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X-WR-CALNAME:PhD Dissertation Defense: George Crowley
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20261007T060113Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_53613669269541
DTSTART:20260811T160000Z
DTEND:20260811T170000Z
DESCRIPTION:Title: Simplicial Biology\n\nAbstract: In my thesis\, I used ph
 ysical principles to study conserved biology across scales\, from gene exp
 ression within a single cell type up to the emergent behavior of networks 
 of hundreds of millions of cells. I first showed that phenotypic variation
  within most human cell types is consistent with the bounds predicted by P
 areto optimality\, which enabled principled identification of cell functio
 n from transcriptomic data. Doing so required new software infrastructure\
 , which I then developed and used to extend the findings across the tree o
 f life\, revealing that cell functions within a given cell type are conser
 ved over vast evolutionary distances. I next turned to the octopus\, a mod
 el organism for parallel and convergent evolution\, to identify the cellul
 ar mechanisms it uses to sense and react to its environment\, and how a co
 mplex sensory organ—the box camera eye—evolved repeatedly in divergent
  lineages. Finally\, I zoomed out from molecules to emergent system-level 
 behavior\, using quantitative cuttlefish camouflaging trajectories to infe
 r the behavior of neuronal networks in a biological brain\, finding that t
 heir transition paths minimize transition energy in high dimensional space
 \, and compare it qualitatively to mammalian brains to identify conserved 
 behavior of the motor cortex.\n\nPlease contact Sofia Rakicevic-More for t
 he Zoom link.
GEO:37.431462;-122.174561
LOCATION:Clark Center\, S360
SUMMARY:PhD Dissertation Defense: George Crowley
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.stanford.edu/event/phd-dissertation-defense-ge
 orge-crowley
CATEGORIES:PhD Defense
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