Richard G. Palmer | Scholars@Duke

Richard G. Palmer
Professor Emeritus of Physics

Professor Richard G. Palmer is currently working on theories of statistical mechanics. He is interested in the application and development of statistical physics methods for many types of complex systems, including glasses and spin glasses, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and economic markets. The long-term goal of his work is to establish firm theoretical foundations for understanding the emergence of structure, complexity, and computational ability in driven systems of interacting adaptive components. He is also author of two books on the theory of neural networks and on the theory of extinction.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor Emeritus of Physics, Physics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2015
Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008

Contact Information

091 Physics Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90305, Durham, NC 27708-0305
palmer@phy.duke.edu (919) 660-2559
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~palmer/

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Cambridge (UK) 1973
Duke Appointment History
- Professor with Tenure, Physics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1991 - 2015
- Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Physics, Physics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2010 - 2011
- Professor of Computer Science, Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1999 - 2003
- Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers 2001 - 2002
- Professor of Psychology: Experimental, Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1999 - 2001
- Professor, Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1993 - 1998
- Professor, Psychology and Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1992 - 1995
- Associate Professor with Tenure, Physics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1983 - 1991
- Assistant Professor, Physics, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1977 - 1983
Recognition
Awards & Honors
- Fellowship. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1986
Research
Selected Grants
- (96-0672) Models for Learning, Memory and Interference awarded by National Institutes of Health 1990 - 2002
- (91-0856) Models for Learning, Memory, & Inference awarded by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) 1990 - 1995
- (94-1023) Models for Learning, Memory and Inference awarded by National Institutes of Health 1990 - 1995
- (91-0711) Neural Network Models of Temporal Learning awarded by National Institutes of Health 1992 - 1993
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Hertz, J, Krogh, A, and Palmer, RG. Introduction to the Theory of Neural Computation(Published online). : CRC Press,. Full Text
- Academic Articles
  - Dragoi, V, Staddon, JER, Palmer, RG, and Buhusi, CV. "Interval Timing as an Emergent Learning Property." Psychological Review 110, no. 1 (2003): 126-144. Full Text
  - LeBaron, B, Arthur, WB, and Palmer, R. "Time series properties of an artificial stock market." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 23, no. 9-10 (September 1999): 1487-1516. Full Text
  - PALMER, RG, and ADLER, JOAN. "GROUND STATES FOR LARGE SAMPLES OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL ISING SPIN GLASSES." International Journal of Modern Physics C 10, no. 04 (June 1999): 667-675. Full Text
  - Newman, MEJ, and Palmer, RG. "Error estimation in the histogram Monte Carlo method." Journal of Statistical Physics 97, no. 5-6 (1999): 1011-1026.
  - Palmer, RG, Arthur, WB, Holland, JH, and LeBaron, B. "An Artificial Stock Market." Artificial Life and Robotics 3 (1999). (Academic Article)
  - Staddon, JE, Davis, DG, Machado, A, and Palmer, RG. "Cumulative effects model: a response to Williams (1994)." Psychological review 101, no. 4 (October 1994): 708-710. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, Brian Arthur, W, Holland, JH, LeBaron, B, and Tayler, P. "Artificial economic life: a simple model of a stockmarket." Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena 75, no. 1-3 (August 1994): 264-274. Full Text
  - Rust, J, Miller, JH, and Palmer, R. "Characterizing effective trading strategies." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 18, no. 1 (January 1994): 61-96. Full Text
  - Davis, DG, Staddon, JE, Machado, A, and Palmer, RG. "The process of recurrent choice." Psychol Rev 100, no. 2 (April 1993): 320-341. Link to Item
  - Ajay, , and Palmer, RG. "Simulation of a toy model with constrained dynamics." Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 23, no. 11 (June 7, 1990): 2139-2145. Full Text
  - Stein, DL, Doering, CR, Plamer, RG, Hemmen, JLV, and McLaughlin, RM. "Escape over a fluctuating barrier: the white noise limit." Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 23, no. 5 (March 7, 1990): L203-L208. Full Text
  - Hansen, GE, and Palmer, RG. "Compact nuclear-power source critical experiments and analysis." Nuclear Science And Engineering 103, no. 3 (November 1989): 237-246. (Academic Article)
  - Stein, DL, Palmer, RG, Van Hemmen, JL, and Doering, CR. "Mean exit times over fluctuating barriers." Physics Letters A 136, no. 7-8 (April 1989): 353-357. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG. "The role of constraints in glassy relaxation." Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplements 5, no. 1 (September 1988): 81-81. Full Text
  - PALMER, RG. "Parallels and Contrasts between Glass and Spin Glass." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 484, no. 1 (December 1986): 109-120. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, and Frisch, HL. "Low-and high-dimension limits of a phase separation model." Journal of Statistical Physics 38, no. 5-6 (March 1985): 867-872. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, and Bantilan, FT. "High-temperature expansion for a diluted spin-glass model." Journal of Physics C: Solid State Physics 18, no. 1 (January 10, 1985): 171-180. Full Text
