College of Science

2019 Sobczyk Lecture on Feb. 15 features renowned expert on mortality

Share:

CLEMSON – The Clemson University Sobczyk Lecture Series will present renowned physicist Peter Richmond at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 15 in Kinard 101. Richmond’s lecture is titled “Unraveling Mortality.”

The annual lecture series is named after the late Andrew Sobczyk, a well-known professor and researcher in the fields of mathematics and mathematical physics. It is funded by a public endowment established by Professor Sobczyk’s family and friends.

The event is sponsored by the College of Science, the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Refreshments will be served from 3-3:30 p.m. in the foyer of first floor Martin O. For more information, contact Elena Dimitrova at edimit@clemson.edu.

Richmond grew up in northern England and moved south to London to study physics at Queen Mary University of London. Following the award of a Ph.D. for work on phase transitions in itinerant electron ferromagnets, he continued this work in Canterbury as a postdoc at the University of Kent. He then went farther south on a great adventure to Australia, taking a position initially at the University of New South Wales and then moving again to the Australian National University in Canberra. Work on the interaction between nano particles brought him back to England, where he spent the next 10 years at the Unilever Port Sunlight research lab near Liverpool.

Ten years later he moved again to the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, where he built a new department concerned with the physics of food materials and food processing and was later appointed Head of the Institute at Norwich. Unexpected events finally took Peter to Trinity College Dublin as a visiting professor, where he established a new research group looking at econo physics and eventually socio physics. Since retiring in 2008, he has continued to be active working with Bertrand Roehner in Paris and colleagues in Trinity College Dublin.

Here is an abstract provided by Professor Richmond that reflects his research and the the contents of his upcoming lecture:

“Following a little history and some definitions of mortality and the force of mortality, we introduce the ‘bath tub’ curve which seems to be almost universal in its application spanning humans, animals and inanimate objects. The curve exhibits different features during the early and later stages of life. The later stage of life for humans is well documented and follows the law first proposed on empirical grounds by Benjamin Gompertz in 1825. Using data from across the globe from a range of countries, we examine if a maximum age for the end of life can be predicted. We show how a simple toy model which brings in ideas from biology can also predict the law of Gompertz.  

“Turning to the impact of social and cultural forces, we discuss the Farr Bertillon effect. Proposed in the 19th century, this conjecture says that for all age-groups, death-rate of married people is less than death-rate of non-married be they single, widowed or divorced. Never established with great accuracy, it has been considered by many to be a statistical artefact. We re-examine its validity using modern data sets from across the globe. This leads us to a more general conjecture that any abrupt change in living or social conditions generates a mortality spike which acts as a kind of selection process. This we assert applies to both living and inanimate complex objects. The conjecture will be illustrated using a few examples spanning prison inmates to fish. Even birth may be described as a shock to the fetus and data for early life is used to illustrate how character of the mortality curve differs both qualitatively and quantitatively from the later Gompertz phase. 

“From considerations of causes of death in early life, we show how many diseases may be differentiated into two types characteristic of early and later life. This also illustrates the impact of medical advances over the years as well as the challenges ahead.

“Finally, we use the ideas developed to compare the effect on mortality of therapies for some different diseases such as TB and cancer and offer some tentative thoughts on strategies for disease control. 

“We conclude with a few thoughts about social care of the elderly.”

Want to Discuss?

Get in touch and we will connect you with the author or another expert.

Or email us at news@clemson.edu

    This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.