Lawrence W. Stark (February 21, 1926 – October 22, 2004) was an American

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

and a recognized authority in the use of engineering analysis to characterize neurological systems. He was a longtime professor of physiological optics and engineering at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Stark was born to a Jewish family in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. His father Edward Stark was a chemical engineer trained at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and Lawrence credited his early interest in engineering to him.UC Berkeley Department of Mechanical Engineering obituary, November 1, 2004

Career

Stark graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1945 with majors in English, biology, and zoology. He received his M.D. in 1948 from

Albany Medical College Albany Medical College (AMC) is a private medical school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1839 by Alden March and James H. Armsby and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation. The college is part of the Albany Medical Center, which ...

. He worked at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and as a doctor in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. From 1960 to 1965, he was head of the neurology section in the Center for Communication Sciences at MIT. In 1965, he became chairman of the biomedical engineering department at the

University of Illinois-Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...

. In 1968, he went to UC-Berkeley, where he remained until his retirement in 1994. An occasional conference on Vision and Movement in Man and Machine is held, and they are nicknamed Starkfest, according to conference organizer John Semmlow of

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, who was one of Stark's students at both UIC and Berkeley. Stark was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1968.

Scientific contributions

Dr. Stark was best known for his research on the control of eye movements. He pioneered the application of

Control Theory Control theory is a field of mathematics that deals with the control of dynamical systems in engineered processes and machines. The objective is to develop a model or algorithm governing the application of system inputs to drive the system to a ...

to neurological systems with his study in the 1950s and 1960s of the

pupillary light reflex The pupillary light reflex (PLR) or photopupillary reflex is a reflex that controls the diameter of the pupil, in response to the intensity (luminance) of light that falls on the retinal ganglion cells of the retina in the back of the eye, there ...

. He later studied the

saccade A saccade ( , French for ''jerk'') is a quick, simultaneous movement of both eyes between two or more phases of fixation in the same direction.Cassin, B. and Solomon, S. ''Dictionary of Eye Terminology''. Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishi ...

(fast discrete changes of gaze) and the accommodation of the eye's focus. He trained many Ph.D. students, primarily in the fields of

bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

and physiological optics (better known as

visual neuroscience Visual Neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the visual system of the human body, mainly located in the brain's visual cortex. The main goal of visual neuroscience is to understand how neural activity results in visual percepti ...

Personal life

Stark was the brother of civil rights activist Matthew Stark. Stark was married and divorced twice and had three daughters. He died in Berkeley in 2004 and is buried in

Dutch Flat, California Dutch Flat (also, Dutchman's Flat, Dutch Charlie's Flat, and Charley's Flat) is a small unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Placer County, California, United States, about northeast of Auburn along Interstate 80. It was ...

External links

Lawrence Stark, Lawrence Stark, professor emeritus of physiological optics and engineering, dies at 78 (UC Berkelej News)Video and transcripts of an interview with Stark"The Arts and Sciences of Lawrence Stark," ''Computers in Biology and Medicine'' 37: 898–902 (2002).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Lawrence 1926 births 2004 deaths American neurologists Jewish American scientists University of Illinois Chicago faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews