Time: 10:00-11:00, Monday, June 22, 2026
Venue: E14-215
Speaker: Prof. Yuan Lou, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Biography: Prof. Yuan Lou received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1995. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley and the University of Chicago from 1995 to 1998. He served on the faculty at The Ohio State University from 1998 to 2021, where he also acted as the Associate Director of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute (MBI) from 2009 to 2013. Since 2022, he has been a Chair Professor and the Dean of the School of Mathematical Sciences at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
His research interests lie in the applications of partial differential equations (PDEs) to biology. He has published over 150 papers and currently serves as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series B (DCDS-B), as well as on the editorial boards of several other domestic and international journals.
Title: Structured PDE Models, Eigenvalues, and Biological Evolution
Abstract: In the process of biological evolution, we often observe the emergence of certain specific traits (such as particular resource utilization patterns) within populations, forming what are known as "evolutionarily stable strategies." This talk aims to explore how structured models based on partial differential equations, together with the principal eigenvalue theory for second order elliptic operators, can be used to mathematically explore the emerging mechanisms of these dominant traits. The idea is to interpret the fitness of a population as the principal eigenvalue of some related differential operator, and then to locate evolutionarily stable strategies by examining the extremal behavior of the eigenvalue as it varies with the advantageous traits.
