NIMBioS Seminar Series

In conjunction with the interdisciplinary activities of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), a seminar series on topics in mathematical biology will be hosted at NIMBioS every other Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) in the Hallam Auditorium, Room 206, Claxton Building, 1122 Volunteer Blvd. Seminar speakers will focus on their research initiatives at the interface of mathematics and many areas of the life sciences. Light refreshments will be served in the 1st floor visitor breakroom beginning 30 minutes before each talk. Faculty and students from across the UT community are welcome to join us.

Time/Date: Tuesday, April 2, 2013, 3:30 p.m.*
Location: Room 206, Claxton Building, 1122 Volunteer Blvd.
Speaker: Dr. Amiyaal Ilany, NIMBioS Postdoctoral Fellow
Topic: Social networks in the hyrax and the hyena: from static to dynamic
Abstract: Understanding the forces shaping the social lives of animals is a central topic in the study of evolution. Although animal sociality has been studied extensively, until recently only rudimentary tools were available for the analysis of complex social structures and their multidirectional relationships with individual traits, life history and fitness. The rise of network science in the last decade introduced advanced tools that enable us to quantify the social structure in unprecedented detail. In this talk I will describe my recent studies on the rock hyrax and the spotted hyena. First, I describe the effect of the social structure on individual longevity. Next, I show how individual preferences for specific local social structures shape the network landscape. Then, I describe how the social structure shapes sexual selection. Finally, I present an approach for modeling social network dynamics.

*Join us for refreshments at 3 p.m. in the 1st floor visitor breakroom.

Seminar Flyer (pdf)

Watch seminar online.

For more information about this and other NIMBioS Seminars, visit /seminars.

NIMBioS
1122 Volunteer Blvd., Suite 106
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-3410
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From 2008 until early 2021, NIMBioS was supported by the National Science Foundation through NSF Award #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.