[PRL] Distinguished Speaker tomorrow (Thu)

[Mitchell Wand]

Folks,  Larry has asked me to get out the troops to come to the
distinguished lecture tomorrow.  The speaker is managing director of
Microsoft Research New England, so it's important that we make a good
impression.

The  College  of  Computer  and  Information  Science  and
nuACM are proud to present Dr. Jennifer Tour Chayes of
Microsoft Research New England as part of this year's
Distinguished Speaker Series.

Jennifer Tour Chayes is managing director
of the newly announced Microsoft Research
New England lab in Cambridge, Mass.,

Interdisciplinarity in the Age of Networks


Abstract:
Everywhere we turn these days, we find that networks have become increasing
appropriate descriptions of relevant interactions.  In the high tech world,
we see
mobile  networks,  the  Internet,  the  World  Wide  Web,  and  a  variety
of  online
social  networks.   In  economics,  we  are  increasingly  experiencing
both  the
positive and negative effects of a global networked economy.  In
epidemiology,
we find disease spreading over our ever growing social networks, complicated

by mutation of the disease agents.  In problems of world health,
distribution of
limited  resources,  such  as  water  resources,  quickly  becomes  a
problem  of
finding the optimal network for resource allocation.  In biomedical
research, we
are  beginning  to  understand  the  structure  of  gene  regulatory
networks,  with
the prospect of using this understanding to manage the many diseases caused
by gene mis‐regulation.  In this talk, I look quite generally at some of the
models
we are using to describe these networks, and at some of the methods we are
developing  to  indirectly  infer  network  structure  from  measured
data.   In
particular,  I  will  discuss  models  and  techniques  which  cut  across
many
disciplinary boundaries

Date: Thu 3/26/09
Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location: 110 West Village H
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