Seminars

Upcoming Seminars / Seminars This Week



Thu 3/21/19 11 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Emery Brown (MIT)
Deciphering the Dynamics of the Unconscious Brain Under General Anesthesia
Pizza will be served
Hosted by Abuzar Mahmood
Thu 3/21/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Guangshuo Ou (Tsinghua University)
Trafficking and transport in sensory neuron cilia
Hosted by Piali Sengupta
Thu 3/21/19 12 noon	Rosenstiel 118
Psychology Department Brown Bag
Luke Sim (Graybiel Lab)
Classifying erroneous movements in a visual inverted pendulum with EEG
Runqiu Jin (Graybiel Lab)
Visual Vestibular Integration for Human Balancing
Thu 3/21/19 2 pm	Goldsmith 117
Dynamics and Number Theory
Anurag Rao (Brandeis University)
Diophantine approximation in l2 norm
We state a norm-sensitive Diophantine approximation problem arising from the work of Kleinbock-Wadleigh. While the case of the supremum norm was studied there extensively using techniques of continued fractions, we study the case of the Euclidean norm using a result of Maucourant on geodesic flows for hyperbolic surfaces. Specifically, for a given approximation function ψ we establish a zero-one law on the set of α ∈ R for which αq−p 2 q 2 the inequality ψ(t) + t < 1 has non-trivial integer solutions for all large enough t. Based on ongoing work with D. Kleinbock.
Hosted by Prof. Dmitry Kleinbock
Thu 3/21/19 3:30 pm	Rosenstiel 118
Thesis Seminar (Graduate Program in Neuroscience)
Narendra Mukherjee (Laboratory of Don Katz)
Behaviorally relevant sensory cortical population dynamics in the rodent taste system
Thu 3/21/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
Johannes Zwanikken (University of Massachusetts, Lowell)
The emergence of multiple time scales in active matter: creating memory by tuning the direction of self-propulsion
Active materials, where the components dissipate energy into directed motion, display unique phases and functional properties that are not available to their ‘passive', thermal counterparts, which are extensively used in nature and hold great promise for the design of new functional materials with unique structural and dynamic properties. However, the powerful predictive tools that have been designed for passive matter do not translate to active systems. Despite many recent contributions and advances, the connection between the microscopic properties of the components and the behavior of the ensemble is still difficult to predict. To interrogate that connection further we study ensembles of active polygons with Newtonian dynamics, focusing on how clustering and collective motion is affected by the direction of self-propulsion. We observe that both the structural and dynamic properties of the clusters are strongly dependent on the direction of self-propulsion, enabling a switch between effective Markovian behavior and periodic behavior with long characteristic time scales. We design a reaction network model for the dynamic evolution of the clusters in a ‘state space', and find that the topology of this network is strongly influenced by the typical collision dynamics of the particles. Certain topologies enable loops in state space that have characteristic time scales and connect to the emergence of periodic behavior. We conclude that if a Boltzmann-type distribution could be formulated for active matter, it would need to incorporate not only the interaction potential, but also the character of the microscopic motion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that relatively simple active systems can harness a complex dynamic behavior with a hierarchy of characteristic time scales.
Hosted by John Berezney
Thu 3/21/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Laura Newburgh (Yale University)
New Probes of Old Structure: Cosmology with 21cm Intensity Mapping and the Cosmic Microwave Background
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Thu 3/21/19 4:30 pm	Goldsmith 317
Joint Mathematics Colloquium
Artan Sheshmani ( Aarhus and Harvard CMSA)
Embedded surfaces, dualities, and enumerative geometry on Calabi-Yau three and fourfolds
I will talk about a series of results obtained over the past years, regarding the algebraic-geometric invariants of smooth projective surfaces, and their connections to geometry of higher dimensional varieties such as Calabi-Yau threefolds and 4 folds.
