Applied Math Seminar

Title:Inferring birth and death rates from population size time series data Abstract: Models of population dynamics are usually formulated and analyzed with net growth rates. However, separately identifying birth and death rates is significant in various biological applications such as disambiguating (1) exploitation vs. interference competition in ecology, (2) bacteriostatic vs. bactericidal antibiotics in clinical […]

Title: A common pathway to cancer: oncogenic mutations abolish p53 oscillations. Abstract: The tumor suppressor p53 oscillates in response to DNA double-strand breaks, a behavior that has been suggested to be essential to its anti-cancer function. Nearly all human cancers have genetic alterations in the p53 pathway; a number of these alterations have been shown to […]

Title: PLSS: A Projected Linear Systems Solver (joint work with Michael Saunders) Abstract: Iteratively solving linear systems has proven to be useful for many large applications. Projection methods use sketching matrices (possibly randomized) to generate a sequence of small projected subproblems, but even the smaller systems can be costly. We develop a method in which […]

Title: Modeling size distributions and collisions in cloud microphysics Abstract: Feedbacks between a warming atmosphere, emission of aerosols, and clouds and precipitation are one of the most difficult aspects for climate models to accurately capture. While these models operate at resolutions of tens or hundreds of kilometers, many of the physics that determine how and […]