Aspen Center for Physics Winter Conference on
The Dynamics of Social Interactions
MARCH 27 – APRIL 1, 2022
Social interactions shape our lives and those of many animal species. What are the rules governing the complex dynamics of social interactions in living systems? Topics in this realm vary from systems of flocking birds and schooling fish performing “collective behavior” to the intricate interplay between small groups of individuals during activities such as courtship and aggression. But we also wish to consider less-well-known examples such as plants that use infra-red light to distinguish shade producing plants from inanimate objects and insect swarms that harness air-flow to coordinate thermoregulation.
This workshop aims to bring together a group of physicists who are addressing this question in a wide range of systems and over a wide range of scales from experiment and theory. Key topics that will be addressed include:
- decoupling behavior from mechanics to separate social and physical forces
- signal design, propagation, and interpretation in large groups
- efforts to understand closed-loop communication between multiple indiviuals
- social interactions in plants above ground through volatile organic compounds and below ground through Mycorrhizal networks
Conference Schedule
APPLICATION DEADLINE – DECEMBER 15, 2021
PLEASE COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION AT: http://www.aspenphys.org/physicists/winter/winterapps.html
ORGANIZERS:
- Orit Peleg, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Joshua Shaevitz, Princeton University
- Greg Stephens, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and OIST