[QSB-grads] Physics seminar today - L. Mahadevan (Harvard) - Wisdom of Social Insects

[Ajay Gopinathan]

FYI

Wisdom of Hives and Mounds: Collective Problem Solving by Super-organisms

L. Mahadevan

Department of Physics, Biology and Engineering Harvard University


Date: 4/27/18

Time: 10:45 AM

Location: SSB 120


Social insects are capable of solving complex physiological problems using
collective strategies. I will discuss our work on some of these problems
that include the physiology and morphogenesis of termite mounds, and active
mechanisms for ventilation, mechanical adaptation and thrmoregulation in
bee aggregates.

BIO:

Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan ("Maha") is currently the Lola England de
Valpine Professor of Applied Mathematics, Organismic and Evolutionary
Biology and Physics at Harvard University. His work centers around using
mathematics to understand the organization of matter in space and time,
i.e. how it is shaped and how it flows, particularly at the scale
observable by the unaided senses. Just a few examples of his extremely
creative work include understanding the fluttering of flags, the wrinkling
of skin, the "Cheerios effect", origami design, the snapping of Venus
Flytraps and the convolutions of the brain. Maha received his M.S. and
Ph.D. from Stanford University. He started his independent career on the
faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to the
University of Cambridge. He has been at Harvard since 2003. He currently
serves as the co-chair of Applied Mathematics in the School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences and is the Faculty Dean of Mather House at Harvard
University. Among many honors, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a
Guggenheim Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow.
______________________________
Ajay Gopinathan
Professor of Physics,
Director, NSF-CREST: Center for Cellular and Bio-molecular Machines
<http://ccbm.ucmerced.edu>,
University of California, Merced,
5200 North Lake Road,
Merced, CA 95343
Ph: 209 228 4048
email: agopinathan at ucmerced.edu
Office: COB 356
web: faculty.ucmerced.edu/agopinathan
group: gopinathanlab.ucmerced.edu
Center: ccbm.ucmerced.edu




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