Colloquia 2012-2013

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Mathematics Colloquium

All colloquia are on Fridays at 4:00 pm in Van Vleck B239, unless otherwise indicated.

Spring 2012

date speaker title host(s)
Jan 23 Saverio Spagnolie (Brown) Hydrodynamics of Self-Propulsion Near a Boundary: Construction of a Numerical and Asymptotic Toolbox Jean-Luc
Jan 27 Ari Stern (UCSD) Jean-Luc / Julie
Feb 3 Akos Magyar (UBC) TBA Street
Feb 10 Melanie Wood (UW Madison) TBA local
Feb 17 Milena Hering (University of Connecticut) TBA Andrei
Feb 24 Malabika Pramanik (University of British Columbia) TBA Benguria
March 2 Guang Gong (University of Waterloo) TBA Shamgar
March 16 Charles Doran (University of Alberta) TBA Matt Ballard
March 23 Martin Lorenz (Temple University) TBA Don Passman
March 30 Wilhelm Schlag (University of Chicago) TBA Street
April 6 Spring recess
April 13 Ricardo Cortez (Tulane) TBA Mitchell
April 18 Benedict H. Gross (Harvard) TBA distinguished lecturer
April 19 Benedict H. Gross (Harvard) TBA distinguished lecturer
April 20 Robert Guralnick (University of South California) TBA Shamgar
May 4 Mark Andrea de Cataldo (Stony Brook) TBA Maxim
May 11 Tentatively Scheduled Shamgar

Abstracts

Mon, Jan 23: Saverio Spagnolie (Brown)

"Hydrodynamics of Self-Propulsion Near a Boundary: Construction of a Numerical and Asymptotic Toolbox"

The swimming kinematics and trajectories of many microorganisms are altered by the presence of nearby boundaries, be they solid or deformable, and often in perplexing fashion. When an organism's swimming dynamics vary near such boundaries a question arises naturally: is the change in behavior fluid mechanical, biological, or perhaps due to other physical laws? We isolate the first possibility by exploring a far-field description of swimming organisms, providing a general framework for studying the fluid-mediated modifications to swimming trajectories. Using the simplified model we consider trapped/escape trajectories and equilibria for model organisms of varying shape and propulsive activity. This framework may help to explain surprising behaviors observed in the swimming of many microorganisms and synthetic micro-swimmers. Along the way, we will discuss the numerical tools constructed to analyze the problem of current interest, but which have considerable potential for more general applicability.