Chennai Mathematical Institute

Conferences


Dr. F.C. Kohli Centre of Excellence

Perspectives in Mathematical Sciences

January 10–February 4, 2022

Thursday, 3 February 2022, 19:30 IST

Shiladitya Banerjee, Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU)

Title Physics of living and evolving matter (Video Recording)

Abstract

Living matter operates far from equilibrium, constantly consuming and dissipating energy to perform their defining features of growth, self-replication, motility and adaptation to changing environments. These dynamical processes are governed by complex, time-dependent interactions between a large number of molecular components that are impossible to measure or characterize in detail. As a result, bottom-up approaches to modeling the dynamics of living systems are computationally and mathematically challenging. In this talk I will discuss top-down approaches to modeling the dynamics of living matter, formulated in terms of collective system variables that are able to predict the emergent dynamics in a range of living systems, from growing microbes to morphing tissues and interacting cell populations. Identifying the collective modes of dynamics in these systems has revealed new mathematical rules and strategies that underlie biological form, function, and self-organization across different spatiotemporal scales.

About the speaker

Shiladitya Banerjee photo Shiladitya Banerjee is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University working in the area of Theoretical and Computational Biophysics. Banerjee did his undergraduate studies at Chennai Mathematical Institute, and earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Syracuse University in 2013. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago (2013-2016), Banerjee became a Faculty in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at University College London in 2016, where he was appointed a Royal Society University Research Fellow. He moved to his current position at Carnegie Mellon in 2020. Research in the Banerjee Lab is focused on developing mathematical and computational models for the dynamics of living systems and organisms.