"Decoding Your Mental GPS: Transcendental Numbers in the Brain"

Professor Vijay Balasubramanian

The brain uses specialized neurons known as place and grid cells to keep track of location. The discovery of the latter earned researchers a Nobel Prize, but the way the brain encodes and decodes this information is…

Math-Bio seminar: "Modeling RNA local splicing variations from large heterogeneous datasets"

Yoseph Barash, University of Pennsylvania

Alternative splicing (AS) of genes is a key contributor to transcriptome variations and numerous disease. RNA-Seq experiments produce millions of short RNA reads and are commonly used to assess alternative splicing…

High Energy Seminar: "AdS_2 Holography and Non-extremal Black Holes"

Ioannis Papadimitriou (SISSA)

I will present aspects of AdS_2 holography for a specific Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton model that is obtained by Kaluza-Klein reduction from pure AdS_3 gravity with negative cosmological constant. In particular, I will…

Condensed Matter seminar: "Optical Tools for Unraveling Whole-brain Neuronal Circuit Dynamics Underlying Behavior "

Alipasha Vaziri, Rockefeller University

Optical technologies have been transformative for our current understanding of structure and function of neuronal circuits underlying behavior and are in many cases the limiting factors for pushing our understanding…

HE Experimental Physics: "Results from the DUNE 35-ton Prototype Detector"

Jonathan Insler (Drexel University)

The 35 ton prototype for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) far detector was a single phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr-TPC) integrated detector that took cosmics data for a six week run…

Math-Bio seminar: "Structured latent factor models to recover interpretable networks from transcriptomic data"

Barbara Engelhardt, Princeton University

Latent factor models have been the recent focus of much attention in "big data" applications because of their ability to quickly allow the user to explore the underlying data in a controlled and interpretable way…

High Energy Seminar: "Entanglement, Holography and Causal Diamonds"

Michal Heller (Perimeter Institute)

Department Colloquium: "Perturbation and Control of Human Brain Network Dynamics"

Danielle Bassett (UPenn), Hosted by: Andrea Liu

The human brain is a complex organ characterized by heterogeneous patterns of interconnections. New non-invasive imaging techniques now allow for these patterns to be carefully and comprehensively mapped in…

Condensed Matter seminar: "Unusual Fluctuations and Absorbing States"

Dov Levine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Absorbing state models are far-from-equilibrium many-body systems which exhibit a phase transition with characteristics similar to those of a continuous equilibrium transition.  One major difference, however, which…

Astro Seminar: "Cosmology Constrains the Standard Model and Beyond!

Amol Upadhye (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Neutrinos are Standard Model particles whose mass splittings are known, but whose absolute mass scale remains a mystery.  Cosmology provides the best upper bound on the sum of masses, 0.23 eV, a number intriguingly…