Lecture: Combinatorial approaches in phylogenetics
Speaker: Mike Steel, University of Canterbury (New Zealand)
Time: Wednesday 14th June, 10.15h
Place: Room N328 (NIKHEF building), Kruislaan 413, Amsterdam
Combinatorial approaches in phylogenetics
Abstract: Phylogenetics is the reconstruction and analysis of
'evolutionary' trees and graphs in biology (and related areas of
classification, such as linguistics). Discrete mathematics plays
an important role in the underlying theory. We will describe some
of the ways in which concepts from combinatorics (e.g. poset theory,
greedoids, cyclic permutations, Menger's theorem, closure operators,
chordal graphs) play a central role. As well as providing an
overview, we also describe some recent and new results, and outline
some open problems.
Mike Steel is professor of the University of Canterbury in
Christchurch, New Zealand. He is a foremost expert in the field of
combinatorial phylogentics, which in the broadest sense studies
reconstruction and inferral problems associated with evolutionary
trees. Together with Charles Semple he wrote the book "Phylogenetics"
(Oxford University Press, 2003) which gives a rigorous, mathematical
treatment of the topic. His website is
http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/~mst41/.
Mike Steel will give a 1-2 hour overview of the topic in the morning.
After lunch there will be an opportunity to explore the topic in
more depth, discussing and possibly working on some open problems.
The afternoon program is meant for researchers who are interested
in actively studying phylogenetics. Everybody is welcome although
some background in combinatorics/discrete mathematics is recommended.
For further information, please contact Steven.Kelk@cwi.nl.
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