I will give a short overview of our recent efforts to understand the self-organization principles that govern naturally occurring and engineered active networks. In the first part, I will discuss transport and mode design in active hydrodynamic [1], mechanical [2], and electrical [3] circuits by briefly illustrating the main theoretical ideas and their experimental verifications. In the second part, I will summarize recent joint work [4] with our collaborators in the Bhamla lab (Georgia Tech), who are studying the collective dynamics of California blackworms. Despite having a relatively simply neuronal and muscular architecture, these organisms are capable of self-assembling into a tightly tangled multi-functional material over the course of several minutes, while being able to untangle in milliseconds when sensing danger.[1] Woodhouse et al, PNAS 113: 8200, 2016 [2] Woodhouse et al, Phys Rev Lett 121: 178001, 2018 [3] Kotwal et al, PNAS 118: e2106411118, 2021 [4] Patil et al, 380: 392-398, 2023
About the speaker
About the speaker
Jorn Dunkel joined the mathematics faculty as Assistant Professor in 2013. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018 and received tenure in 2020. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2022. His field is in physical applied mathematics. Jorn Dunkel received diplomas in Physics (2004) and Mathematics (2005) from the Humboldt University, Berlin. He completed his PhD in Statistical Physics under Peter Hanggi at the Universitat Augsburg in 2008. After two years of postdoctoral research at the Rudolf-Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, he spent three years as a Research Associate at DAMTP at the University of Cambridge. Working at the intersection of statistical and biological physics, Jorn's current research focuses on how physical properties of individual cells or microorganisms determine self organization, development, and biological function in multicellular complexes. To this end, his group is developing and investigating mathematical models that describe dynamical behavior and structure formation in microbial and soft matter systems. Jorn was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in Physics at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, in 2008, and was named Research Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, in 2011. He is the recipient of the 2011 Gustav Hertz Prize of the German Physical Society. In 2015, Jorn was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and an Edmund F. Kelly Research Award: "in recognition of work that applies mathematical methods to a new area or that offers a fundamentally new perspective on a classical problem." He also received the Complex Systems Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation in 2016. He was selected as an Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society in 2017. In 2020, Jorn was selected by the Department as the next Robert E. Collins Distinguished Scholar.
Jorn Dunkel joined the mathematics faculty as Assistant Professor in 2013. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018 and received tenure in 2020. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2022. His field is in physical applied mathematics. Jorn Dunkel received diplomas in Physics (2004) and Mathematics (2005) from the Humboldt University, Berlin. He completed his PhD in Statistical Physics under Peter Hanggi at the Universitat Augsburg in 2008. After two years of postdoctoral research at the Rudolf-Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, he spent three years as a Research Associate at DAMTP at the University of Cambridge. Working at the intersection of statistical and biological physics, Jorn's current research focuses on how physical properties of individual cells or microorganisms determine self organization, development, and biological function in multicellular complexes. To this end, his group is developing and investigating mathematical models that describe dynamical behavior and structure formation in microbial and soft matter systems. Jorn was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship in Physics at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, in 2008, and was named Research Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, in 2011. He is the recipient of the 2011 Gustav Hertz Prize of the German Physical Society. In 2015, Jorn was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and an Edmund F. Kelly Research Award: "in recognition of work that applies mathematical methods to a new area or that offers a fundamentally new perspective on a classical problem." He also received the Complex Systems Scholar Award from the James S. McDonnell Foundation in 2016. He was selected as an Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society in 2017. In 2020, Jorn was selected by the Department as the next Robert E. Collins Distinguished Scholar.
