Venkatesh Gopal is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics at Elmhurst University. Dr. Gopal has extensive experience—including postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Northwestern University—in classical and quantum optics, quantum information processing, and neuroscience. His current research interests lie in understanding how biological systems process sensory information, with an emphasis on how possibly “optimal” movement strategies emerge to gather information efficiently. At Elmhurst, he is establishing a laboratory for the study of Biological Information Transduction and Sensing (BITS). An initial focus of this lab will be to use optical imaging to understand how some mammals and insects track odor plumes.
The NSF-Simons National Institute for Theory and Mathematics in Biology Seminar Series aims to bring together a mix of mathematicians and biologists to foster discussion and collaboration between the two fields. The seminar series will take place on Fridays from 10am - 11am at the NITMB in the John Hancock Center in downtown Chicago. There will be both an in-person and virtual component.