Abstract:

The characterisation and classification of the 3D structure of spatial curves is a problem of rapidly increasing importance, with applications in several scientific disciplines, ranging from biophysics to ecology.  In this talk we will show how to use new techniques, combining low-dimensional topology, topological data analysis and network theory to detect, analyse and quantify structural and geometric features of spatial curves.

Bio:

I am an applied and computational topologist. My research is inspired and motivated by biological problems, such as the interplay between the structure of complex systems and their functions and properties. I completed a Bachelor and Master degrees in pure mathematics at the University of Pisa. I received a DPhil in mathematics at the University of Oxford in May 2020, under the supervision of Prof D. Buck, Prof H.A. Harrington and Prof M. Lackenby, with a thesis entitled “Knot theory and entanglement in biopolymers”. After that, I have been a Hooke research fellow at the University of Oxford, before joining the Theoretical Systems Biology Group (led by Prof. M Stumpf) at the University of Melbourne, as a postdoctoral research fellow in May 2022.