Larry S. Liebovitch, Ph.D.

Associate Dean
        for Graduate Programs and Studies
        in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
       
        Web Page for our Graduate Programs
        Facebook Page for our Graduate Programs

Professor
       Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences
       Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
       Department of Psychology
       Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science

Laboratory
       

Florida Atlantic University
Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431

Telephone: 561.297.2239

FAX: 561.297.3634

E-mail: liebovit@fau.edu

How to get here: Map

Curriculum Vitae (Resume)

Article about Dr. Liebovitch from Emerging: The Newsletter of the Plexus Institute (July/August 2005)

En espanol - from number 21 of "Komplex", a monthly newsletter edited by O+berri, the Basque Institute of Innovation (29 de mayo de 2006)

• by Larry S. Liebovitch
• Oxford University Press, New York NY, 1998
• ISBN 0-19-512024-8
• This book explains the properties of fractals and chaos and illustrates them with examples from biology and medicine. The aim is to provide a basic understanding to people who are unfamiliar and/or afraid of mathematics. However, enough mathematical detail is provided so that biomedical scientists can learn how to use these new methods in their own research. The material is presented one concept at at time on facing pages, with text on the left page and graphics on the right page. The graphics pages can be copied onto transparencies to use to teach this material.

• by Larry S. Liebovitch and Lina A. Shehadeh
• What mathematics is, how mathematicians do mathematics, and how mathematics is used in science.
• LECTURE NOTES: html textbook.
• HANDS-ON GROUP CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES: html, video.
• INDIVIDUAL SELF-DISCOVERY EXERCISES: java applets, excel spreadsheets.
• ASSESSMENT TOOLS: homework assignments, journal questions, self-tests.
• Math: generalization, isomorphism, iteration, invariants, arithmetic series, geometric series, limits, graphs, linear scales, logarithmic scales, statistics, self-similarity, and dimension.
• Science: heart, eye, ear, and brain.
• A one semester Liberal Arts undergraduate mathematics course.
• Enrichment modules for College Algebra or Calculus.

• New on-line journal of nonlinear methods from the physical sciences applied to biology and medicine.
• Articles that cross the cultural divide from mathematics to the life sciences.
• Editors-in-Chief: Zbigniew CZERNICKI, Wlodzimierz KLONOWSKI, and Larry LIEBOVITCH

• by Clifford T. Brown and Larry S. Liebovitch
• SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 91320
• ISBN: 9781412971652
• This primer uses straightforward language to give the reader step-by-step instructions for identifying and analyzing fractal patterns and the social process that create them. By making fractals accessible to the social science students, this book has a significant impact on the understanding of human behavior.
• Detailed examples help readers learn and understand the analytical methods presented.
• Clear and logical explanations of fractals and their analysis enable the instructor to easily teach and the student to easily learn the material.
• MATLAB programs to analyze data.

PEOPLE: Models of Conflict
We are applying concepts from the dynamics of physical systems to model the interactions between two or more people and then, as part of a team of social scientists, using social psychology laboratory experiments to test the predictions of those models. Liebovitch et al., 2008, Physica A387:6360-6378

GENES: Differentiation of Blood Stem Cells
We are using mathematical models of the interaction of genes (such as GATA1 and PU.1) to predict how changes in the levels of signaling proteins and gene expression lead to different cell fates from progenitor blood stem cells. These predictions will be tested by experiments to be done at the Institute for Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany.

DRUGS: Turning Deleterious Drug Interactions Into Useful Multidrug Therapies
Drugs designed for a specific target are always found to have multiple effects. We are exploring how to use computational methods to predict which combinations of drugs, whose effects interfere with each other, in just the right way, to produce more targeted results with fewer side effects. Liebovitch et al., 2007, Nonlinear Biomedical Physics, 1:11..

EPIDEMICS: Spread of Infectious Diseases
We are modeling the spatial and temporal transmission of infectious agents through geographically distributed "patches" of people. These models give insight into how diseases spread in response to natural and human created events. Rho et al., 2008, Phys. Letts. A372:5017-5025.

ECONOMICS: Econophysics
We are analyzing the prices of commodities from ancient Babylon and medieval England to determine if ancient economies functioned as supply and demand systems, like modern economies. The challenge here is how to analyze time series data when there are gaps of 70% to 95% in the data.

ARCHEOLOGY: Movements of People and the Spatial Distribution of their Artifacts
We are using new methods, based on fractals, to analyze and understand the migration patterns of people and the spatial distribution of their artifacts at archeological sites. Brown et al., 2005, J. Archaeological Method and Theory 12:37-78.

Fall 2009
Fractals in Psychology
PSY 3502
86664 M.W.F 1:00 PM - 1:50 PM, Building 44, Social Science Building, Room 270, Boca Raton

This course shows how fractal methods can be used to analyze experimental data and gain a better understanding of the physiology and psychology of perception and behavior.

Fall 2008
Methods in Complex Systems
ISC 6450
84633 M.W.. 12:30 PM - 1:50 PM, Building 12, Behavioral Sciences Building, Room 303, Boca Raton
Linear, parametric, non-parametric, and nonlinear analysis of experimental data: The stuff that they told you and that they didn't tell you in undergraduate statistics. This course helps you to understand the assumptions used in these statistical methods and which statistical methods are best for analyzing different types of data.
Required for the Ph.D. program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences.
This course can also be used as the first semester course needed to fulfill the statistics requirement for graduate Psychology majors. (The Laboratory in Statistics is also required for Psychology Students.)

Spring 2008
Fractals in Psychology
PSY 3502
15529 M.W.F noon - 12:50 PM, Building 55, Physical Sciences Building, Room 109, Boca Raton

This course shows how fractal methods can be used to analyze experimental data and gain a better understanding of the physiology and psychology of perception and behavior.

Fall 2007
Seminars in Neuroscience
ISC 6930
16030 .T... 3:30 PM - 4:20 PM, (Charles E. Schmidt BioMedical Science Center, Building BC-71, Room 276, Boca Raton)

Speakers from other universities, FAU, and student presentations about Neuroscience.
This course will likely be one of those required for an FAU Graduate Certificate in Neuroscience that is now under consideration.

Spring 2007
Application of Fractals to Psychology
PSY 4930
16349 M.W.F 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM, (Social Sciences Building SO, Room 276, Boca Raton)

This course shows the use of fractal methods applied to Psychology.

Fall 2006
Complexity for the Life Sciences
PSY 5930
15854 M.W.. 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM, (Building BS-12, Room 303, Boca Raton)

Most things are made up of many pieces that interact strongly with each other.
Yet much of science has tried to study things by tearing them apart and studying only their tiny separate, noninteracting pieces.
Here we will learn how the science of "complexity" is able to help us see, analyze, and understand complex entities in physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology.

Note: This course may serve as an elective for psychology graduate students if it has been approved by a student's advisor and committee; but it cannot be substituted for a core course; it may only serve as an elective.

Spring 2006
Psychology and the Internet
PSY 4930
15298 M.W.F 11:00 AM - 11:50 AM (PS 227 Boca Raton)

The INTERNET has become an important mode of how people acquire information, interact with each other, and conduct business.
Thorough knowledge of the INTERNET is becoming of pivotal importance in academic Psychology and in the Business environment.
This course will:
   Tell you what the INTERNET is, how it works, and how it came to be.
   Describe the social space and processes that happen over the INTERNET.
   Describe how the Internet is changing social interactions, businesses, politics, and the military.

Fall 2005
ProSeminar
ISC 6937
12506 Wednesdays 2:00 PM (BS 303 Boca Raton map)
The Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences Faculty will each describe their research interests and the active research projects in their laboratories.
A way to learn about the current research activities of our Center.
A way to identify a laboratory and professor for future research projects.

Spring 2005
The Mathematics and Science of Fractals
MAT 1932
15094 M.W.F 11:00 - 11:50 AM (GS 109 Boca Raton)
Mathematics for undergraduate students who never liked and never did well in math.
This course can be used as one of the mathematics courses (besides Statistics) needed to fulfill the mathematics requirement for undergraduate Psychology majors.

Fall 2004
Fractals and Chaos for the Life Sciences
ISC 5451
20662 .Tuesday.Thursday. 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM FL 317 (Fleming Hall, Boca Raton)
Graduate/Undergraduate course of the mathematics of fractals and chaos applied to cellular, physiological, and psychological systems.
(Mathematical level: calculus and differential equations.)

Spring 2004
The Mathematics and Science of Fractals
MAT 1932
15115 M.W.F 11:00 - 11:50 AM (GS 115 Boca Raton) NOTE: room change
Mathematics for undergraduate students who never liked and never did well in math.
This course can be used as one of the mathematics courses (besides Statistics) needed to fulfill the mathematics requirement for undergraduate Psychology majors.

Methods in Compex Systems
ISC 6450
18426 M...F 1:00 PM - 2:50 PM (Complex Systems & Brain Sciences Classroom, Innovation Centre II)
Linear and nonlinear analysis of experimental data: The stuff that they told you and that they didn't tell you in undergraduate statistics.
Required for the Ph.D. program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences. It can also be used as the first semester course needed to fulfill the statistics requirement for graduate Psychology majors.

Fall 2003
The Psychology of the Internet
PSY 4930
14891 M.W.. 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM (GCS107 Boca Raton)

The INTERNET has become an important mode of how people acquire information, interact with each other, and conduct business.
Thorough knowledge of the INTERNET is becoming of pivotal importance in academic Psychology and in the Business environment.
This course will:
   Tell you what the INTERNET is and how it works.
   Describe the social space and processes that happen over the INTERNET.
   Give you information about resources available for learning about Psychology over the INTERNET.