Mathematical Modelling in Biology

In recent years, thanks to advancements in theory and computational power, mathematical biology has flourished. This talk will begin with an introduction to the theory of dynamical systems motivated by Volterra’s model of population dynamics, then discuss two applications of dynamical systems: (1) modelling neuronal networks with conductance-based delay equations, to provide insights into the root causes of epilepsy; (2) modelling signalling protein activities with partial differential equations, to understand shape-shifting cells related to embryonic development, cancer migration and virus infection.

Yue (Jerry) Liu received B.Math (co-op honours) from University of Waterloo in Mathematical Physics, Computer Science and Pure Mathematics in 2017. Currently he is pursuing a MSc in math at UBC. He has received Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC. He formerly worked at Facebook on data science and Amazon as a software engineer. His other past works includes genome analysis, quantum complexity theory and hydrodynamic instability. He is currently interested in finding novel applications for dynamical system modelling and machine learning in fields that under-utilize them at present.