On Growth and Form: Geometry, Physics and Biology
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Of the diversity of living form, Charles Darwin said, “It is enough to drive the sanest man mad.” A century and a half later, how can we quantify, understand and predict this variety? How might we control it? Motivated by biological observations on scales ranging from molecular to histological, L. Mahadevan will explain how a combination of biological and physical experiments, together with mathematical models and computations, begin to unravel the physical basis for morphogenesis. He will go on to explore how these pan-disciplinary problems enrich the origins of this topic, creating new questions in mathematics, physics and biology.
Speaker
L. Mahadevan, Ph.D.
Harvard University