Dr. Michael Doebeli

After a short thesis-writing siesta the Cafe is back! And in no small way. Thanks to the hard work of Ben Haller, UBC professor Dr. Michael Doebeli will be giving two talks this week. The first, entitled ‘Adaptive Diversification’, will be this year’s Joan Marsden Lecture in Organismal Biology, taking place Thursday April 19th at 3pm in the Redpath Colliseum (with wine and cheese to follow!). The second, a slighly more mathematical talk, is a CAMBAM seminar on Friday April 20th at 1:30pm in McIntyre Room 1034.

Hope to see you there!

Matt & Magnus

Why ‘Division of Labour’ Evolves. and Lobsters.

That’s right, another model of evolution at the Eco-Theoretic Cafe. This time Helene Weigang (Claus Rueffler, University of Vienna) will discuss her “Magistra der Naturwissenschaften” dissertation, entitled:

The evolution of division of labour in an explicit ecological context

All y’all interested in such a topic should join us for coffee and snacks: 11am on Monday January 23, 2012, in Stewart W3/18.

A New Year’s gift from the Abrams Lab

To kick things off this new year, the Eco-Theoretic Cafe is proud to present Jordan Pleet, a PhD student in Peter Abrams’ Lab at the University of Toronto. Jordan will discuss the work he is doing on:

“Maintaining intraspecific variation and the impact on interspecific coexistence.”

So for those of you back in the city on January 9, 2012, come on out to W3/19 from 11am-12pm for coffee and theoretical ecology.

Magnus & Matt

Eco-theo 4: Space

Next up for the theoretical cafe: Justin Marleau, PhD student in the Loreau Lab, discusses space.

Space in ecology: methods and models. A survey in the methods and models used in spatial ecology, with a focus on which model frameworks may be most suited to your ecological system.

If you think we need more space in ecology, or have ever played for an intramural team named Spatially Explicit Models, or just want to sit down and space out, come to the next Eco-theoretic Cafe, in W3/18 Stewart, 11am Monday November 28, 2011.

Speaking of space: a picture.

[Eco]-[theo] #3

Next up, on November 14, 2011, 11am, in W3/18, Stewart:

Mehdi Cherif (Fussman Post-doc) will present:

Ecological stoichiometry: a stereoscopic vision of trophic interactions and food webs!

Ecological stoichiometry is a recent approach in ecology that considers jointly the multiple elements that make up the biomass of organisms. This broader vision of ecological interactions lead to very interesting and sometimes counter-intuitive predictions about ecological interactions and other biological processes.
During this session, we will study in detail its founding prediction, the consumer-driven plant nutrient limitation hypothesis, starting from the empirical observations at the basis of the hypothesis up to the models that were designed to test the prediction.

Plus, we will decide which theoretical biologists we would like to be invited to give Organismal seminars. And we will draft a letter to Jonathon Davies, the man in charge of the seminars.

And! we will talk about what to do with our new-found riches ($800 grant).

Magnus & Matt

$$$$$$$$$

The Eco-Theoretic Cafe has just received a $785 grant from the Post-Graduate Student Society! Although there are restrictions on what we can buy, we will discuss ideas next meeting. Hurrah!

Carrying the theoretical torch

Ben Haller recently suggested that the Eco-theoretic Cafe should step-up and protect the theoretical aspect of McGill’s Biology Department.  The worry is, with Claire de Mazancourt and Michel Loreau leaving soon, a large part of theoretical ecology and evolution will be missing here.  We would like to ensure that the Organismal Seminars continue to invite the world’s most prominent theoreticians.  The idea is to create a list of potential invited speakers we would like to see, and to give this list to seminar organizers, who will take this into account when allotting future speakers.  The LIST is very much still in progress, and, at the next meeting, we will discuss who is missing, who is(n’t) a theoretician, and write up a short letter.

Bring ideas!

Matt & Magnus

First meeting minutes

First meeting a success. 11 students from 8 different labs discussed many things, such as:

1. Purpose of the cafe: to create cross-talk between labs (both theoretical and not)

2. Comparison of the mathematical method and the  scientific method: one before the other? one within the other? parallels, differences, etc.

3. Role of models: predictions? logical consistency of hypotheses? can they prove hypotheses? or just disprove? (with an example from HIV)

4. Model fitting: can we create any darn pattern we wish?

We also discussed future plans: a) bring your biological system and we’ll try and turn it into math (see Oct. 28 post), b) Mehdi Cherif leading an example of how to build a model (stoichiometry), and c) how to test models, success in predicting future (examples anyone?), Popper.

Hope to see you at the next meeting (Nov. 14, 11am, W3/18 Stewart). More details to come.

Matt & Magnus

a quote!

“Like most mathematicians, he takes the hopeful biologist to the edge of a pond,
points out that a good swim will help his work, and then pushes him in
and leaves him to drown.”
– Charles Elton, in reference to work by Lotka
(found on Troy Day’s website)

First (real!) meeting

Looking for a productive way to begin your Halloween? Well…On Oct 31, at 11am, Magnus will lead a short overview of modeling and how to apply it to a (relatively) simple ecological system (Otto and Day 2007; http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8458.pdf). The idea is to introduce mathematical models to graduate students who have little to no experience in theory, while touching on some of the more philosophical aspects of modeling (for those self-described theoreticians).  Here is a rough draft of the presentation. Dress up as the scariest biologist you can think of.

Magnus & Matt