[This is the old program from WS 2009/10. The current program and contact information can be found here.]

25 September 2009, 16:00

Arik Yochelis (Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion, Haifa, Israel)
Towards Biochemical Control of Physiological Self-Organization [Abstract]

23 October 2009, 16:00

Takao Ohta (Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Japan)
Dynamics of deformable self-propelled particles [Abstract]

30 October 2009, 16:00

Fred Wolf (Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen)
Universality and self-organization in the evolution of the visual cortex

Abstract:
The visual cortex of carnivores, primates and their close relatives processes visual information in an array of functional modules called orientation columns. Orientation columns are presumably formed during postnatal development by dynamical pattern formation mechanisms but the exact nature of the underlying processes is a matter of ongoing controversy. Mammalian species exhibiting orientation columns have been on separate evolutionary paths for more than 65 million years, during which widely varying visual cortical architectures have emerged. Here we show that the layout of orientation columns in three species separated since the basal radiation of placental mammals precisely follows a single universal design. Thus, the statistical structure of orientation column systems in ferret, galago and tree shrew is virtually indistinguishable and the average number of orientation pinwheels per hypercolumn in these species is a universal constant, 3.14 ± 0.03. We demonstrate mathematically that all features of the universal design result robustly from the developmental self-organization of cortical networks dominated by long-ranging neuronal interactions, a developmental regime that explains the apparent insensitivity of the universal design to ongoing evolutionary change. Supporting developmental robustness, the universal design also emerges in animals deprived of visual experience. We conclude that visual system evolution in carnivores and primates has favored the development of robust, self-organizing cortical networks for orientation discrimination that are attracted toward a universal design.

06 November 2009, 16:00

Yasuaki Kobayashi (Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)
Design of multi-cluster and desynchronized states in oscillatory media by nonlinear global feedback [Abstract]

08 January 2010, 16:00

Rudolf Friedrich (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
Ratchet effect and the inverse cascade of turbulence [Abstract] CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS!

12 February 2010, 16:00

Ulrich Parlitz (Drittes Physikalisches Institut, Universität Göttingen)
Nonlinear modeling and data analysis [Abstract]