last updated: February 8, 2001

Albano, Alfonso

Profile

Alfonso Albano was born and raised in the Philippines. He received his B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines where he taught for two years before going to the University of Iowa for a master's degree and to the State University of New York at Stony Brook for his Ph.D. He taught at Stony Brook for one year, came to Bryn Mawr in 1970, and has been here ever since except for two one-year stints at the Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Since coming to Bryn Mawr, his research interests have shifted from elementary particle physics, to statistical mechanics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, to nonlinear dynamics. His current interests are in the characterization of complex spatio-temporal phenomena and the use of linear and nonliner measures to study electrical signals generated by biological systems such as nerve cells, muscles, and brains. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Physical Review E.

Research

NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND APPLICATIONS TO ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Current work is primarily concerned with the development and application of the methods of dynamical analysis to the characterization of physiological signals and the use of these methods to address specific, clinically motivated problems. Among these problems are:

(1) characterization of the time intervals between events such as single neuron interspike intervals before and during epileptic seizures, hearbeat intervals during surgery, and signals generated by muscle fibers;

(2) detection of transitions in the dynamical behavior of noisy clinical signals, such as electroencephalograms recorded during electroconvulsive therapy;

(3) temporal and spatial characterization of multichannel electroencephalographic signals.

This work is done in collaboration with colleagues from Allegheny University in Philadelphia (formerly Medical College of Pennsylvania), and Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC.