Israel Pollak Distinguished Lecture Series – Lecture 2

“To know or to predict? 70 years of Hodgkin-Huxley modelling in science and engineering”

Love them or hate them, the equations of Hodgkin and Huxley remain in 2022 a seemingly inescapable biophysical entry point to understanding the dynamical and rhythmic nature of brain activity. For 70 years, they have defined a unique encounter point between physiology and circuit theory, between science and engineering. This talk by a control theorist will tell the story of a personal journey of working with this unique model. A journey from intractable nonlinear differential equations to an enligthening mixed-feedback principle unfold by two neurophysiologists once exposed to control engineering by the necessity of war.