Quantitative Laws in Statistical Physics and Biology: Lake Como Workshop

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The workshop on "Quantitative Laws:" in Statistical Physics and Biology will be held in Lake Como, Italy in June 2016. The purpose of this workshop is to communicate the foundations and advances in research in key cutting-edge areas at the interface of statistical physics and biology, by means of lecture, discussion and dialogue amongst junior and advanced researchers. The unifying theme of this workshop is quantitative laws emerging in ecosystems, but a more general aim is to provide a wide perspective on the connections of this discipline with cellular physiology on one side and to complex systems on the other. The workshop will provide the necessary methodological tools and perspectives to enable a junior researcher to understand and perform cutting-edge research in these areas. It will primarily target PhD students and postdocs with a physics or mathematics background, but it is open to anyone with background in (evolutionary) genomics, (evolutionary) biology, bioinformatics, ecology, who is interested in quantitative work. The workshop is divided in two themes, centered on results, discoveries and methods at the interface of statistical physics and biology in the areas of (1) physiology to ecology and (2) interaction structures to collective behavior. The discovery of recurring, quantitative patterns in biological systems across living systems from scales of molecules to ecosystems has led to the increasing development of an interface field between statistical physics and biology. This interface is enabled by the meaningful involvement of both physicists and bioscientists, focusing on relevant problems and leveraging theoretic methods from non-equilibrium statistical physics, probability theory, network theory, and large-scale simulation. Over 15 international speakers with expertise in the physics of living systems will develop foundational lectures as well as advanced research topics to engage students and postdocs entering this emerging field in a workshop/school format. The workshop will be unique in its integration of detailed quantitative and physics-based methods into the core analysis of data and problems in applications areas including genomics, cell biology, microbiology, ecology evolution, immunology and virology. Funds will support approximately 10 US-based PhD candidates and postdoctoral scientists to participate in an international workshop at the interface between multiple disciplines, including statistical physics and the biosciences, with applications to genomics, cell biology, microbiology, ecology evolution, immunology and virology. Recruitment will be targeted broadly in the United States, including student-based associations specifically supporting the inclusion of under-represented groups in cutting-edge scientific programs.