Robert Plonsey (July 17, 1924 – March 14, 2015) was the Pfizer-Pratt University Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. He is noted for his work on bioelectricity.[3][1]
Plonsey was a professor at Case Western Reserve University from 1968–1983, including a term as chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering (1976–1980). In 1983, he moved to Duke University. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1986 for "the application of electromagnetic field theory to biology, and for distinguished leadership in the emerging profession of biomedical engineering." He retired from Duke in 1996 as the Pfizer Inc./Edmund T. Pratt Jr. University Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering.
Research
Plonsey's research centered on bioelectric phenomena, including the electrical activity of nerves and muscle. With his student John Clark, he derived a mathematical relationship between the transmembrane potential and the extracellular potential produced by a propagating action potential in a nerveaxon.
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Some of Plonsey's most influential work addressed the electrical properties of the heart, often in collaboration with Roger Barr. They played a role in the development of the bidomain model, a mathematical model of the anisotropic electrical properties of cardiac muscle,
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and developed a hypothesis of the mechanism for defibrillation based on the idea that individual cardiac cells are depolarized on one end and hyperpolarized on the other during the shock, sometimes known as the saw-tooth model.
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Plonsey also collaborated with Yorum Rudy to calculate the relationship between body surface and epicardial electrical potentials,
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and with Frank Witkowski to analyze action potential wave fronts recorded during defibrillation shocks.[12]
^Plonsey R, Barr RC (1986). "Effect of microscopic and macroscopic discontinuities on the response of cardiac tissue to defibrillating (stimulating) currents". Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing. 24 (2): 130–136. doi:10.1007/BF02443925. PMID3713273. S2CID20233400.
^Plonsey R, Barr RC (1986). "Inclusion of junction elements in a linear cardiac model through secondary sources: Applications to defibrillation". Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing. 24 (2): 137–144. doi:10.1007/BF02443926. PMID3713274. S2CID22370465.