Murray and Adylin Rosenblatt Endowed Lecture Series in Applied Mathematics, 2019
Thursday, February 7, 2019, 3-6.15 p.m.
Natural Sciences Building Auditorium, UC San Diego
PLEASE REGISTER: SEE REGISTRATION BELOW


Murray and Adylin Rosenblatt Lecture and Distinguished Mathematics Diversity Colloquium
Professor Ingrid Daubechies
Departments of Mathematics, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Duke University
Thursday, February 7, 2019: 3-4.15 p.m.

Mathematicians helping art conservators and art historians

Photo by Les Todd: Duke Photography

ABSTRACT: Mathematics can help Art Historians and Art Conservators in studying and understanding art works, their manufacture process and their state of conservation. The presentation will review several instances of such collaborations in the last decade or so. Some of them led (and are still leading) to interesting new challenges in signal and image analysis. In other applications we can virtually rejuvenate art works, bringing a different understanding and experience of the art to museum visitors as well as to experts.

Murray and Adylin Rosenblatt Lecture
Professor Simon Tavare
Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics and
Departments of Statistics and Biological Sciences
Columbia University
Thursday, February 7, 2019: 5-6.15 p.m.

Some Statistical Problems in Cancer Genomics


ABSTRACT: The starting point for this talk comes from population genetics: how should we estimate evolutionarily relevant parameters from DNA sequence data taken from samples of individuals? I will give a brief overview of what we learned, starting from the Ewens Sampling Formula and touching on Approximate Bayesian Computation as an inference method when likelihoods are intractable. To illustrate ABC, I will give an example concerning inference of the number of distinct DNA sequences in a sample, given only information about the frequency of point mutations in the samples. This example provides an introduction to inference from typical cancer sequencing data, in which individuals are replaced by cells and in which typically we do not know which mutations occur in which cells. I will give a brief overview of what cancer evolution is about, the sort of statistical and computational problems it poses, and where we are in addressing some of them. Time permitting, I will describe some novel experimental methods we are developing to understand the 3D structure of tumors, paving the way for some challenging inferential problems that will require engagement from data scientists and others.

Refreshments will be served at 4.15-5 p.m., between the two talks.


REGISTRATION
To attend one or both of the lectures, registration is required. Registration is free and is open to researchers who have an interest in the topic of one or both of the lectures and are affiliated with Universities or industrial or government institutions. This includes current postdocs and graduate students. To register to attend one or both lectures, please click here and complete the simple web registration form.

HISTORY OF THE SERIES
In 2016, the Mathematics Department at UC San Diego launched the Murray and Adylin Rosenblatt Endowed Lecture Series in Applied Mathematics. The aim of the series is to highlight mathematics and statistics in areas of application. The series features high profile scholars in a range of fields. Each year the series will feature 2-3 speakers delivering lectures in their areas of research, accessible to a fairly broad audience including faculty and graduate students from mathematics and statistics, science, engineering, and economics. For information about preceding lectures, see the links below.
  • Inaugural lectures, 2016: Robert Engle and Catherine Constable.
  • 2017-2018 Lectures: Tamar Schlick and David Donoho.
    SPONSORS
    The lectures are sponsored by the UC San Diego Mathematics Department and the Office of the Dean of Physical Sciences at UC San Diego. Professor Daubechies' lecture is also sponsored by the UCSD Mathematics Department Diversity Committee.



    CAMPUS MAP AND PARKING
    Click here for a searchable campus map. Another campus map is here. Those without a UCSD parking permit will need to pay for parking at a parking paystation.
    QUESTIONS
    Questions can be directed to lafoley at ucsd dot edu.