Title: Context-dependence and generality in community ecology - two sides of the same coin?

Abstract: Community ecology is often derided for its lack of general theory. Factors limiting one population's growth can be insignificant elsewhere. While this flavor of context-dependence clearly impedes a predictive theory of ecology, it also paradoxically functions as a very general mechanism that maintains biodiversity. I will review how a context-dependent competition theory can clarify the general mechanisms underlying species coexistence and geographic range limits. I'll then riff on the theme of ecological context-dependence as it pertains to our unit members' work on carnivorous plants, pestiferous bats, and noxious roadside weeds.

https://groups.oist.jp/faculty-lunch

Casual discussion group based on pre-recorded theoretical ecology talks; all welcome! This week: André M. de Roos (University of Amsterdam). Dynamics of within-population structure stabilise complex ecological communities

Annual Inspection_Ultracentrifuges

Casual discussion group based on pre-recorded theoretical ecology talks; all welcome! This week: Vadim Karatayev (University of Guleph). Species heterogeneity can reduce the potential for alternative stable states in food webs.

PhD Thesis Public Presentation

Living electronics and fate of plastics

Organic electronics is a rising field, with novel applications including but not limited to stretchable solar cells, flexible display screens, and biosensors. The high performance of these organic electronics is enabled by the outstanding optoelectronic and thermomechanical features of organic semiconducting materials. As the field has progressed, bioelectronics has attracted increasing interest. Bioelectronics, merging manufactured electronics and biology, has emerged as a promising platform for translating electronic signals into ionic ones and vice versa, converting ionic signals into electronic signals (e.g., biosensors and ionic skins). As a result, in recent years, applications in tissue engineering, drug delivery, electrophoresis and physiology have been developed. As we look into the future of bioelectronics, “living” electronics that merge the synthetic and biological world, holds some interest.

Separate to the above, microplastics composed of various plastic and polymeric materials pose as a major global environmental issue that can cause detrimental consequences to marine organisms and across the food chain. We have been collaborating with researchers at UW to identify microplastics in marine organisms in the Puget Sound and have identified that not all organisms consume the same microplastics.

In both projects, we seek to initiate collaborations with those at OIST and look forward to initiating discussions with various units.  

Living electronics and fate of plastics

Organic electronics is a rising field, with novel applications including but not limited to stretchable solar cells, flexible display screens, and biosensors. The high performance of these organic electronics is enabled by the outstanding optoelectronic and thermomechanical features of organic semiconducting materials. As the field has progressed, bioelectronics has attracted increasing interest. Bioelectronics, merging manufactured electronics and biology, has emerged as a promising platform for translating electronic signals into ionic ones and vice versa, converting ionic signals into electronic signals (e.g., biosensors and ionic skins). As a result, in recent years, applications in tissue engineering, drug delivery, electrophoresis and physiology have been developed. As we look into the future of bioelectronics, “living” electronics that merge the synthetic and biological world, holds some interest.

Separate to the above, microplastics composed of various plastic and polymeric materials pose as a major global environmental issue that can cause detrimental consequences to marine organisms and across the food chain. We have been collaborating with researchers at UW to identify microplastics in marine organisms in the Puget Sound and have identified that not all organisms consume the same microplastics.

In both projects, we seek to initiate collaborations with those at OIST and look forward to initiating discussions with various units.  

Ph.D Thesis Presentation for External by Sam Ross

Title: How do quantum systems see each other?

Abstract: I will discuss what happens when you use quantum systems as frames of reference and how this might help us understand more about the structure of spacetime in a theory that encompasses both quantum and relativity theory.

https://groups.oist.jp/faculty-lunch

PhD Thesis Public Presentation  

Oct 25 - Oct 29 Mathias Mikkelsen (Post-doc, Kindai University, Japan)