathematical Biophysics'', and then in 1939 he also founded the first

international journal entitle
''The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'' (BMB)
these two essential contributions founded the field of

, with the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology serving as the focus of contributing mathematical biologists over the last 70 years. During the late 1930s, Rashevsky's research group was producing papers that had difficulty publishing in other journals at the time, so Rashevsky decided to found a new journal exclusively devoted to mathematical biophysics. In January 1939, he approached the editor of the journal ''

Psychometrika ''Psychometrika'' is the official journal of the Psychometric Society, a professional body dedicated to psychometrics and quantitative psychology. The journal focuses on quantitative methods for the measurement and evaluation of human behavior, in ...

'', L.L. Thurstone, and formed an agreement that the new journal, the BMB, would be published as a supplement to their quarterly issues.

Major scientific contributions

In 1938 he published one of the first books on mathematical biology and mathematical biophysics entitled: "''Mathematical Biophysics: Physico-Mathematical Foundations of Biology''." This fundamental book was eventually published in three revised editions, the last revision appearing in two volumes in 1960. It was followed in 1940 by "''Advances and applications of mathematical biology.''", and in 1947 by "''Mathematical theory of human relations''", an approach to a mathematical model of society. In the same year he established the World' s first PhD program in

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. In the early 1930s, Rashevsky developed the first model of

neural networks A neural network is a group of interconnected units called neurons that send signals to one another. Neurons can be either Cell (biology), biological cells or signal pathways. While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a netwo ...

. This was paraphrased in a Boolean context by his student

Walter Pitts Walter Harry Pitts, Jr. (April 23, 1923 – May 14, 1969) was an American logician who worked in the field of computational neuroscience.Smalheiser, Neil R"Walter Pitts", ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'', Volume 43, Number 2, Wint ...

together with

Warren McCulloch Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ...

, in ''

A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent to Nervous Activity" is a 1943 article written by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts. The paper, published in the journal '' The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics,'' proposed a mathematical model of the ...

'', published in Rashevsky's ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'' in 1943. The Pitts-McCulloch article subsequently became extremely influential for research on artificial intelligence and artificial neural networks.Rosen, Robert (2000) Essays on Life Itself. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 120-1. His later efforts focused on the topology of biological systems, the formulation of fundamental principles in biology, relational biology,

set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

and

propositional logic The propositional calculus is a branch of logic. It is also called propositional logic, statement logic, sentential calculus, sentential logic, or sometimes zeroth-order logic. Sometimes, it is called ''first-order'' propositional logic to contra ...

formulation of the hierarchical organization of organisms and human societies. In the second half of the 1960s, he introduced the concept of "organismic sets" that provided a unified framework for physics, biology and sociology. This was subsequently developed by other authors as organismic supercategories and Complex Systems Biology.

Rashevsky's most notable students

Some of Rashevsky's most outstanding PhD students who earned their doctorate under his supervision were: George Karreman, Herbert Daniel Landahl, Clyde Coombs, Robert Rosen and

Anatol Rapoport Anatol Borisovich Rapoport (; ; May 22, 1911January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general systems theory, to mathematical biology and to the mathematical modeling of social interaction and stochastic ...

. In 1948, Anatol Rapoport took over Rashevsky's course in mathematical biology, so that Rashevsky could teach

mathematical sociology Mathematical sociology is an interdisciplinary field of research concerned with the use of mathematics within sociological research. History Starting in the early 1940s, Nicolas Rashevsky, and subsequently in the late 1940s, Anatol Rapoport an ...

instead.

Administrative and political obstacles

However, his more advanced ideas and abstract relational biology concepts found little support in the beginning amongst practicing experimental or molecular biologists, although current developments in complex systems biology clearly follow in his footsteps. In 1954 the budget for his Committee of Mathematical Biology was drastically cut; however, this was at least in part politically imposed, rather than scientifically, motivated. Thus, the subsequent

administration—notably represented by the genetics

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

George Wells Beadle— who reversed in the 1960s the previous position and quadrupled the financial support for Rashevsky's Committee for Mathematical Biology research activities ("''Reminiscences of Nicolas Rashevsky''." by Robert Rosen, written in late 1972). There was later however a fall out between the retiring Nicolas Rashevsky and the University of Chicago president over the successor to the Chair of the Committee of Mathematical Biology; Nicolas Rashevsky strongly supported Dr. Herbert Landahl-his first PhD student to graduate in Mathematical Biophysics, whereas the president wished to appoint a certain US biostatistician. The result was Rashevsky's move to the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and his taking ownership of the well-funded "''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics''".

Formation of Mathematical Biology, Inc.

He also formed in 1969 a non-profit organization, "''Mathematical Biology, Incorporated''", which was to be the precursor of ''"The Society for Mathematical Biology"'', with the purpose of "''dissemination of information regarding Mathematical Biology''". In his later years, after 1968, he became again very active in relational biology and held, as well as Chaired, in 1970 the first international "''Symposium of Mathematical Biology''" at Toledo, Ohio, in USA with the help of his former PhD student, Dr. Anthony Bartholomay, who has become the chairman of the first Department of Mathematical Medicine at

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

. The meeting was sponsored by ''Mathematical Biology, Inc.''

Final quest for principles of biology

Rashevsky was greatly influenced and inspired both by Herbert Spencer's book on the Principles of Biology (1898), and also by J. H. Woodger `axiomatic (Mendelian) genetics', to launch his own search and quest for biological principles, and also to formulate mathematically precise principles and axioms of biology. He then developed his own highly original approach to address the fundamental question of

What is Life? ''What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell'' is a 1944 science book written for the lay reader by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February1943, under t ...

that another theoretical physicist,

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

, had asked before him from the narrower viewpoint of quantum theory in biology. He wished to reach this `holy grail' of (theoretical/ mathematical) biology, but his heavy work load during the late 1960s—despite his related health problems—took its toll, and finally prevented him in 1972 from reaching his ultimate goal. Rashevsky's relational approach represents a radical departure from reductionistic approaches, and it has greatly influenced the work of his student Robert Rosen.

Biography

In 1917, Nicolas Rashevsky joined the White Russian Navy and in 1920 he and his wife, Countess Emily had to flee for their lives to Constantinople where he taught at the American College. In 1921 they moved to Prague where he taught both special and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

. From Prague, he moved in the 1930s to Paris, France, and then to New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago, USA. His life has been dedicated to the science that he founded, Mathematical Biology, and his wife Emily was very supportive and appreciative of his scientific efforts, accompanying him at the scientific meetings that he either initiated or attended. He cut a tall, impressive figure with a slight Eastern European accent, but a clear voice and thought to the very day when in 1972 he died from a heart attack caused by

coronary heart disease Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), or ischemic heart disease (IHD), is a type of cardiovascular disease, heart disease involving Ischemia, the reduction of blood flow to the cardiac muscle due to a build-up ...

. His generosity was very well known and is often recognized in print by former associates or visitors. As the Chief Editor of BMB he had a declared policy of helping the authors to optimize their presentation of submitted papers, as well as proving many valuable suggestions to the submitting authors. His suggested detailed changes, additions and further developments were like a real `gold mine' for the submitting authors. He managed to stay aloof of all science `politics' most of the time, even in very adverse circumstances such as those during the McCarthy era when completely unfounded political accusations were made about one or two members of his close research group. Not unlike another American theoretical physicist

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (born Julius Robert Oppenheimer ; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often ...

, he then had much to lose for his loyal support of the wrongly accused researcher in his group.

Works

* Physico-mathematical aspects of Excitation and Conduction in Nerves., ''Cold Springs Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology.IV: Excitation Phenomena.'', 1936, p.90. * ''Mathematical Biophysics:Physico-Mathematical Foundations of Biology''. Univ. of Chicago Press. : Chicago Press, 1938/1948 (2nd ed.). * ''Mathematical Theory of Human Relations: An Approach to Mathematical Biology of Social Phenomena''. Bloomington, ID: Principia Press, 1947/1949 (2nd ed.) * Topology and life: In search of general mathematical principles in biology and sociology. ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'' 16 (1954): 317–348. * ''Proceedings of the International School of Physics'' "Enrico Fermi", Course 16, ''Physico-Mathematical Aspects of Biology''. : Academic Press, 1964 * ''Some Medical Aspects of Mathematical Biology.'' Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1964 * The Representation of Organisms in Terms of Predicates, ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'' 27 (1965): 477–491. * Outline of a Unified Approach to Physics, Biology and Sociology., ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'' 31 (1969): 159–198. *''Looking at History through Mathematics'', 1972 * ''Organismic Sets.'', William Clowes & Sons., London, Beccles and Cochester, 1972.

Notes and references

The article also incorporates additional data from ; furthermore, both external entries are original, contributed objects in the public domain.

External links

Books by Rashevsky

The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics

Rashevsky's theory of two-factor systems for neural networksGuide to the Nicolas Rashevsky Papers 1920-1972
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rashevsky, Nicholas 1899 births 1972 deaths American biophysicists 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American physicists Theoretical biologists Theoretical physicists Ukrainian biophysicists Ukrainian mathematicians 20th-century Ukrainian physicists University of Michigan faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society 20th-century American biologists