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CATEGORIES:Colloquia / Seminar / Lecture
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Iain D. Couzin\n\nDirector\, Max Planck Institute of Anim
 al Behavior\, Konstanz\, Germany\n\nDirector\, Centre for the Advanced Stud
 y of Collective Behaviour\, University of Konstanz\, Germany\n\nChair of Bi
 odiversity and Collective Behaviour\, University of Konstanz\, Germany \n\n
  \n\nAbstract\n\nIn 1905\, the biologist Edmund Selous marveled at the sigh
 t of a flock of starlings in flight\, describing it as “they circle\; now d
 ense like a polished roof\, now disseminated like the meshes of some vast a
 ll-heaven-sweeping net…wheeling\, rending\, darting…a madness in the sky.” 
 He speculated\, “They must think collectively\, all at the same time\, or a
 t least in streaks or patches — a square yard or so of an idea\, a flash ou
 t of so many brains.” Over a century later\, we still have much to learn ab
 out how social interactions connect individual brains\, enabling sensing an
 d information processing in mobile animal groups\, such as swarming locusts
 \, flocking birds\, or schooling fish. Using a combination of modeling\, au
 tomated tracking\, computational reconstruction of sensory information\, an
 d immersive ‘holographic’ virtual reality (VR) experiments with fruit flies
 \, locusts\, and zebrafish\, I will reveal that there exist geometric princ
 iples underlying collective sensing and decision-making. These principles s
 pan multiple scales of biological organization\, from neural dynamics to in
 dividual decision-making\, and from individuals to collectives. In doing so
  I will present a minimal cognitive (‘ring attractor’) model that can accou
 nt for how collective behavior emerges in nature\, and highlight the challe
 nges of scaling from individual to collective behavior (including potential
  limitations of employing classical statistical mechanics to do so). Additi
 onally\, I will demonstrate how we are increasingly able to study collectiv
 es in the wild\, as well as how our findings can inspire human-engineered s
 ystems\, including robust bio-mimetic control laws for collective robotics.
 \n\n \n\nBio \n\nIain Couzin is Director of the Max Planck Institute of Ani
 mal Behavior and a Professor and Director (Speaker) of the German Research 
 Foundation (DFG) Excellence Cluster “Centre for the Advanced Study of Colle
 ctive Behaviour” at the University of Konstanz\, Germany. Previously he was
  a full Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at 
 Princeton University. His work aims to reveal the fundamental principles th
 at underlie evolved collective behavior\, and consequently his research inc
 ludes the study of a wide range of biological systems\, from neural collect
 ives to insect swarms\, fish schools and primate groups. In recognition of 
 his research he has been recipient of the Searle Scholar Award in 2008\, to
 p 5 most cited papers of the decade in animal behavior research 1999-2010\,
  National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award in 2012\, the Scientific Medal
  of the Zoological Society of London in 2013\, a Web of Science Global High
 ly Cited Researcher 2018-2022 and 2024\, the Lagrange Prize (for fundamenta
 l contributions to complexity science) in 2019\, the Falling Walls Life Sci
 ences Award and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (Germany’s highest rese
 arch honor) in 2022\, the Rothschild Distinguished Fellowship at the Univer
 sity of Cambridge in 2023\, and the Fyssen International Prize in 2024.
DTEND:20250207T170000Z
DTSTAMP:20260411T123806Z
DTSTART:20250207T160000Z
GEO:42.37725;-71.117529
LOCATION:Jefferson Labs\, 250
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY:Iain Couzin: Collective Animal Behavior
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_48612754437046
URL:https://events.seas.harvard.edu/event/iain-couzin-collective-animal-beh
 avior
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