When:
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT
Where: Chambers Hall, 600 Foster St, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems
(847) 491-2527
Group: Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO)
Category: Lectures & Meetings
Mary Silber, Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, McCormick School of Engineering
Tipping Points: a Mathematician's Perspective
Abstract
I will give an overview of some distinct mathematical mechanisms behind "tipping points", focusing on why identifying robust early warning signs is so difficult. I will present some examples from climate change, and describe some of our recent work related to tipping points associated with desertification in mathematical models of semi-arid regions.
Bio
Mary Silber is a Professor in Northwestern's Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, and a NICO affiliated faculty member. Her research is in nonlinear dynamics and pattern formation. She is part of the NSF-funded "Mathematics and Climate Research Network", where she leads their "Tipping Points" focus group. She was a recipient of an NSF Career Award in 1995, and became a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) in 2012.