FAU MoD Lecture: Do you think you understand sex and death? Why predictions about biological processes require more than just intuition

Date: Tue. January 28, 2025
Event: FAU MoD Lecture
Organized by: FAU MoD, the Research Center for Mathematics of Data at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany)

FAU MoD Lecture: Do you think you understand sex and death? Why predictions about biological processes require more than just intuition
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Hanna Kokko
Affiliation: Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (iomE). Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germany)

Abstract. I sometimes state, in a slightly tongue in cheek manner, that biologists are the only people who do not understand why sex exists. This is because they appreciate that asexual reproduction is also often possible, and can be very efficient. I will illuminate some of the complications that follow using Daphnia (waterfleas) as an example, and then I will turn to a very different topic: evolution of senescence. If natural selection favours, all else being equal, longer lifespans, it is difficult to explain why there is so much variation in lifespans in nature. This talk, as a whole, illuminates the theoretical side of evolutionary biology (why biologists, too, need a dose of equations in their training).

OUR SPEAKER

Hanna Kokko is an Alexander von Humboldt professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Mainz – and listed as one of “50 Scientists that inspire” by Cell Press in 2024, so let’s hope her talk will inspire. In her work, she uses various mathematical tools to understand the ways that evolution produces vast diversity of outcomes regarding life histories, mating systems, and other features of organisms. She is particularly interested in the evolutionary analysis of conflicts between entities (inividual organisms, or also conflict between genetic entities) and how these are shaped by the specifics of each species’ ecological setting and its own traits, such as sex determination or genetic architecture.

AUDIENCE

This is a hybrid event (On-site/online) open to: Public, Students, Postdocs, Professors, Faculty, Alumni and the scientific community all around the world.

WHEN

Tue. January 28, 2025 at 14:30H (Berlin time)

WHERE

On-site / Online

 
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