Ulrich Zurcher

Biography

After completing my undergraduate and graduate education in Theoretical Physics in Basel, Switzerland, I came to the US in 1990 as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Bob Silbey in the Chemistry Department at MIT, Charlie Doering in the Physics Department at Clarkson University, and Tom Keyes in the Chemistry Department at Boston University.

Research Interest

"(1) Nonlinear analysis of EKG time series of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and pseudoseizures. Characterize and quantify the nonlinearity of cardiac dynamics manifest in the variability of the heart rate. Research in collaboration with Drs. R. O'Dwyer and R. Burgess, Epilepsy Center, Department of Neurology, Cleveland Clinic. (2) Biomechanics of arboreal locomotion. Research in collaboration with Dr. A. Lammers, Departmenr of Health Science, CSU. (3) Various topics that emerge from teaching lower- and upper-level physics courses. Eg., models for nonequilibrium thermodynamics, motion of stars in elliptical galaxies, orbital motion etc. (4) Theoretical models for supercooled liquids and glasses. Robert Zwanzig proposed [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 85, 2029 (1988)] a simple model for the origin of super-Arrhenius temperature dependence of relaxation rates, r~exp[(e/T)^2]. Zwanzig's model describes the diffusion in a rough potential of a particle in one spatial dimension. I examine how this model can be applied to multi-dimensional systems."