WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Totally out of equilibrium: genes, stocks, and traffic -- New questions in statistical physics

SPEAKER: Professor Beate Schmittmann ,

TIME: Wednesday March 30, 2011 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: Room 101 Olin Physical Laboratory

Statistical physics forms the traditional foundation for thermodynamics, illustrating how concepts such as entropy and temperature emerge from the statistics of many interacting molecules. This framework has been immensely successful for systems in thermal equilibrium. Yet, many of the most interesting phenomena in nature take place very far from equilibrium - including, for example, living organisms or the earth's ecosystem. In this talk, I will try to give you a flavor of the breadth of non-equilibrium phenomena and how to apply lessons learned in physics to much broader, interdisciplinary questions such as the modelling of biological systems, stock indices and traffic jams.

Professor Schmittmann will also give a public talk at 7:30 PM in Olin 101 -- New Physics all around us