Refreshments at 4pm in Goldsmith 100
Hosted by Professor An Huang
Fri 3/22/19 11:15 am	Rosenstiel 118
Biochemistry-Biophysics Friday Lunchtime Pizza Talks
David Reich (Harvard Medical School)
Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
Hosted by Chris Miller
Fri 3/22/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Siobhan Gartland (Marr Lab )
Ben Ballintyn (Miller)
Fri 3/22/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 124
Computer Science Seminar
Dr. Houping Xiao (The State University of New York at Buffalo)
Exploring the Power of Source Reliability in Information Integration
Abstract: In the era of Big Data, data entries, even describing the same objects or events, can come from a variety of sources. There are some sources that typically provide accurate information, but due to various reasons such as recording errors, device malfunction, background noise, or even intent to manipulate the data, some other sources may contain noisy or even erroneous information. Therefore, during information integration, it is critical to identify reliable sources that more often provide accurate information. Unfortunately, there is no oracle telling us which information source is more reliable a priori. In this talk, novel information integration methods are developed that incorporate the estimation of source reliability in both data-level and model-level information integration. In both works, we prove some nice properties of the proposed approaches via theoretical analysis and demonstrate their impact on some real applications such as indoor floorplan construction and crowdsourced question answering. Speaker Bio: Dr. Houping Xiao received PhD degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The State University of New York at Buffalo, and the BS degree in Statistics from Beijing Normal University. He is an assistant professor with the Institute of Insight, Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research interests broadly are data mining and machine learning, with a focus on truth discovery, large-scale business analytics, text mining, distributed learning etc. Most of his works have been published in top journal and conferences, such as TKDE, ToN, TOSN, KDD, WWW, ICDM, etc. He is a recipient of Best Dissertation Award (2018) from UB CSE. Website: https://robinson.gsu.edu/profile/houping-xiao/
Hosted by Hongfu Liu
Fri 3/22/19 2 pm	Gerstenzang 124
Special Seminar (Linguistics Program and ASL ClubDr. Helen Koulidobrova)
Dr. Helen Koulidobrova (Central Connecticut State University.)
When my Other Language is a Sign Language: A Signer's Contribution to the Linguistic Theory
Hosted by Soiphia Malamud
Mon 3/25/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Neurobiology Journal Club
Mara Rue (Marder Lab)
Most sleep does not serve a vital function: Evidence from Drosophila melanogaster
Jason Pipkin (Marder Lab)
Characterization of Proprioceptive System Dynamics in Behaving Drosophila Larvae Using High-Speed Volumetric Microscopy
Mon 3/25/19 4 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Rosenstiel Award Lecture
Stephen Harrison (Harvard Medical School)
Viruses, Proteins and Cells
Hosted by James E. Haber
Tue 3/26/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Pranjal Nayak (University of Kentucky)
Eigenstate thermalization (ETH) in the SYK model and the Schwarzian theory: an Analytic Approach
Hosted by High Energy Theory Group
Tue 3/26/19 11 am	Shapiro Science Center 3-37
Chemistry Seminar (Organic Seminar 230)
Gary Marqus (Hedstrom Lab)
Aminoacyl tRNA Synthetases as Novel Drug Targets for Tuberculosis
Tue 3/26/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
M.R. Bauer Colloquium Series
Adam Hantman (Janelia Research Campus - HHMI)
Neural circuits of dexterity
Hosted by Sacha Nelson
Tue 3/26/19 2 pm	Goldsmith 317
Topology Seminar
Rose Morris-White (Brandeis University)
Braid groups
Hosted by Prof. Daniel Ruberman, Prof. Ruth Charney and Prof. Kiyoshi Igusa
Tue 3/26/19 3:30 pm	Shapiro Science Center, LL16
Chemistry Seminar (Chem 240/250/260)
Dongsik Yang (Xu Lab)
The smart drug delivery system
Tue 3/26/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
Thomas Fai (Brandeis University)
Length regulation of multiple flagella that self-assemble from a shared pool of components
The single cell biflagellate Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has proven to be a very useful model organism for studies of size control. The lengths of its two flagella are tightly regulated. We study a model of flagellar length control whose key assumption is that proteins responsible for the intraflagellar transport (IFT) of tubulin are present in limiting amounts. In the case of two simultaneously assembling flagella, regardless of the details of how the flagella are coupled, we find that the widely-used assumption of a constant disassembly rate is inconsistent with experimental results. We therefore propose a model in which diffusion gives rise to a length-dependent concentration of depolymerizer at the flagellar tip. This model is found to be consistent with experimental results and generalizes to other situations such as arbitrary flagellar number.
