Date: 30th May 2017, 2PM
Venue: MTA TK "Lendület" RECENS Research Group, Conference Room
Address: H-1097 Budapest Tóth Kálmán street 4. T. building 1st floor
Title:
What can dynamic models of biological networks teach us about social networks?
Abstract:
My group at Penn State is collaborating with wet-bench biologists to develop and validate predictive models of various biological systems, from the molecular to the ecological level. Over the years we found that discrete dynamic models (e.g. Boolean modeling), and analysis of logic-infused networks is very informative. It can elucidate the attractor repertoire of the system, the points of no return in the dynamics, and indicate control targets. Biological networks are much more constrained than social networks, but there may be points of cross-pollination. For example, there exist discrete models of information spreading and opinion formation which may be useful in gaining insight into the relationship between the structure and dynamics of social networks.
Biography:
Réka Albert is a Romanian-born Hungarian scientist. She is professor of physics and adjunct professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University and is noted for the Barabási–Albert model and research into scale-free networks and Boolean modeling of biological systems. Albert obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 1995 and 1996, respectively. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame in 2001. Albert is co-creator, together with Albert-László Barabási, of the Barabási–Albert algorithm for generating scale-free random graphs via preferential attachment (see Barabási–Albert model).
Her work extends to networks in a very general sense, involving for instance investigations on the error tolerance of the world-wide web and on the vulnerability of the North American power grid.
Her current research focuses on dynamic modeling of biological networks and systems biology.Albert was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2004, was awarded an NSF CAREER Award in 2007 and received the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award in 2011.