Speaker:Arun S. Moorthy, NIST
Title: Exploring questions in life science using mathematics - a collection of problems and solutions

Abstract: The term ``Life Science'' covers a vast knowledge base and includes the application of many scientific sub-disciplines (e.g. microbiology, materials physics, analytical chemistry, etc.). The questions that arise in the life sciences can be incredibly diverse. Accordingly, mathematical treatment of these questions requires a diverse set of mathematical tools. In this seminar, I present a collection of life science questions and solution approaches. The areas discussed are: (1) deterministic modeling of anaerobic digestion in the human colon, (2) semi-empirical modeling of triglyceride phase behaviour, and (3) heuristic algorithms for identifying ceased designer drugs using mass spectral library searching.

Short-biography: Arun is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mass Spectrometry Data Center at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He has an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering and a doctorate in Biological Physics. In graduate school, Arun developed the “compuGUT” – a mathematical model of anaerobic digestion in the human colon. His graduate work was completed under the supervision of Professor Hermann Eberl in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Guelph. Prior to joining NIST, Arun spent 1 year as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph, where he studied phase behaviour of fats and the effect on material/textural properties of foods.

Time: Friday, September 1, 2017, 1:30-2:30pm

Place: Exploratory Hall, Room 4106

Department of Mathematical Sciences
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS 3F2
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
http://math.gmu.edu/
Tel. 703-993-1460, Fax. 703-993-1491