Plenary Speakers

Peter Kuchment
Texas A&M University

Title: Mathematics of some novel imaging techniques

Abstract:  The talk will provide a excursion into the mathematics of hybrid imaging, reconstructions with internal information, and time permitting (unlikely) Compton camera imaging.

Hong Qian
University of Washington

Title: Mathematicothermodynamics: Stochastic Laws and Emergent Behavior of Population Kinetic Systems

Abstract:  There is a growing awareness toward a slow shifting in the foundation of the thermodynamic laws, from several macroscopic, empirical postulates concerning heat as a form of random mechanical motions, to derivable mathematical theorems based on stochastic dynamics of mesoscopic systems. It becomes increasingly clear that a stochastic dynamic description of the Nature is a very effective mathematical representation of the Reality. In this talk, I shall first introduce mathematicothermodynamics as a set of mathematical results in stochastic processes. The result is then applied to complex chemical kinetic systems. Via the limit by merely taking the molecular numbers to be infinite, we are able to derive J. W. Gibbs' macroscopic isothermal equilibrium chemical thermodynamics, as well as generalize it to mesoscopic nonequilibrium systems such as biological cells.

Eitan Tadmor
University of Maryland

Title: Short-Range Interactions and the Emergence of Higher-Order Patterns

Abstract:  A fascinating aspect in collective dynamics is self-organization: ants form colonies, birds flock, mobile networks coordinate a rendezvous and human crowds reach a consensus. We discuss the large-time, large-crowd flocking behavior of different models for collective dynamics driven by alignment. In particular, we address the central question how short-range interactions lead, over time, to the emergence of long-range, higher-order patterns in one- and multi-species dynamics.