Crash Course - Ben Allen - Evolutionary Dynamics - OURFA²M² 2025

Abstract: The theory of evolution provides the “why” of biology—it explains why organisms are the way they are and behave the way they do. It is also a very mathematizable theory, in that the essential ingredients of variation, reproduction, and inheritance lend themselves readily to mathematical representation. Evolutionary dynamics uses mathematical modeling to answer theoretical questions about how populations and traits evolve over time. I will provide an overview of the field, anchored by two questions of broad interest: (i) why do organisms cooperate with each other? (ii) why do many organisms engage in sexual behavior with members of the same sex? The first question will take us to the active research field of evolutionary games on networks. The second will lead us to consider the adaptive coevolutionary dynamics of sexual signaling and discriminate or indiscriminate sexual behavior.
About the Speaker: Ben Allen is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Emmanuel College in Boston, MA. After teaching high school mathematics for three years, they earned a PhD in Mathematics at Boston University in 2010. Prior to Emmanuel, they worked as a Research Scientist at Harvard University’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. They have published extensively on evolutionary dynamics on networks, the evolution of cooperation, and general mathematical formalisms for evolution.

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