News & EventsDepartment Events
Events
-
Oct6
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle: Mobility of Particles in Viscous Membranes
Speaker: Ehud Yariv, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Abstract: Fifty years ago, Saffman (J. Fluid Mech. 73, 593) provided a theoretical framework for the diffusion of small inclusions (typically proteins) within lipid bilayers. I will review his model and analysis, discuss certain hydrodynamic problems in the field that had remained open since his work, and describe our recent progress in several of them. Time permitting, I will also discuss related problems in compressible surfactant monolayers.
Bio: Ehud Yariv got his PhD (applied mathematics) from the Technion at 2001. After spending 3 years as a post-doc MIT, he joined the Technion faculty. He is currently a full professor at the Technion mathematics department. In the period 2022-2025 he was a visiting professor at Princeton MAE.
Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/99617444752
-----
To subscribe to the Applied Mathematics Colloquia List send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IT.NORTHWESTERN.EDU with the command:
SUBSCRIBE esam-seminar FirstName LastName
TIME Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION M416, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Natalie Masini natalie.masini@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics (ESAM)
-
Oct19
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle: Memory Formation in Particle Packings
Speaker: Dr. Sidney Nagel, University of Chicago
Abstract: A disordered solid created by packing spheres in a box has a myriad of stable configurations that defy straightforward enumeration and characterization. Since structure often determines function, each distinct arrangement potentially corresponds to different material behavior. The question naturally arises: How many mechanically stable ways are there to pack N identical spheres in a box? This has the spirit of a “Fermi estimation problem,” but one for which we do not have an answer: we do not know how to account for rearranging the particles to produce packings with different connectivity. We therefore resort to measurement.
Stable packings of N identical soft spheres in d dimensions lie at the minima of a vast (Nd)-dimensional potential energy landscape. Starting from random positions, the particles can relax to mechanical equilibrium; all initial conditions that end at the same minimum belong to the same catchment basin. We find a very wide distribution of basin volumes. These results suggest how to understand the imprinting of memories in solids.
Bio: Sidney Nagel was educated at Columbia University (B.A. in 1969) and at Princeton University (Ph.D. in 1975). He did a postdoc at Brown and then moved to the University of Chicago in 1976 where he has remained and is now the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Physics and the James Franck and Enrico Fermi Institutes. Nagel is a condensed-matter experimentalist focusing on problems where the physics of disorder and far-from-equilibrium behavior play crucial roles. Of particular delight is when table-top experiments have analogs in disparate fields at wildly different scales. In particular, he has studied the glass transition, the phenomenology of granular material, and the physics of jamming; he has also focused on pattern and singularity formation in fluid interfaces, and the formation of stains left behind by evaporating liquid drops. A current interest is the investigation of memory formation in out-of-equilibrium matter. He has worked to make his science accessible to a broad public by emphasizing the inherent beauty of the phenomena he studies in the laboratory.
Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98030602428
-----
To subscribe to the Applied Mathematics Colloquia List send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IT.NORTHWESTERN.EDU with the command:
SUBSCRIBE esam-seminar FirstName LastName
TIME Monday, October 19, 2026 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
LOCATION ITW (Room 1.350), Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center map it
CONTACT Natalie Masini natalie.masini@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics (ESAM)
-
Oct27
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle: Advances in Asymptotic and Computational Methods for Biological Transport
Speaker: Alan Lindsay, University of Notre Dame
Abstract: Asymptotic analysis remains one of the most powerful analytical tools for extracting interpretable information from mathematical models in science. These methods systematically exploit multiscale structure to reduce complex and often intractable problems to a sequence of tractable sub-problems. When coupled with modern numerical methods, they greatly expand the range and scope of scientific questions that can be addressed.
In this talk I will discuss the insights these tools have yielded into the role that geometry, dynamics and localization play in biological transport. For the diffusive delivery of cargoes to small reactive sites, they give precise information on how the spatial organization of those sites shapes function. This has led to new solutions to the long-standing Berg-Purcell problem and the narrow escape problem. Underpinning these results is a suite of high-order boundary integral solvers which pair with asymptotic methods to resolve multiscale features and massively expand the geometric scope of biological problems that can be investigated. Throughout the talk I will highlight where interactions with experimental science have guided the direction of the mathematics, and I will close with promising directions for future enquiry.
Zoom: https://northwestern.zoom.us/j/98486002568
-----
To subscribe to the Applied Mathematics Colloquia List send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IT.NORTHWESTERN.EDU with the command:
SUBSCRIBE esam-seminar FirstName LastName
TIME Tuesday, October 27, 2026 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION M416, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Natalie Masini natalie.masini@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick-Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics (ESAM)
-
Dec12
EVENT DETAILSmore info
lessThe ceremony will take place on Saturday, December 12 in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive.
TIME Saturday, December 12, 2026 at 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
LOCATION Pick-Staiger Concert Hall map it
CONTACT Andi Joppie andi.joppie@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science