Date and Time: 04/25/2025, 14:00--15:10

Location: https://gsumeetings.webex.com/gsumeetings/j.php?MTID=md60bbe2623e8f21d8d96dbbc6bccacef

Distinguished Lecture: Understanding collective cell motion

Speaker: Philip Maini, Mathematical Institute, Oxford University, UK

Speaker's website: https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/maini/

Title: Understanding collective cell motion

Abstract: Collective cell motion is a common theme in biology occurring, for example, in developmental biology, wound healing and cancer growth. Given the complexity of the process, the standard model -  verbal reasoning and intuition - can sometimes lead to erroneous conclusions. We show how mathematical modelling, combined with experimental research, can integrate some of the complexities involved and lead to new biological insights. Specifically, we will focus on neural crest cell migration and present some examples from cancer, showing how phenotypic heterogeneity plays a key role.

Speaker's biography: Philip K. Maini received his B.A. in mathematics from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1982 and his DPhil in 1985 under the supervision of Prof J.D. Murray, FRS. He spent a year teaching at Eton College before returning to Oxford in 1987 as a postdoc at the WCMB and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. In 1988 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. In 1990 he returned to Oxford as a University Lecturer and in 1998 was appointed Professor of Mathematical Biology by Recognition of Distinction and Director of the WCMB. In 2005 he was appointed Statutory Professor of Mathematical Biology. He is on the editorial boards of a large number of journals, including serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology [2002-15]. He has also been an elected member of the Boards of the Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) and European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (ESMTB). He is a Fellow of the IMA (FIMA), a SIAM Fellow, an Inaugural SMB Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), Miembro Correspondiente (Foreign Fellow), La Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (AMC), Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (FEurASc) and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS). He has published over 540 papers and an H index of 96 as of April, 2025.

Host: Yi Jiang (yjiang12@gsu.edu)