Invitation to the ICTP Webinar Colloquium by by Prof. Ned Wingreen on "Modeling microbial diversity" on Wednesday 16 December at 16:00 hrs CET

[ICTP Director]

Dear All,

You are most cordially invited to the ICTP Webinar Colloquium by Prof. 
Ned Wingreen on "Modeling microbial diversity" on Wednesday 16 December 
at 16:00 hrs CET.

*Pre-registration* is required at the following url: 
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ea8CImqET6i8cZU1OpbtVQ*
*

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing 
information about joining the webinar.

The talk will be available on livestream via the ICTP website, and also 
on ICTP's YouTube channel.

*Biosketch: *Ned S. Wingreen received a B.S. in Physics from California 
Institute of Technology in 1984, and his Ph.D. in theoretical condensed 
matter physics from Cornell University in 1989 as a Hertz Fellow. 
Wingreen is currently a theoretical physicist and the Howard A. Prior 
Professor of the Life Sciences at Princeton University. He is a member 
of the Department of Molecular Biology and of the Lewis-Sigler Institute 
for Integrative Genomics, where he is currently Director of Graduate 
Studies. He is the Associate Director of the Princeton Center for 
Theoretical Science, and is also associated faculty in the Department of 
Physics. Working with Yigal Meir, Wingreen formulated the Meir-Wingreen 
Formula which describes the electric current through an arbitrary 
mesoscopic system.

*Abstract: *DNA sequencing has revealed hundreds to thousands of 
microbial species coexisting in all natural habitats, including inside 
human hosts. However, resource-competition models predict that the 
number of species in steady coexistence cannot exceed the number of 
resources - the so-called “paradox of the plankton”. To address this 
puzzle, we model how trade-offs in metabolic abilities level-the playing 
field among competing microbes. Our model spontaneously reproduces 
several notable features of natural ecosystems, including high 
diversity, keystone species, and population dynamics.

The talk will be followed by a question/answer session.

For info, please check the following link: http://indico.ictp.it/event/9492/

We look forward to seeing you online!

With best regards,

Office of the Director, ICTP