Hosted by Bjoern Penning
Wed 3/27/19 12 noon
Mathematical Biology Journal Club
Lishi Mohapatra (Brandeis University)
Hosted by Prof. Jonathan Touboul and Prof. Thomas Fai
Wed 3/27/19 2 pm	Gerstenzang 122
Thesis Seminar (Graduate Program in Biochemistry and Biophysics)
Grace Rosen (Gelles Lab)
Single Molecule Analysis of RNApII Transcription Dynamics
Wed 3/27/19 3:30 pm	Shapiro Science Center, LL16
Special Seminar
Simon Boulton (The Francis Crick Institute)
Homologous recombination - a single molecule perspective
Hosted by Jim Haber
Thu 3/28/19 11 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Lorenzo Fontolan (HHMI - Janelia Research Campus)
Neural circuit dynamics underlying short-term memory in frontal cortex
Pizza will be served
Hosted by Paul Miller
Thu 3/28/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Felix Zhou (Haber Lab)
CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing induces megabase-scale chromosomal truncations
Siobhan Gartland (Marr Lab)
DAF-16 stabilizes the aging transcriptome and is activated in mid-aged Caenorhabditis elegans to cope with internal stress
Thu 3/28/19 2 pm	Abelson 131
Thesis Seminar (Graduate Program in Molecular and Cell Biology)
Anna Kazatskaya (Laboratory of Piali Sengupta)
Diverse mechanisms of the regulation of cilia formation and microtubule growth
Thu 3/28/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
Alexander Petroff (Clark University)
Fast-moving bacteria self-organize into active two-dimensional crystals of rotating cells
We investigate a new form of collective dynamics displayed by Thiovulum majus, one of the fastest-swimming bacteria known. Cells spontaneously organize on a surface into a visually striking two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of rotating cells. As each constituent cell rotates its flagella, it creates a tornado like flow that pulls neighboring cells towards and around it. In the first part of the talk, we describe the earliest stage of crystallization, the attraction of two bacteria into a hydrodynamically-bound dimer. In the second part of the talk, we present the dynamics of bacterial crystals, which are composed of 5--200 hydrodynamically bound cells. As cells rotate against their neighbors, they exert forces on one another, causing the crystal to rotate and cells to reorganize. We show how these dynamics arise from hydrodynamic and steric interactions between cells. We derive the equations of motion for a crystal, show that this model explains several aspects of the observed dynamics, and discuss the stability of these active crystals.
Hosted by John Berezney
Thu 3/28/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
Jia Liu (Princeton University)
Cosmology with massive neutrinos
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Thu 3/28/19 4:30 pm	Goldsmith 317
Joint Mathematics Colloquium
Jiaoyang Huang (Harvard University)
Fluctuations of Probability Measures Related to Jack Symmetric Polynomials
The Ulam-Hammersley problem asks the asymptotic behavior of the length of the longest increasing subsequence in a random permutation as the size of the permutations grows. The problem of the length of the longest increasing subsequence in a random permutation is closely related to the so called Plancherel measure on partitions. In a beautiful article, Baik, Deift and Johansson proved that the length of the first row of a random partition under the Plancherel measure, or equivalently the length of the longest increasing subsequence of a uniform random permutation is asymptotically described by the Tracy-Widom distribution, originated from random matrix theory. Besides the local fluctuations, the global fluctuations of the Plancherel measure are also well-understood. Kerov proved that the boundary of the random partitions under the Plancherel measure has Gaussian fluctuations around a deterministic curve. The Plancherel measure is a special case of Schur measures, which are defined in terms of Schur symmetric functions, introduced by Okounkov. More generally, one can study probability measures on partitions defined in terms of Jack symmetric functions, which generalize Schur symmetric functions. In this talk, I'll survey some previous works and explain new approaches to study the local and global fluctuations of those probability measures on partitions. This is partly based on a joint work with Alice Guionnet.
