Title: 

"Best" in a Biological Context: Optimization across the Biological Hierarchy

Abstract: 

Many central concepts in biology involve notions of what is "better" or "best" in the context of evolution, physiology, and behavior. Similarly, in many applied areas of the life sciences, we are concerned with developing a "best" method to carry out drug therapies, resource harvesting, pest management, and epidemic control. I will discuss, with audience participation, what it might mean to be "best" for several problems at different levels of the biological hierarchy. This includes being clear about differences between maximization and optimization, and taking account of constraints, historical and others, on biological systems.  Examples will incorporate notions of optimal control, emphasizing

spatial problems.   

There will be a reception at 3:30 in POT 745 before the talk. 

Brief Biography: 

Louis J. Gross is a James R. Cox and Alvin and Sally Beaman Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics and Director of The Institute for Environmental Modeling at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also Director Emeritus of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, a National Science Foundation-funded center to foster research and education at the interface between math and biology. He completed a B.S. degree in Mathematics at Drexel University and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at Cornell University, and has been a faculty member at UTK since 1979. His research focuses on applications of mathematics and computational methods in many areas of ecology, including disease ecology, landscape ecology, spatial control for natural resource management, photosynthetic dynamics, and the development of quantitative curricula for life science undergraduates. Among other activities he has served as Program Chair of the Ecological Society of America, as President of the Society for Mathematical Biology, President of the UTK Faculty Senate and as Chair of the National Research Council Committee on Education in Biocomplexity Research. He is the 2006 Distinguished Scientist awardee of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, is a Fellow of the American Association for  the Advancement of Science, and is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Theoretical Ecology, published in 2012 by the University of California Press. Along with Erin Bodine and Suzanne Lenhart, he is co-author of the text Mathematics for the Life Sciences

published by Princeton University Press in 2014.  

This event is supported, in part by the College of Arts and Sciences

The second in the “Works in Progress Series” features Melissa Adler, Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science. She will be discussing the introduction to her book manuscript, tentatively titled Perverse Subjects: Becoming Bodies of Literature in the Library. The book provides an account of the ways in which the Library Congress classification standards that organize research libraries in the U.S. and abroad have reproduced normative ideas about sexuality since the beginning of the 20^th century. The project challenges these classifications through the lens of perversion, echoing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s call to become “perverse readers.”

Carol Mason (GWS) and Rusty Barrett (Linguistics) will serve as respondents. Attendees should email CST Director Dr. Marion Rust (marion.rust@uky.edu) for a copy of Dr. Adler’s paper.

Please join us for the 3^rd Annual BIOFEST

Thursday, October 9th Noon—1:30pm

Where: Biology —Thomas Hunt Morgan Building front lawn (Washington side)

Chili, Hot Chocolate, Cookies, Prizes, Games

There will be lots of free food and fun door prizes.

This is an opportunity for you to mingle and meet with fellow Biology Majors and Biology Instructors.

Hope to see you all there!