[Colloq] Talk: Ran Libeskind-Hadas, 12/17, 2:00pm, 366 WVH - The Hitchhikers Guide to Coevolution

[Biron, Jessica]

Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Harvey Mudd College
Talk: 12/17, 2:00pm, 366 WVH

Title:  The Hitchhikers Guide to Coevolution

Abstract:

In the "Origin of Species," Darwin speculated that the evolution of one species could affect the evolution of another.  For example, bees and flowers might have coevolved in a mutually beneficial way.  In other cases, a parasitic species might track the evolutionary history, or "hitchhike", on its host species.  In recent years, computational methods have been developed that allow biologists to study if and how pairs of species might have coevolved.  In this talk, I will describe the computational problems, algorithmic solutions, and the resulting software systems that have been developed to study coevolution, offering several examples of how these computational tools have led to interesting discoveries.

In the last part of this talk, I will describe several national initiatives with which I'm involved related to undergraduate education.

Bio:  Ran "RON" Libeskind-Hadas is the R. Michael Shanahan Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College.  He received the A.B. in applied mathematics at Harvard University and the M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  His research interests are in algorithms and computational biology.  He has served as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Research at Harvey Mudd and currently serves as the co-Chair of the Computing Research Association Education Committee (CRA-E) and a council member of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC).