Distinguished Lecture by David Harel, 21 April 2006

4 pm on Friday, 21 April 2006, Swann Lecture Theatre, King's Buildings. Reception will be held in the foyer of the lecture theatre.

On Comprehensive and Realistic Modeling

The talk will discuss the idea of comprehensive and realistic modeling of biological systems. In comprehensive modeling the main purpose is to understand an entire system in detail and to use that understanding to analyze and predict behavior in silico. In realistic modeling the main issue is to model the behavior of actual elements, making possible realistic and executions/simulations that reveal emergent properties. I will address the motivation for such modeling and the philosophy underlying the techniques for carrying it out, as well as the crucial question of when such models are to be deemed valid, or complete. The examples I will present will be from among the modeling efforts I have been involved in with my group: T cell development in the thymus, lymph node development, the pancreatic islets, and the C. elegans reproduction system.

Science Festival 2006

Play connect 4 with a robot (6-10 April), create movies with special effects (11-15 April) and and the physics of breakdance with the Research Consortium in Speckled Computing (14 and 15 April).

Web pages: Science Festival Home Page
Shortcut to the show by Speckled Computing: http://www.oneeighty.org.uk/events/maad_skillz.html

Congratulations

... on their election to Personal Chairs, to

Wenfei Fan

Web Data Management

Jane Hillston

Quantitative Modelling

Michael O'Boyle

Computer Science

and, on their promotion to Readerships, to

• Kousha Etessami,
• Stephen Gilmore, and
• Sethu Vijayakumar.