Lecture
Sergey Gavrilets
Distinguished Professor
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
Department of Mathematics, and National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Title:Models of speciation: where are we now?
Monday, May 16, 2016
Seminar Room, 3rd floor, Physics’ Dept.
Time: 13:00
Host: K. Lika
Abstract
Theory building is an integral part of biological research, in general, and of speciation research, in particular. Here, I review the modeling work on speciation done in the last 10 years or so, assessing the progress made and identifying areas where additional effort is required. Specific topics considered include evolutionary dynamics of genetic incompatibilities, spatial and temporal patterns of speciation, links to neutral theory of biodiversity, effects of multidimensionality of phenotype, sympatric and parapatric speciation, adaptive radiation, speciation by sexual conflict, and models tailored for specific biological systems. Particularly challenging questions for future theoretical research identified here are 1) incorporating gene regulatory networks in models describing accumulation of genetic incompatibilities; 2) integrating models of community ecology with those developed in speciation theory; 3) building models providing better insights on the dynamics of parapatric speciation; 4) modeling speciation in multidimensional ecological niches with mating preferences based on multidimensional mating cues and sexual characters; 5) linking microevolutionary processes with macroevolutionary patterns as observed in adaptive radiations and paleontological record; 6) modeling speciation in specific systems studied by empirical biologists; and 7) modeling human origins. The insights from dynamic models of speciation should be useful in developing statistical tools that would enable empiricists to infer the history of past evolutionary divergence and speciation from genomic data.
Time:
09:00
Location:
IMBB Heraklion
Description:
IMBB Retreat 21-22 May 2016
Dear all,
The IMBB retreat will take place in Heraklion 21 – 22 May with participation of the Biomedical Research Division in conjunction with the inauguration of the Ancient DNA lab on Friday 20 May. The retreat is aimed at bringing together all research groups to interact and discuss their research. All group leaders, post-docs and graduate students are expected to participate and technicians are encouraged to attend. There will also be information from the major facilities at IMBB and from Artemis Saitakis on exploitation of research knowledge.
Niki Kretsovali
e-mail: kretsova@imbb.forth.gr
Inga Siden-Kiamos
e-mail: inga@imbb.forth.gr
Time:
09:00
Location:
IMBB Heraklion
Description:
IMBB Retreat 21-22 May 2016
Dear all,
The IMBB retreat will take place in Heraklion 21 – 22 May with participation of the Biomedical Research Division in conjunction with the inauguration of the Ancient DNA lab on Friday 20 May. The retreat is aimed at bringing together all research groups to interact and discuss their research. All group leaders, post-docs and graduate students are expected to participate and technicians are encouraged to attend. There will also be information from the major facilities at IMBB and from Artemis Saitakis on exploitation of research knowledge.
Niki Kretsovali
e-mail kretsova@imbb.forth.gr
Inga Siden-Kiamos
e-mail inga@imbb.forth.gr
Organic electronics, an interdisciplinary research area traditionally more connected to organic synthetic chemistry and polymer science than condensed matter physics, is currently undergoing a major transformation. The advent of high mobility small molecule semiconductors and new avenues for scalable thin film and device fabrication introduce a new paradigm in a research field that was historically overwhelmingly focused on polymer-based materials.
At the University of Vermont my research group focuses on exploring excitonic states, low temperature magnetism and spin-dependent exchange interactions in metal and metal-free octabutoxyphthalocyanine (OBPc) crystalline semiconducting thin films that belong to an intermediate regime between a fully localized (Frenkel) and fully delocalized (Wannier) picture of the excitonic behavior. We employ condensed matter experimental approaches (in particular low temperature, polarization-resolved, ultrafast, magneto-spectroscopy) on a quest for signatures of long range interactions such as exciton-phonon coupling and spin exchange in these systems. Recent results include: i) the observation of a low temperature nominally “dark” exciton state that is now optically-allowed because intermolecular interactions led to a breakdown of the selection rules,[1] ii) the surprising discovery of excitonic states localized at the grain boundary that provides new insight on exciton diffusion in these systems,[2] and iii) the direct observation of an MCD signature of an exchange between d-shell electrons of the metal ion and the delocalized π-orbitals of the ligand in transition metal species of MOBPc.[3]
1. Rawat, N., et al. J.Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6(10), 1834-1840.
2. Pan, Z., et al. Nat.Commun. 2015,6.
3. Rawat, N., et al., Sci. Rep. 2015,5, 16536.
Time:
12:00
Location:
“Seminar Room 1”, FORTH’s bldg
Description:
IMBB JOINT COLLOQUIA
Speaker 1: Maria MONASTIRIOTI
Title: "IMBB Retreat Missing Talk".
Speaker 2: Giulia BONETTO (Karagogeos' Lab)
Title: "Microneurotrophins contribute to oligodendrocyte survival in the Cuprizone model of demyelination."