1 Nicolas Rashevsky
(1899- 1973):
American physicist and mathematical biologist who was the Founder of Mathematical
Biophysics and Mathematical Biology, and also Professor of Mathematical Biophysics at
the University of Chicago in the Committee for Mathematical Biology until 1968. He
established also the first Mathematical Biophysics journal, the Bulletin of Mathematical
Biophysics, later changed under his editorship to “Bulletin of Mathematical Biology” to
emphasize the transition towards abstract relational biology and Relational Theory of
organismic sets beyond numerical and analytical functions characteristic of simpler physical
systems. His later efforts focused on topology of biological systems and the formulation of
fundamental principles in biology and hierarchical organization of organisms and human
societies.
Rashevsky’s numerous publications and basic textbooks span almost half a century; among his first
published papers was a physical, probabilistic treatment of molecular diffusion using a different
approach from that of Albert Einstein’s but with similar, concurrent solutions to the same
problem.
Some of his closest coworkers were: George Karreman (former Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania), Herbert Landahl (former Professor at the University of California), Robert Rosen
(his mathematics PhD student and later Professor of Biophysics at Dalhousie University), and
Anthony Bartholomay (former Chairman of the Mathematical Medicine Department at Ohio State
University).
Last time we met in 1970 at the International Mathematical Biology Symposium at Toledo, Ohio,
USA, he showed obvious signs of fatigue due to his plane trip and suffering from CAD, but he also
exhibited an uninhibited excitement and enthousiasm for the new areas of Organsimic Sets and
relational biology in Mathematical Biophysics he just initiated less than five years before which
are concerned with the mathematical and physical essence of life processes and living
organisms.
References
[1] N. Rashevsky.: 1965, The Representation of Organisms in Terms of Predicates,
Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 27: 477-491.
[2] N. Rashevsky.: 1969, Outline of a Unified Approach to Physics, Biology and
Sociology., Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 31: 159–198.
[3] Baianu, I.C.: 1980, Natural Transformations of Organismic Structures., Bulletin of
Mathematical Biology,42: 431-446.
[4] Elsasser, M.W.: 1981, A Form of Logic Suited for Biology., In: Robert, Rosen, ed.,
Progress in Theoretical Biology, Volume 6, Academic Press, New York and London, pp
23-62.
[5] Baianu, I. C.: 1986–1987, Computer Models and Automata Theory in Biology
and Medicine., in M. Witten (ed.), Mathematical Models in Medicine, vol. 7., Ch.11
Pergamon Press, New York, 1513 -1577; URLs: CERN Preprint No. EXT-2004-072:.
[6] Baianu I. C., Brown R., Georgescu G. and J. F. Glazebrook: 2006b,
Complex Nonlinear Biodynamics in Categories, Higher Dimensional Algebra and
Łukasiewicz–Moisil Topos: Transformations of Neuronal, Genetic and Neoplastic
Networks., Axiomathes, 16 Nos. 1–2: 65–122.
[7] Rosen, R.: 1958a, A Relational Theory of Biological Systems Bulletin of
Mathematical Biophysics 20: 245-260.
[8] Rosen, R.: 1958b, The Representation of Biological Systems from the Standpoint of
the Theory of Categories., Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 20: 317-341.
[9] Rosen, R. 1960. A quantum-theoretic approach to genetic problems. Bulletin of
Mathematical Biophysics 22: 227-255.
1.1 Note
This entry is based in part on the content of a different GNU Licensed website by the
same author that may be subsequently even further modified, altered, or updated in its
contents.
