Mathematical Sciences Department
Colloquium
Speaker: Yonatan Ashenafi, WPI
Friday, September 15, 2023
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
HA209, Forkey Conference Room
Zoom Meeting ID: 938 8407 5985
Title: Stochastic Models Describing Microorganism Motion, with a Focus on the Emergence and Behavior of Collectives
Abstract: Microscopic life exhibits an array of activities, encompassing the pursuit of nutrition, orchestration of biological processes such as infection and reproduction, all made possible through microfluidic motion. In this presentation, our primary focus centers on a few mathematical frameworks for understanding these phenomena particularly for protozoa. Our overarching objective is to answer the questions surrounding the individual and collective mobility of various protozoa. We provide mathematical expressions for the effective mobility statistics of protozoa aggregates and explore how they interact both amongst themselves and with environmental factors, such as attractant chemicals. With further abstraction, we also look at the emergence of collective actions from a kinetic theory vantage point. At the core of this endeavor are systems of stochastic differential equations, which we analyze using a range of asymptotic approaches and Monte Carlo simulations.