Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME)


Showing 51-60 of 74 Results

  • Noah Rosenberg

    Noah Rosenberg

    Stanford Professor of Population Genetics and Society

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHuman evolutionary genetics, mathematical models in evolution and genetics, mathematical phylogenetics, statistical and computational genetics, theoretical population genetics

  • Grant M. Rotskoff

    Grant M. Rotskoff

    Assistant Professor of Chemistry

    BioGrant Rotskoff studies the nonequilibrium dynamics of living matter with a particular focus on self-organization from the molecular to the cellular scale. His work involves developing theoretical and computational tools that can probe and predict the properties of physical systems driven away from equilibrium. Recently, he has focused on characterizing and designing physically accurate machine learning techniques for biophysical modeling. Prior to his current position, Grant was a James S. McDonnell Fellow working at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in the Biophysics graduate group supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His thesis, which was advised by Phillip Geissler and Gavin Crooks, developed theoretical tools for understanding nonequilibrium control of the small, fluctuating systems, such as those encountered in molecular biophysics. He also worked on coarsegrained models of the hydrophobic effect and self-assembly. Grant received an S.B. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago, where he became interested in biophysics as an undergraduate while working on free energy methods for large-scale molecular dynamics simulations.

    Research Summary

    My research focuses on theoretical and computational approaches to "mesoscale" biophysics. Many of the cellular phenomena that we consider the hallmarks of living systems occur at the scale of hundreds or thousands of proteins. Processes like the self-assembly of organelle-sized structures, the dynamics of cell division, and the transduction of signals from the environment to the machinery of the cell are not macroscopic phenomena—they are the result of a fluctuating, nonequilibrium dynamics. Experimentally probing mesoscale systems remains extremely difficult, though it is continuing to benefit from advances in cryo-electron microscopy and super-resolution imaging, among many other techniques. Predictive and explanatory models that resolve the essential physics at these intermediate scales have the power to both aid and enrich the understanding we are presently deriving from these experimental developments.

    Major parts of my research include:

    1. Dynamics of mesoscale biophysical assembly and response.— Biophysical processes involve chemical gradients and time-dependent external signals. These inherently nonequilibrium stimuli drive supermolecular organization within the cell. We develop models of active assembly processes and protein-membrane interactions as a foundation for the broad goal of characterizing the properties of nonequilibrium biomaterials.

    2. Machine learning and dimensionality reduction for physical models.— Machine learning techniques are rapidly becoming a central statistical tool in all domains of scientific research. We apply machine learning techniques to sampling problems that arise in computational chemistry and develop approaches for systematically coarse-graining physical models. Recently, we have also been exploring reinforcement learning in the context of nonequilibrium control problems.

    3. Methods for nonequilibrium simulation, optimization, and control.— We lack well-established theoretical frameworks for describing nonequilibrium states, even seemingly simple situations in which there are chemical or thermal gradients. Additionally, there are limited tools for predicting the response of nonequilibrium systems to external perturbations, even when the perturbations are small. Both of these problems pose key technical challenges for a theory of active biomaterials. We work on optimal control, nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, and simulation methodology, with a particular interest in developing techniques for importance sampling configurations from nonequilibrium ensembles.

  • Amin Saberi

    Amin Saberi

    Professor of Management Science and Engineering

    BioAmin Saberi is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He received his B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology and his Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology in Computer Science. His research interests include algorithms, design and analysis of social networks, and applications. He is a recipient of the Terman Fellowship, Alfred Sloan Fellowship and several best paper awards.
    Amin was the founding CEO and chairman of NovoEd Inc., a social learning environment designed in his research lab and used by universities such as Stanford as well as non-profit and for-profit institutions for offering courses to hundreds of thousands of learners around the world.

  • Julia Salzman

    Julia Salzman

    Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science, of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Statistics and of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly Interestsstatistical computational biology focusing on splicing, cancer and microbes

  • Michael Saunders

    Michael Saunders

    Professor (Research) of Management Science and Engineering, Emeritus

    BioSaunders develops mathematical methods for solving large-scale constrained optimization problems and large systems of equations. He also implements such methods as general-purpose software to allow their use in many areas of engineering, science, and business. He is co-developer of the large-scale optimizers MINOS, SNOPT, SQOPT, PDCO, the dense QP and NLP solvers LSSOL, QPOPT, NPSOL, and the linear equation solvers SYMMLQ, MINRES, MINRES-QLP, LSQR, LSMR, LSLQ, LNLQ, LSRN, LUSOL.

  • Eric S.G. Shaqfeh

    Eric S.G. Shaqfeh

    Lester Levi Carter Professor and Professor of Mechanical Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI have over 25 years experience in theoretical and computational research related to complex fluids following my PhD in 1986. This includes work in suspension mechanics of rigid partlcles (rods), solution mechanics of polymers and most recently suspensions of vesicles, capsules and mixtures of these with rigid particles. My research group is internationally known for pioneering work in all these areas.

  • Aaron Sidford

    Aaron Sidford

    Associate Professor of Management Science and Engineering and of Computer Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests lie broadly in the optimization, the theory of computation, and the design and analysis of algorithms. I am particularly interested in work at the intersection of continuous optimization, graph theory, numerical linear algebra, and data structures.