報告題目: Old Unsolved Problems in Biology and New Computational Perspectives from Topology and Statistical Learning Theory: From Bacteria and Plants towards the Human Brain
時間: 1.18(星期日) 下午2:00
地點: 研究生樓306

主講人介紹：Amir Assadi教授于于加州大學伯克利分校獲得數學學士學位(1974)，于普林斯頓大學獲得數學碩士學位(1975)并在1979年獲得博士學位(微分拓撲方向)。Assadi教授先后在普林斯頓大學、弗吉尼亞大學以及威斯康星大學任教，自1990至今為威斯康星大學麥迪遜分校教授，并兼職于生物醫學工程系、設計學院、醫學和公共衛生學院、生物技術中心等機構。Assadi教授的研究方向包括：1.純數學：微分拓撲、微分幾何；2.應用數學：信息科學、反問題、大數據研究、超級計算信息學；3.跨領域研究：信息神經學、視覺圖像科學、生物信息理論、系統生物學。

報告主要內容：Study of variation in observable biological features (morphological variations, phenotypic traits) in an organism (species) is an old area of biology. Darwin uses "variation" as a cornerstone of his theory of evolution. In this expository lecture, I discuss examples morphological variation in diverse contexts. Then I provide unifying mathematical interpretations of certain concrete biological questions. Using contemporary understanding of molecular networks and their dynamics, I propose rigorous computational approaches to verify the mathematical conjectures and to test the related biological hypotheses regarding morphological variations and quantifying phenotypic traits.