  - PALMER, RG, STEIN, DL, ABRAHAMS, E, and ANDERSON, PW. "MODELS OF HIERARCHICALLY CONSTRAINED DYNAMICS FOR GLASSY RELAXATION - REPLY." PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 54, no. 4 (1985): 365-365. Full Text Link to Item
  - Palmer, RG, and Frisch, HL. "Low-dimension and high-dimension limits of a phase-separation model." Journal Of Statistical Physics 38, no. 5-6 (1985): 867-872. (Academic Article)
  - Palmer, RG. "Correction." Physical Review Letters 54, no. 17 (1985): 1965-1965. (Academic Article)
  - Hopfield, JJ, Feinstein, DI, and Palmer, RG. "'Unlearning' has a stabilizing effect in collective memories." Nature 304, no. 5922 (July 1983): 158-159. Full Text
  - PALMER, RG. "BROKEN ERGODICITY IN SPIN-GLASSES." LECTURE NOTES IN PHYSICS 192 (1983): 234-251. Link to Item
  - Hemmen, JLV, and Palmer, RG. "The thermodynamic limit and the replica method for short-range random systems." Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 15, no. 12 (December 1, 1982): 3881-3890. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG. "Broken ergodicity." Advances in Physics 31, no. 6 (December 1982): 669-735. Full Text
  - Kolan, AJ, and Palmer, RG. "Ground state properties of a spin glass model." Journal of Applied Physics 53, no. 3 (March 1982): 2198-2200. Full Text
  - Bantilan, FT, and Palmer, RG. "Magnetic properties of a model spin glass and the failure of linear response theory." Journal of Physics F: Metal Physics 11, no. 1 (January 1981): 261-266. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG. "Shielding optimization studies for a space reactor system." Transactions Of The American Nuclear Society 39 (1981): 764-765. (Academic Article)
  - Palmer, RG. "Application of coupled reactor theory to explain reactivity slumping effects in heterogeneous lmfbrs." Transactions Of The American Nuclear Society 38, no. JUN (1981): 415-416. (Academic Article)
  - Palmer, RG. "Charged hard sphere results for the one‐component plasma." The Journal of Chemical Physics 73, no. 4 (August 15, 1980): 2009-2010. Full Text
  - BANTILAN, FT, and PALMER, RG. "ZERO-TEMPERATURE PROPERTIES OF INFINITE-RANGE ISING SPIN-GLASS MODELS." BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY 25, no. 3 (1980): 206-206. Link to Item
  - KOLAN, AJ, and PALMER, RG. "DISTRIBUTION OF FRUSTRATED PLAQUETTES FOR THE RANDOM 2D ISING-MODEL." BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY 25, no. 3 (1980): 206-206. Link to Item
  - PALMER, RG. "INFORMATION, ORDER, AND DEGENERACY IN RANDOM-SYSTEMS." BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY 25, no. 3 (1980): 349-349. Link to Item
  - Gould, H, Palmer, RG, and Est�vez, GA. "Asymptotic form of the mean spherical approximation for the internal energy of the classical one-component plasma." Journal of Statistical Physics 21, no. 1 (July 1979): 55-64. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, and Pond, CM. "Internal field distributions in model spin glasses." Journal of Physics F: Metal Physics 9, no. 7 (July 1979): 1451-1459. Full Text
  - Hemmen, JLV, and Palmer, RG. "The replica method and solvable spin glass model." Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 12, no. 4 (April 1979): 563-580. Full Text
  - Anderson, PW, Thouless, DJ, and Palmer, RG. "Comment on “The third law of thermodynamics and the theory of spin glasses” by E.P. Wohlfarth." Physics Letters A 62, no. 6 (September 1977): 456-456. Full Text
  - Thouless, DJ, Anderson, PW, and Palmer, RG. "Solution of 'Solvable model of a spin glass'." Philosophical Magazine 35, no. 3 (March 1977): 593-601. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG. "Neutron star cores." Astrophysics and Space Science 34, no. 1 (April 1975): 209-222. Full Text
  - Anderson, PW, Itoh, N, Alpar, MA, Tosatti, E, and Palmer, RG. "Positively charged isospin wave softening and proton lattice in neutron stars." Lettere Al Nuovo Cimento 12, no. 6 (February 1975): 165-170. Full Text
  - Adler, J, Palmer, RG, and Meyer, H. "Transmission of order in some unusual dilute systems(Published online)." Physical Review Letters 58, no. 9: 882-885. Full Text
  - Kolan, AJ, and Palmer, RG. "Distribution of frustrated plaquettes in the random bond square lattice." Journal of Physics C: Solid State Physics 13, no. 23 (August 20, 1980): L575-L580. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, Stein, DL, Abrahams, E, and Anderson, PW. "Models of Hierarchically Constrained Dynamics for Glassy Relaxation(Published online)." Physical Review Letters 53, no. 10: 958-961. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, Stein, DL, Abrahams, E, and Anderson, PW. "Palmeret al.Respond(Published online)." Physical Review Letters 54, no. 4: 365-365. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, Stein, DL, Abrahams, E, and Anderson, PW. "Models of Hierarchically Constrained Dynamics for Glassy Relaxation(Published online)." Physical Review Letters 54, no. 17: 1965-1965. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, and Anderson, PW. "Corresponding-states approach to nuclear and neutron-star matter(Published online)." Physical Review D 9, no. 12: 3281-3291. Full Text
  - Palmer, RG, and Weeks, JD. "Exact solution of the mean spherical model for charged hard spheres in a uniform neutralizing background." The Journal of Chemical Physics 58, no. 10 (May 15, 1973): 4171-4174. Full Text
  - Randeria, M, Sethna, JP, and Palmer, RG. "Low-Frequency Relaxation in Ising Spin-Glasses(Published online)." Physical Review Letters 54, no. 12: 1321-1324. Full Text
  - Stein, DL, and Palmer, RG. "Nature of the glass transition(Published online)." Physical Review B 38, no. 16: 12035-12038. Full Text
- Book Sections
  - Anderson, PW. "The Economy as an Evolving Complex System(Published online)." .: CRC Press,. Full Text

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

Awards & Honors

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections