Friday, 18 April, 2025
10:30 AM - 5:30 PM
Skylight room
Recent developments in statistical physics have focused new attention on the relations between information theory and thermodynamics, and on experiments that characterize directly the violations of detailed balance in driven systems. This symposium will explore these ideas in simple model systems and in the full complexity of living systems, highlighting both theory and experiment. Speakers will be John Becchofer, Simon Fraser University; Nikta Fakhri, MIT; and David Sivak, Simon Fraser University.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Coffee and bagels
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
From Maxwell’s demon to information engines
John Bechhoefer
Simon Fraser University
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Lunch
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Information arbitrage in molecular machines
David Sivak
Simon Fraser University
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Break
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Time’s arrow - From intracellular dynamics to the origin of multicellularity
Nikta Fahkri
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
6:00 PM
Dinner
This event is sponsored in part by the Center for the Physics of Biological Function, a joint effort of the CUNY Graduate Center and Princeton University.