Comparative insights into complex adaptive systems: from cells to societies

Corina E. Tarnita @ Princeton

Abstract:
My research examines the organization and emergent properties of complex adaptive systems at multiple scales, from single cells to entire ecosystems. Central to our approach is the development of general theoretical frameworks. Simultaneously, we use empirical data to identify and catalog patterns in nature and, within the general frameworks, we develop models whose predictions we attempt to empirically test using eco-evolutionary experiments, molecular and genomic analyses, and field manipulations.

My approach is mainly theoretical and combines evolutionary dynamics, evolutionary game theory and elements of network theory but my lab works in collaboration with experimental and field ecologists, molecular biologists and evolutionary biologists to integrate modeling and empirical work. The questions I'm interested in range from multicellularity to social behaviors in bacteria, insects or humans, to the effects of population structure and spatial patterns on evolutionary and ecological dynamics, to mutualistic interactions especially in the context of multi-species networks of symbionts.


Bio:
Corina is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. She joined Princeton in February 2013 after being a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2010 to 2012. She obtained her B.A.('06), M.A.('08) and PhD ('09) in Mathematics from Harvard University. She is an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, and an Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Her work is centered around the emergence of complex behavior out of simple interactions, across spatial and temporal scales.