Events
Past Event
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Amanda Melin, University of Calgary "Plasticity and adaptation of capuchin monkeys examined through behaviour, microbes, and genes"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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1120, Kellogg Global Hub
Details
Speaker:
Amanda Melin - Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Calgary
Title:
Plasticity and adaptation of capuchin monkeys examined through behaviour, microbes, and genes
Abstract:
Adaptation to changing environments shapes the genetic and phenotypic diversity of organisms over evolutionary time. Animals also face changing environments throughout the course of their lifetime, and plasticity in behaviours, gene expression, and microbes helps them survive these short-term shifts. In my talk, I discuss adaptation and plasticity in a highly flexible, long-lived, social primate, the capuchin monkey. I introduce several of our collaborative field and lab studies, which integrate 40 years of behavioural and demographic study of white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator) in Sector Santa Rosa, Costa Rica, with recent genomics analyses of capuchins and their gut microbiomes. This includes analysis across seasons, years, populations, and in comparative context with other mammalian species. By using different approaches and tools that span behavioural ecology, demography, and the ‘omics of hosts and their commensal organisms, we can better understand how adaptation and plasticity have shaped the form and function of our close relatives, and generate new insight into the forces shaping our own evolutionary history and present-day variation.
Speaker Bio:
Amanda Melin's lab is involved in a broad range of research situated at the intersection of behaviour, sensory ecology, and dietary outcomes of nonhuman and human primates. We take an integrative approach to answering questions about primate origins and evolution, melding study of sensory systems with molecular ecology, microbiome analysis, metagenomics and field observations of primates.
Location:
Note we are meeting in a different location this week:
In person: Kellogg Global Hub, 2211 Campus Drive, Room 1120
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95713083124
Passcode: NICO22
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems and data science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
1120, Kellogg Global Hub Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Lightning Talks w/ Northwestern Scholars!
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speakers:
Yessica Herrera, Visiting Scholar, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
Talk Title: The Body Speaks: Visual Patterns of Psychological Stress
Aakriti Kumar, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
Talk Title: Evaluating Elements of Empathic Communication with Experts, Crowds, and Large Language Models
Tingyu "Mark" Zhao, PhD Student, Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences
Talk Title: Noise Filtering in Complex Networks
Sign Up:
Sign up to present at a future Lightning Talk session. NICO Lightning Talks are open to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/95387714084
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
WED@NICO SEMINAR: Rosemary Braun, Northwestern University "The Scale of Life"
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
12:00 PM
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Lower Level, Chambers Hall
Details
Speaker:
Rosemary Braun, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University
Title:
The Scale of Life
Abstract:
Living systems exhibit surprising and beautiful self-organization at all scales. At the atomic level, proteins self-assemble into macromolecular complexes. The function of these machines is orchestrated within the cell by regulatory networks, whose activity is in turn dictated by, and coordinated with, the cells environment. This coordination takes place across large spans of space and time: the size and lifetime of organisms as large as the blue whale. Populations and ecosystems of many organisms in turn exhibit remarkable emergent dynamics. Today, advances in single-cell assays enable us to probe the molecular state of every cell in a sample in high-dimensional detail. But is this the correct scale at which to probe living systems? What can we learn from this data, and how can we abstract from the microscopic details to macroscopic phenotypes? In this talk, I will discuss some of our recent work bridging the cell and tissue/organism scales, and discuss some challenges and opportunities for the future.
Speaker Bio:
Rosemary Braun is an Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences, Applied Mathematics [ESAM], and Physics at Northwestern University. A theoretical physicist by training, she earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois, followed by a Masters in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University. She completed her postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute (NIH) before joining Northwestern as a faculty member. Today, she works at the intersection of statistics, mathematics, and biology to develop computational tools for analyzing high-dimensional data. In addition to her Northwestern affiliations, she is also Associate Director of the National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology, as well as external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.
Location:
In person: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster Street, Lower Level
Remote option: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/97015976754
Passcode: NICO25
About the Speaker Series:
Wednesdays@NICO is a vibrant weekly seminar series focusing broadly on the topics of complex systems, data science and network science. It brings together attendees ranging from graduate students to senior faculty who span all of the schools across Northwestern, from applied math to sociology to biology and every discipline in-between. Please visit: https://bit.ly/WedatNICO for information on future speakers.
Time
Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Location
Lower Level, Chambers Hall Map
Contact
Calendar
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)