Leon Glass (born 1943) is an American scientist who has studied various aspects of the application of mathematical and physical methods to biology, with special interest in vision, cardiac
arrhythmia
Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults ...
, and
genetic networks
A gene (or genetic) regulatory network (GRN) is a collection of molecular regulators that interact with each other and with other substances in the cell to govern the gene expression levels of mRNA and proteins which, in turn, determine the fu ...
.
Biography
Leon Glass was born in
Brooklyn
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 ...
, NY where he attended
Erasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It was founded in 1786 as Erasmus Hall Ac ...
(Class of 1959) and majored in Chemistry at
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus.
Being New York City's first publ ...
(Class of 1963).
He obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1968 from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
studying theory of atomic motions in simple liquids.
He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Machine Intelligence and Perception (
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
), Theoretical Biology (
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
), and Physics and Astronomy (
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
The University of Roc ...
).
In 1975, Glass joined the Department of Physiology at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
, where he is now Professor and the Isadore Rosenfeld Chair in Cardiology. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994 and is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...
(1998), the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
(1999), and the
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...
(2009). Leon Glass is a father of two and lives in Montreal, Canada.
Glass is also a
French horn
The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
player, and is part of the executive committee of the I Medici di McGill Orchestra, an orchestra consisting mainly of McGill University's medical students and professors.
Work
Glass' early work and eponymous patterns were fostered by mentor
Christopher Longuet-Higgins, who guided him in the application of statistical methods to visual perception.
Glass patterns are formed from
superimposed random dot patterns: an original image with a second image which has been generated through a linear or nonlinear transformation of the original.
A variety of different spatial patterns such as circles, spirals, hyperbolae, can be perceived in the superimposed image set, depending on the nature of the transformation between the two sets of dots. This discovery provided insight into mathematical nature of human perception by suggesting that the
visual cortex
The visual cortex of the brain is the area of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Sensory input originating from the eyes travels through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus and ...
is capable of computing a large number of
autocorrelation
Autocorrelation, sometimes known as serial correlation in the discrete time case, is the correlation of a signal with a delayed copy of itself as a function of delay. Informally, it is the similarity between observations of a random variable ...
s in parallel.
David Marr first coined the term "Glass Patterns" in his 1982 work on visual perception, resulting in an increased interest in the phenomenon. Because of their mathematical simplicity and physiological underpinnings, Glass patterns have subsequently been used in dozens of
electrophysiology
Electrophysiology (from Greek , ''ēlektron'', "amber" etymology of "electron"">Electron#Etymology">etymology of "electron" , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia'') is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of b ...
and visual
psychophysics
Psychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, m ...
experiments, resulting in additional understanding of the physiology of visual perception.
Glass may be best known for his work with colleagues at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
, suggesting that certain physiological disorders may be considered dynamical diseases. These are characterized by sudden changes in the qualitative dynamics of a physiological control mechanism, which leads to disease. These features are illustrated in the
Mackey-Glass equations.
According to
James Gleick
James Gleick (; born August 1, 1954) is an American author and historian of science whose work has chronicled the cultural impact of modern technology. Recognized for his writing about complex subjects through the techniques of narrative nonficti ...
, who recounted conversations with Glass in his book
Chaos: Making a New Science, foundational work in
chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
by the
McGill McGill is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, from which the names of many places and organizations are derived. It may refer to:
People
* McGill (surname) (including a list of individuals with the surname)
* McGill family (Monrovia), a promin ...
group was performed using animal models.
He quotes Glass saying: "Many different rhythms can be established between a stimulus and a little piece of chicken heart".
Since the initial description of dynamical diseases, a large number of researchers have analyzed mathematical models of physiological systems. Examples of dynamical diseases have been described in medical fields as diverse as
hematology
Hematology ( always spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the produc ...
,
cardiology
Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...
,
neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
, and
psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry.
Initial psych ...
.
Dynamical disease modeling has been used to understand cardiac
arrhythmia
Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per minute in adults ...
, and specific model detection algorithms are now being programmed into
pacemakers
An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a Implant (medicine), medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the Heart ...
so that pathological patterns can be detected and corrected.
Publications
Books
*
(Translated into Russian (1991), Chinese (1995), Portuguese (1997)).
*
Selected articles
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
Leon Glass homepageat
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...
.
* , lecture recorded on January 20, 2012 at
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is amon ...
Complex Systems Center.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Leon
1943 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
McGill University faculty
Theoretical biologists
People from Brooklyn
Erasmus Hall High School alumni
University of Chicago alumni
Brooklyn College alumni
Fellows of the American Physical Society