Previous Fora / 2011
VICSEK, Tamás
Professor of Physics, Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest
Tamás Vicsek is a Professor of Physics at the Biological Physics Department of Eötvös University and a head of the Statistical and Biological Physics research group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Over the past 30 years he has been involved in doing computational and experimental research on fractals, pattern formation, granular materials, collective motion (bacterial colonies, flocks, crowds) and the and structure and evolution of complex networks. He received his PhD degree in physics at Kossuth University and has had visiting positions (research and teaching) at various research institutes and universities, including Emory University, Yale University and the University of Notre Dame. Tamas Vicsek is a fellow of the APS and member of Academiae Europaea and the Hungarian Acad. Sci. and a holder of several prestigious prizes.
ABSTRACT
11:00-13:00 18 NOVEMBER
THEMATIC SESSION II. Hungarian Academy of Sciences:“Networks”
Hierarchical networks
Collective motion patterns are perhaps the most widespread and spectacular manifestations of collective behaviour. The ultimate goal we face is to find unifying principles describing the essential aspects of flocking. A natural approach on the way in this direction is to investigate the delicate dynamics of the interactions between the co-moving individual units. After an introduction to the topic, three new experiments will be discussed. The experimental observations involve the enhanced segregation of two kinds of tissue cells and a study of the hierarchical network dynamics in pigeon flocks as well as their dominance hierarchies. Our animal behaviour studies signal the dawn of a new era of computational ethology.