Computing Science and Mathematics Seminars,
Spring 2025
Unless otherwise state, seminars will take place in Room 4B96, Cottrell Building, University of Stirling from 13.00 to 14.00 on Friday afternoons, followed by informal discussions.
Spring 2025
| Date | Speaker | Title/Abstract |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 31 January |
Geoffrey Neumann, University of Southampton | Modelling large and diverse populations in marine microbial ecology - an ecological and computing challenge Photosynthetic planktonic microbes (phytoplankton) form the basis of most oceanic food webs and account for almost 50% of the global carbon sink. Computer simulations are essential in understanding the processes driving their distribution and how these may change in a changing climate. In all simulations there exist trade-offs, in particular how we effectively approximate organisms that number around 1027 individuals globally with huge diversity. Some simulations fall into the category of Individual Based Models, with which phylogenies can be tracked enabling us to fully understand the taxonomic diversity within the model, although such models are limited in population size. Population based models, in contrast allow an effectively unlimited population size but without such ability to track diversity. In this I provide a brief introduction to phytoplankton modelling and introduce a novel approach hybridising population and individual based models. I discuss, in particular, what our findings say about the role of population size and what implications this has for the future of modelling.
Speaker bio: Dr Geoffrey Neumann is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Modelling Marine Microbial Biodiversity at the University of Southampton. As an ecological modeller, his research focuses on uncovering global patterns in plankton biogeography. Dr Neumann has a background in computer science, he earned a BSc in 2010 and a PhD in 2014, followed by research in the same field at the University of Stirling. In 2022, he obtained an MSc in Oceanography at Southampton. Now, he combines his computer science expertise with his growing knowledge of marine ecology to design and run simulations that model populations of billions of plankton cells circulating the globe, being selected out by the environment, growing, dying, and evolving. |
| Friday 7 February |
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| Friday 14 February |
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| Friday 21 February |
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| Friday 28 February |
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| Friday 7 March |
Reading week |
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| Friday 14 March |
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| Friday 21 March |
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| Friday 28 March |
Kelechi Samuel Nwosu, Osamu Takahashi |
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| Friday 4 April |
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| Friday 11 April |
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Previous Seminar Series
1996:
Autumn
Computing Science and Mathematics
Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of Stirling
Stirling
FK9 4LA
Scotland
UK