
CCMS Colloquium: Stochastic Agent-Based Models in Mathematical Biology (Nabil Fadai, University of Nottingham)
February 12 @ 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Speaker: Nabil Fadai, Professor of Mathematical Biology, University of Nottingham
Title: Stochastic Agent-Based Models in Mathematical Biology
Abstract: In the last decade, there has been a movement to describe biological and social systems via agent-based models, which track individual agents (organisms, cells, people) and their environment through a set of deterministic and probabilistic rules. In this talk, we examine how these local individual-based mechanisms translate into global population dynamics. In particular, we will consider the Allee effect in population models, which were originally proposed to describe population dynamics that cannot be explained by exponential and logistic growth models. Using stochastic individual-based models, we can obtain a modelling framework that translates particular global Allee effects to specific individual-based mechanisms. This modelling framework is then extended to applications in the social sciences, including the modelling of sports riots and panic-buying.
Bio: Nabil Fabir is an assistant professor at the University of Nottingham, whose research focuses on employing reaction-diffusion equations and agent-based modelling to describe physical phenomena in a variety of applications. Originally from the west coast of Canada, Nabil completed his PhD in the Industrially Focused Mathematical Modelling doctoral training centre at the University of Oxford in 2018. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and has been at Nottingham since 2020. In addition to his research in industrial mathematics and mathematical biology, Nabil is passionate about inclusive curriculum and accessible teaching to undergraduate students.