** Junior Colloquium 2011-2012 **
The first mathematics Junior Colloquium of the fall semester
will take place this Thursday, September 8th, at 3:35 pm in the
Fourth Floor Colloquium Room, Ayres Hall. The talks are aimed
principally at undergraduates, but traditionally the audience
also includes graduate students and faculty. All are most welcome
to attend the talks and enjoy the pizza.
Junior Colloquium
Ayres Hall 4th Floor Colloquium Room
Thursday September 8, 3:35 pm - 4:25 pm
Dr. Bill Holmes, University of British Columbia,
Alumnus of UTK
Foundations of wave propagation in biology and ecology
What controls the speed of disease spread? How does the heart beat?
How do white blood cells track down and eat a pathogen? While these
biological phenomena range from large to very small in scale and
seemingly have very little in common, each can be thought of as a
problem in wave propagation. In this talk I will discuss the
mathematics used to explores these types of questions. We'll look at
systems of both historic and current interest and use techniques from
ordinary differential equations (ODE's) to explore the formation and
propagation of waves in reaction diffusion systems. A premium will be
placed on providing an intuitive understanding of the mechanisms
at work and using that understanding to motivate the mathematical
structure used to describe them. Familiarity with ODE's and a basic
understanding of the concept of diffusion will be helpful.
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