Note From Prof. Sergie Maslov: Sept. 25 NCSA Talk, Possible Research Opportunities

Note from Prof. Sergei Maslov:

Allow me to introduce myself. I joined Urbana-Champaign one month ago as a professor of bioengineering interested in genome biology, evolution, biomolecular networks, ecosystems dynamics and many other topics (too long to list them all here). In the past I also worked on complex networks (software dependencies, citations, AS-level of the Internet, WWW), etc. I would be interested to talk to any of you about our shared research interests. I am on campus in a linear superposition of states sharing time between Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (where my main research interests lie), NCSA (where I am a senior faculty member), and Departments of Bioengineering (my academic base) and Physics (my education which shaped my as a scientist).

Shameless plug: I will be giving an NCSA colloquium at 11am tomorrow 9/25 (see title/abstract below). It will be at NCSA's large auditorium on ground floor. Perhaps we can start the conversation right after it.

Title: Models of Genome Evolution and Ecosystem Dynamics: Kill-the-Winner, Kill-the-Loser, and Kill-the-King.

Abstract: We swim in the ocean of data and the only way to turn this data into knowledge is by condensing it down to models - the simpler the better. I will describe two models that my collaborators and I were recently working on. One allowed us to make sense of large collections of bacterial strain genomes in terms of their evolutionary dynamics via mutations and Horizontal Gene Transfer mediated by viruses (phages) The other model describes population dynamics in ecosystems exposed to episodic collapses such as e.g. susceptible bacteria decimated by phages following Kill-the-Winner strategy.

Dr. Sergei Maslov, Phone: (217) 265-5705 (o) (631) 327-8222 (cell) Email: maslov@illinois.edu WWW: http://www.cmth.bnl.gov/~maslov Professor of Bioengineering and Bliss Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with appointments at the Department of Bioengineering, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Department of Physics.