Hosted by Professor An Huang
Fri 3/29/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Joyce Rigal (Marr Lab)
Aly Fassett-Carman (Gutsell/Snyder Labs)
Fri 3/29/19 3 pm	Gerstenzang 124
Special Seminar
Tara Keck (University College London)
Homeostatic plasticity of individual synapses in mouse visual cortex
Hosted by Gina Turrigiano
Mon 4/1/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Neurobiology Journal Club
Aishwarya Krishnamoorthy (Kadener Lab)
TBA
Jian-You Lin (Katz Lab)
TBA
Tue 4/2/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
Hosted by High Energy Theory Group
Tue 4/2/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Joint Biology/Neuroscience Colloquium (Distinguished Speaker)
Eric Maskin (Harvard University)
How to Improve Presidential Elections
Hosted by Michael Rosbash
Tue 4/2/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
TBA
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning
Wed 4/3/19 2 pm	Goldsmith 226
Mathematical Biology Journal Club
Niima Dehghani (MIT)
Towards a Quantitative Theory of Cortex: A multiscale perspective of cortical computational dynamics
Hosted by Dr. Denis Patterson and Prof. Jonathan Touboul
Thu 4/4/19 11 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Mike Halassa
TBA
Pizza will be served
Hosted by Ryan Young
Thu 4/4/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
Dan Finley (Harvard Med)
TBA
Hosted by Jim Haber
Thu 4/4/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
TBA
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Thu 4/4/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
John Biddle (Harvard Medical School)
Negative Reciprocity underlies the interactions of Sox2 and Oct4 on DNA: Implications for energy expenditure in gene regulation
Single-molecule tracking data on the transcription factors Sox2 and Oct4 were cited at the time of their publication five years ago as evidence of ordered assembly of Sox2 and Oct4 on murine DNA. The quantity cited in support of this conclusion, however, does not pertain to ordered assembly. Moreover, these single-molecule tracking experiments aim to infer what takes place at DNA binding loci by following transcription factors, and this inference requires a more in-depth biophysical analysis than had been carried out. We performed such an analysis and found that the data were inconclusive with respect to the hypothesis of ordered assembly, but we also found something novel: that the expression of Sox2 in these cells increased genomic binding by Oct4, while the expression of Oct4 decreased genomic binding by Sox2. We call this surprising phenomenon "negative reciprocity", and show that it cannot be accounted for at thermodynamic equilibrium with only one kind of Sox2-Oct4 binding locus. Either the cell must expend energy so as to maintain the system away from thermodynamic equilibrium, or Sox2 and Oct4 must bind at diverse genomic loci in such a way that at some of these loci they assist each other in binding, while at others they hinder each other. The analytical techniques used to derive these results are of general interest, and increasingly so as single-molecule tracking techniques continue to develop.
Hosted by John Berezney
Fri 4/5/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Neurobiology Journal Club
Travis Rogers (Sengupta Lab)
Aishwarya Krishnamoorthy (Kadener Lab)
Mon 4/8/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Neurobiology Journal Club
Mara Rue (Marder Lab)
TBA
Bradly Stone (Katz Lab)
Mon 4/8/19 3:40 pm	Gerstenzang 124
Chemistry Seminar
Adam Willard (MIT)
Hosted by Rebecca Gieseking
Tue 4/9/19 11 am	Abelson 307
String Theory Seminar
TBA
TBA
Hosted by High Energy Theory Group
Tue 4/9/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 121
Lisman Award in Vision Science
Connie Cepko (HHMI – InvestigatorHMS – Bullard Professor of Genetic & Neuroscience)
Development of the Vertebrate Retina and Nanobodies as Regulators of Intracellular Activities
Hosted by Steve Van Hooser
Tue 4/9/19 4 pm	Abelson 131
Physics Department Colloquium
TBA
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning
Thu 4/11/19 11 am	Volen 201
Computational Neuroscience Journal Club
Faisal Karmali
TBA
Pizza will be served
Hosted by Vivek Vimal
Thu 4/11/19 12 noon	Gerstenzang 124
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
TBA
TBA
Thu 4/11/19 4 pm	Abelson 229
MRSEC Seminar
Thomas Fai (Brandeis University (Applied Math))
TBA
Hosted by John Berezney
Thu 4/11/19 4 pm	Abelson 333
Dark Universe Seminar
TBA
TBA
Hosted by Bjoern Penning and Marcelle Soares-Santos
Fri 4/12/19 12:30 pm	Gerstenzang 123
Molecular and Cell Biology & Neuroscience Student Seminars
Nikita Alimov (Goode Lab)